Morning Brief: Navy’s Tejas Fighter Set For Landing Tests On Aircraft Carrier; Apple’s Market Value Hits $1 Trillion Mark; And Other News

Navy's Tejas Fighter Set For Landing Tests On Aircraft Carrier

The Naval version of India's in-service Light Combat Aircraft Tejas, which recently flew with a tailhook for the first time, is preparing for landing tests on aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya. During the test, which is being conducted to demonstrate the fighter’s ability to operate safely, the jet will touch down on the deck of the aircraft carrier and take off again. The Indian Navy is likely to conduct a series of such 'touch-and-go' landings within the next five months.

The Navy is preparing two prototypes for full-fledged landings, which are likely to take place before the end of 2019. The tests will involve landing, refuelling and taking off. On Thursday, the Navy successfully tested the tailhook system for the first time in Goa. A tailhook, also called arresting hook, is a device attached to the rear part of fighter jets which operate from a carrier. It is used to achieve rapid deceleration when a fighter jet lands on the deck of an aircraft carrier at sea.

Apple’s Market Value Hits $1 Trillion Mark

Apple has become the first company based in the United States to reach a market capitalisation of $1 trillion as it stock surged again Thursday. The iPhone maker has surpassed both its own projections and analysts’ estimates. Apple’s stock has reached the price of $207.05, which was needed to bring it to the $1 trillion mark, registering a rise of 2.9 per cent. The giant had touched the trillion-dollar mark in 2007, but slumped quickly in the 2008 financial crisis.

Sales of the iPhone account for more than 60 per cent of Apple’s total revenue. Services, including the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud and Apple Pay, have also helped, generating $8.5 billion in revenue in the last quarter of 2018. Although Apple is the only US-based trillion dollar company on the market for now, this is set to change soon. After posting positive results in the third quarter of the year, Amazon is also on the verge of hitting the $1 trillion mark.

Mamata Banerjee Faces Rebellion In Assam TMC Over NRC

Protest against party chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee's stand on the draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) released on Thursday, the Assam unit of the Trinamool Congress quit the party en masse on Thursday. Calling NRC “a fruit of long years of the struggle of the people of Assam against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh”, TMC state president Dwipen Pathak said he “will not accept anyone trying to malign the image of the state.”

Soon after the Bharatiya Janata Party said it wants to replicate the NRC program in West Bengal, Banerjee warned of bloodshed and civil war in the country. She has been attacking the Centre over the exclusion of forty lakh people from the draft. Pathak's resignation came within hours of a TMC delegation arriving at the Silchar airport and being stopped from exiting it by the police.

Bill For Constitutional Status To OBC Commission Gets LS Nod

In a rare show of consensus in the Lok Sabha (LS), the opposition and the government came together to pass the 123rd Constitutional Amendment bill giving constitutional status to the commission for other backward classes (OBCs). The LS passed the bill with 406 votes in its favour and none against. The bill was passed after a five-hour debate, in which over 30 members participated.

The bill is a long-standing demand of the OBC community. It brings the National Commission on Backward Classes on a par with the Commission for Scheduled Castes and the Commission for Scheduled Tribes. Many regional parties, while supporting the bill, demanded that the government carry out caste-based census to find out the percentage of each caste in the country’s population.

Congress’ D K Shivakumar Gets Interim Bail In Money Laundering Case

Special Court for Economic Offences in Bengaluru has granted interim bail to senior Congress leader and Karnataka cabinet minister D K Shivakumar in a money laundering and hawala case. Shivakumar and the four others accused in the case were however ordered to deposit a bond of Rs 50,000 each.

Shivakumar, who has declared assets worth over Rs 700 crore, was the richest candidate fielded by the Congress party in the 2018 Karnataka assembly elections. In his election affidavit, Shivakumar and his wife Usha had declared income and assets worth Rs 730 crore. All the three richest candidates in the recent Karnataka assembly elections belonged to the Congress party.

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