Morning Briefing: Kolkata flyover collapse, India 4th Largest Spender On Defence, Trump Stuns Korea, Japan

Good Morning, Swarajya Readers.

Here’s what you need to know today.

The under-construction Vivekananda Flyover collapsed in a congested market area in north Kolkata, on Thursday, around lunchtime, crushing pedestrians, cars and other vehicles. So far 21 people have been confirmed dead. Death toll is likely to rise as scores of people are still trapped under the collapsed. bridge. An FIR has been lodged against the local officials of the Hyderabad-based IVRCL, which contracted to build the giant flyover. Crossing all norms of sensitivity, the company termed the accident as an act of God. CM Mamata Banerjee has warned that stringent action will be taken against the owners of the company.

Recently declassified files hint that Netaji may have surivived the August 1945 crash. “.....the monitoring service at the governor’s house picked up three broadcasts of Netaji ... in December 1945, and January and February 1946....” says a note in a file from the PMO. The same note also claims there was no documentary evidence of a plane crash; the cremation certificate said to be Bose’s is that of a non-staff member of the Japanese armed forces; the birth date of the deceased on it is not the same as that of Netaji.

China again blocked India’s bid at the UN to ban JeM chief Masood Azhar. Just hours before the deadline, China requested the UN committee, which is considering a ban on the chief of the Pakistan-based terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), to keep the matter on hold. India had written to the UN calling for immediate action to list Azhar under the Al-Qaeda Sanctions Committee.

India has become the world’s 4th largest spender on defence, following a 13.1% increase in this year’s budget. The rise in the rankings is a result of an increase in expenditure combined with cuts to military spending by Russia and Saudi Arabia. However, much of the increase is due to Pay commission hike and implementation of OROP. The spending on the acquisition of military equipment remains largely static in real terms.

India signed a MoU with the US National Science Foundation (NSF) to establish an advanced gravitational wave detector in India. The proposed detector will be a 4 km long L-shaped interferometer that will use laser light split into two beams that travel back and forth down the arms. The detector will be able to “triangulate” the source of gravitational waves and, on the basis of that, make more observations.

Donald Trump stunned two of the United States closest allies, Japan and South Korea, with the suggestion that US military would be withdrawn from their shores with nuclear weapons replacing them. There are currently 54,000 U.S. troops stationed in Japan and 28,500 in South Korea. With his unconventional foreign policy stand, Trump is challenging the status quo like never before and has surprised both his critics as well as well-wishers.

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We hope you enjoyed reading our morning brief.

Have a great day ahead!