
As Nimisha Priya's execution nears, bad news from this country where three Indians are sentenced to death, country is..., Indian govt...
New Delhi: Indian nurse Nimisha Priya has been sentenced to death in a murder case in Yemen and she will be executed on July 16 as per the latest reports. Despite the efforts of Nimisha's family, the Indian government and many organizations, the possibility of Nimisha's execution being postponed seems very low. Amidst Nimisha's case, a court in Indonesia has also sentenced three Indians to death. Who are the three Indians?
Three Indians have been sentenced to death in Indonesia after being found guilty of drug trafficking. The country's High Court has also upheld the conviction of all three. These three Indians sentenced to death in Indonesia are Raju Muthukumaran, Selvadurai Dinakaran and Govindasamy Vimalkandan. All three are currently in jail. What does India say?
The Indian Ambassador to Indonesia, Sandeep Chakraborty, has formally called for a re-investigation into the case. Sandeep Chakraborty said that we have demanded a resumption of the investigation. All witnesses, including the captain and crew of the ship, should also be thoroughly investigated.
Sandip Chakraborty said, 'We have faith in the Indonesian judicial system. We believe that due process should be followed in the investigation. We have seen many discrepancies in the investigation. All evidence, including mobile phone records, has not been examined. Death penalty is a harsh decision and this punishment can be given only in the rarest of rare cases. In such a situation, this case should be investigated again.' What is the case?
Indian citizens, Raju Muthukumaran, Selvadurai Dinakaran and Govindasamy Vimalkandan were arrested in July last year from a Singapore-flagged ship near Karimun Island in Indonesia's Riau Islands. It was claimed that all three were smuggling narcotic drugs. A case was filed against all three and the District Court of Tanjung Balai Karimun found them guilty and sentenced them to death.
The high court has also upheld the death sentence of these three. All three may be executed in the coming days. On the other hand, India's diplomatic mission has accused Indonesian authorities of negligence from arrest to trial proceedings. The Indian government is putting pressure through its diplomatic channels for legal and humanitarian assistance for its three citizens.

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Time of India
14 minutes ago
- Time of India
India wants air conditioners to be made with milder temperature settings to save energy
India's government is seeking to limit temperature settings on new air conditioners to save electricity in the country that considered the fastest-growing market for them. The power minister proposed a rule in June requiring air conditioners sold in the country to have thermostats that can be set no lower than 20 Celsius (68 Fahrenheit). Officials hope the small change will create massive energy savings in the country of more than 1.4 billion people. About 10 million to 15 million air conditioners are sold annually as incomes and urbanization increase along with the temperatures. The current lowest setting is 17 C (62 F). Officials say each degree an air conditioner is turned up saves about 6 per cent on energy. Reaction to the change is mixed Energy experts said the proposal is a positive step, but that requiring units to be more energy efficient would help more. Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the proposed rule would take effect soon but wasn't specific about timing. The proposal has gotten mixed reviews from people living in India's sweltering cities. "Overall, I think it's good to try and save energy, but at the same time I hope the government makes sure people are not too inconvenienced," said Vikram Kannan, a 37-year-old teacher who lives in the humid southern city of Chennai with his wife and 4-year-old daughter. "Sometimes there is no choice but to set a low air conditioner temperature in cities like Chennai because it's just way too hot and humid. My daughter gets heat pimples at times if we don't do this." Air conditioners are fast becoming some of the biggest energy guzzlers in India. Room air conditioners accounted for as much as one quarter of the electricity needed in India during times of the highest usage in 2024, a measure known as peak demand, according to estimates by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. New AC units added between 2019 and 2024 have increased India's peak demand by an amount roughly equivalent to what it would take to power New Delhi for a year, the researchers estimated. Energy demand is typically highest during the summer when temperatures can reach 51 degrees Celsius (124 degrees Fahrenheit) in parts of the country. If changes are not made, India is expected to have power shortages by next year. India's hunger for energy is also a key reason the country is one of the highest emitters of planet-heating gases. Clean energy use is growing, but most of India's electricity is provided by climate-polluting fossil fuels such as coal. Nikit Abhyankar, a leader of the India Energy and Climate Center at the University of California, Berkley, said that Delhi, like other major Indian cities, now experiences dual peaks in electricity use - one in the afternoon and another around midnight - driven largely by air conditioners. While solar energy can help offset daytime demand, nighttime cooling still relies heavily on fossil fuels. Rule changes can nudge consumers to use less energy The air conditioner proposal is the latest in a series of government measures over the past decade aimed at saving energy, such as mandating that government offices be cooled at no less than 24 degrees Celsius (75 degrees Fahrenheit). In 2022, the government launched the Mission Life program that includes public service messages encouraging people to reduce emissions by cutting electricity use or skipping unnecessary car trips. The initiative announced with much fanfare has received mixed responses. Some are supportive of the proposed change to air conditioner settings. Sunil Kumar, a 47-year-old from East Delhi, said the rule could prevent fire hazards and lower bills. "People used to live without air conditioners. We can adjust," said Kumar, who drives a small commercial vehicle known as a tuk-tuk. New Delhi-based businessperson Surjeet Singh said turning air conditioners down to their current lowest setting was "unnecessary." "People have gotten too comfortable," he said, suggesting that cities invest in planting trees to tackle urban heat. Indian air conditioners are inefficient Abhyankar, the California professor, said that while changing temperature settings will help, requiring air conditioners to be energy efficient would do more. "Tightening the minimum efficiency standards can change things pretty significantly," said Abhyankar, who has also studied the energy sector in the US, China, Indonesia and Vietnam. Calling the proposed air conditioner rule a "step in the right direction," Pramod Singh, an energy savings expert with New Delhi-based Alliance for an Energy Efficient Economy, said replacing the country's estimated 80 million older generation, inefficient air conditioners is a key challenge for the government. Many units available in India are so inefficient they couldn't be sold in many other countries, Abhyankar said. "Although India imports most key components for its air conditioners from China, nearly 80 per cent of the air conditioners that are currently sold in India would be banned in China," he said. Energy experts said other small changes can reduce energy use and customer costs, such as making sure new buildings have adequate ventilation, combining air conditioners with other cooling methods and using smart technologies to run air conditioners. "Air conditioner use reduces significantly if users also run their ceiling fans, as the room cools much faster," said Abhyankar.


Scroll.in
16 minutes ago
- Scroll.in
Opposition questions EC's ‘hurry' to begin nationwide voter rolls revision
Opposition leaders have criticised the Election Commission after reports said it has decided to direct chief electoral officers of all states to begin preparing for a special intensive revision of electoral rolls on the lines of the exercise being conducted in Bihar. The commission had written to all state polling chiefs on July 5, directing them to complete ' pre-revision activities ', The Indian Express reported on Sunday. The activities include rationalisation of polling stations, filling vacant positions of key officials and supervisors who will carry out the enumeration, and conducting training, the newspaper reported. The Opposition said on Sunday that the poll panel should wait for the Supreme Court to decide on the challenges to the voter roll revision taking place in Bihar before replicating the exercise in other states. On Thursday, the Supreme Court urged the Election Commission to consider Aadhaar cards, voter ID cards and ration cards as valid documents for the revision of electoral rolls. The court will hear the case further on July 28. Commenting on the commission's decision to prepare for a nationwide voter roll revision, Congress leader KC Venugopal said that the Bharatiya Janata Party had 'mastered the art of taking a bad idea and making it worse '. 'As if the chaos and opposition to the Bihar SIR was not enough, the BJP-controlled ECI now wants to subject the entire country through this trauma,' Venugopal said on social media. 'Every Indian citizen will be looked at with suspicion, their voting rights will be under threat, and the whole electoral system will be rigged.' The Election Commission must shelve proposals seeking a nationwide voter roll revision immediately, said the Congress leader. Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Singhvi told The Indian Express that the commission's decision was 'effectually meaningless because everything will depend on the outcome of the pending case' in the Supreme Court. In the case before the Supreme Court, Singhvi is representing the petitioners who have challenged the voter roll revision in Bihar. 'Not only on [July] 28, but on a few dates thereafter,' the Congress leader was quoted as saying. 'Depending on that outcome alone, everything else will proceed or not proceed. Merely giving jingoistic statements is meaningless...' Trinamool Congress leader Sagarika Ghose said the poll panel must answer 'if it is preparing a citizen's register' in the name of electoral roll revision, the newspaper reported. '…This is an NRC [National Register of Citizens] from the backdoor,' Ghose was quoted as saying. '…This is a malafide exercise targeting the poorest and most vulnerable,' the Rajya Sabha MP was quoted as saying. Communist Party of India leader D Raja was quoted as saying that the Election Commission must explain why it is in a 'hurry' to carry out a nationwide exercise while the Supreme Court is hearing the matter. Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar on July 6 defended the exercise, claiming that the exercise had to be carried out as no one was satisfied with the current voter rolls. Revision of voter rolls The revision of the electoral rolls in Bihar was announced by the Election Commission on June 24. As part of the exercise, persons whose names were not on the 2003 voter list will need to submit proof of eligibility to vote. This means that 2.9 crore out of the state's 7.8 crore voters – or about 37% of the electors – will have to submit documentary evidence. Voters born before July 1, 1987, must show proof of their date and place of birth, while those born between July 1, 1987, and December 2, 2004, must also submit documents establishing the date and place of birth of one of their parents. Those born after December 2, 2004, will need proof of date of birth for themselves and both parents. If the officers are satisfied with the details provided, the voters will be re-enrolled to a new voter list by electoral registration officers. If not, they will be removed from the voter lists. About 80.1% electors in Bihar had submitted their enumeration forms as part of the exercise, the Election Commission said on Saturday. A draft roll will be published on August 1 and the final roll will be out on September 30. Bihar is expected to head for Assembly polls in October or November. On July 2, eleven INDIA bloc parties told the Election Commission that the revision of Bihar's electoral rolls risked disenfranchising more than 2.5 crore voters, as they may not be able to produce the necessary documents.


The Print
16 minutes ago
- The Print
‘Continued normalisation of ties can lead to mutually beneficial outcomes'—Jaishankar in Beijing
This is Jaishankar's first visit to China since clashes between the two nations in Galwan in the summer of 2020. The minister is on a two-day visit to the neighbouring country, holding bilateral talks in Beijing before travelling to Tianjin for the foreign ministers' meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Earlier Sunday, Jaishankar travelled to Singapore for a day-long visit. 'We have marked, Excellency, the 75th anniversary of the establishment of our diplomatic relations. The resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra is also widely appreciated in India. Continued normalisation of our ties can produce mutually beneficial outcomes,' Jaishankar said during a bilateral meeting with Han Zheng, the Vice-President of China. New Delhi: Indian External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said he was 'confident' that ties between New Delhi and Beijing would 'maintain a positive trajectory' during a visit to the Chinese capital Monday. 'Our bilateral relationship, as you have pointed, has been steadily improving since the meeting between Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi and President Xi Jinping in Kazan last October. I am confident that my discussions in this visit will maintain that positive trajectory,' Jaishankar added during the discussion with Han, according to a statement published by the Ministry of External Affairs. Jaishankar is expected to meet with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi later Monday. The two last met in February on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in South Africa. Jaishankar has met Wang multiple times in the last year, particularly in July 2024, which eventually led to a thaw in ties between the two neighbouring countries. Relations between India and China plummeted following the clashes in Galwan in 2020. Eventually, on 21 October, 2024, Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced that New Delhi and Beijing had reached an agreement to disengage at the friction points across the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The agreement set the stage for a meeting between PM Modi and Chinese President Xi on the margins of the BRICS summit in the Russian city of Kazan in October 2024. Since then, a number of mechanisms between India and China have resumed operation, including the special representative (SR) mechanism on the border question and the foreign secretary-vice minister mechanism. The SR's of India and China, Ajit Doval and Wang Yi, met in Beijing last December, while Misri travelled to the Chinese capital in January 2025 to hold discussions with Vice Foreign Minister Sun Weidong. Last month, Doval and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh travelled to China for SCO meetings. Singh refused to sign a joint statement from the defence ministers' meeting at the SCO due to the lack of language on terrorism, in particular the terrorist attack in Jammu & Kashmir's Pahalgam. The SCO foreign ministers' meeting will be one of the few occasions where both Indian and Pakistani leadership will be in the same room. Wang Yi is expected to travel to India later in the month for the next round of SR talks. (Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui) Also Read: Need permanent solution to border issue, Rajnath Singh tells China on sidelines of SCO meet