News Wrap

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West Bengal witnessed sporadic incidents of violence, bombing and clashes between rival party workers in the fifth phase of polls, in the 45 seats in six districts, that recorded an overall turnout of 78.36 percent, concluding on 17 April 2021. Increasing supply of oxygen cylinders and Ramdesivir in hospitals, adding ventilator stocks and enhanced supply of vaccine doses were raised by 11 states and Union Territories on 17 April 2021, at a high level meeting conducted by India's union health minister, in New Delhi.

Deep Sidhu Arrested Again
The Delhi Police's Crime Branch arrested actor activist Deep Sidhu on 17 April 2021, in connection with an FIR lodged by the Archeological Survey of India for allegedly damaging public property during the farmers' tractor parade violence on Republic Day at Red Fort in January 2021. The arrest came after a Delhi court granted bail to the actor-activist arrested on 09 February 2021, in connection with the Red Fort violence. The court noted that the accused was in custody since 09 February 2021, with 14 days of remand in police custody. It said that a police plea for further incarceration for the sole purpose of voice sampling was not justifiable. On 26 January 2021, thousands of protesting farmers who reached ITO in Delhi from the Ghazipur border, clashed with police, the police agency claimed.

Streaming Video Industry
The reappearance of Covid-19 in a more virulent form threatens news media and cinema business. The union government of India announced a three-tier regulatory frame work for digital content in February 2021 that would affect the streaming video industry. Early April 2021, the government scrapped the Film Certification Appellate Tribunal, which was in existence as a statutory body since 1983. A gazette notification in November 2020 has brought all streaming platforms, particularly the other than theatres (OTT) industry, under the ambit of the union ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

Indiana Shooting
Brandon Scott Hole, aged 19 years, a former employee at the Fedix facility in the United States state of Indianapolis carried out a mass shooting, late 15 April 2021, killing eight people, including four Sikhs, before allegedly committing suicide. About 90 percent of the workers at the delivery facility are Indian - Americans, mostly from the Sikh community. This is the worst Sikh massacre in the United States, after Oak Creek Gurdwara mass shooting in Wisconsin, on 05 August 2012, where seven members of the community were killed.

Birthday Of Founder Of North Korea
Kim II Song, a former guerilla fighter during the Japanese colonial period, founded North Korea in 1948, and still maintains a godlike status in North Korea. After his death in 1994, he was succeeded by his son Kim Jong II. Mask wearing North Koreans on 15 April 2021, danced in a plaza or climbed a Mansu Pyongyang hill, to mark the 109th birthday of North Korea's founder, amid pandemic fears and economic woes. Kim Jong Un is rallying the public that has been struggling with an economy, battered by shortages of imported goods and sharply reduced trade due to pandemic related border closures, United States led sanctions and natural disasters.

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Frontier
Vol. 53, No. 45, May 9 - 15, 2021