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The U.S. and Australia criticized India for considering a Russian proposal that would undermine sanctions imposed by America and its allies, showing a deepening rift between the emerging security partners as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov traveled to Delhi for talks. 

“Now is the time to stand on the right side of history, and to stand with the United States and dozens of other countries, standing up for freedom, democracy and sovereignty with the Ukrainian people, and not funding and fueling and aiding President Putin’s war,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters in Washington on Wednesday. She called reports of the arrangement “deeply disappointing,” while adding that she hadn’t seen details.

The Delhi High Court on Wednesday raised concerns about data sharing by social media platforms as it heard the appeal of WhatsApp and its parent company Meta (formerly Facebook) against the probe ordered by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) into the instant messaging app`s latest privacy policy.

A division bench of Justices Rajiv Shakdher and Poonam A. Bamba was hearing the appeal filed by FB and Whatsapp challenging the single-judge order which refused to stay the CCI`s order in April last year.

Expressing concern about the privacy matter, the bench said users are mostly unaware of the data sharing by private entities like Cambridge Analytica.

The government is likely to amend the Indian Telegraph Act so that the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) can be used for research and development purposes too. The amendment will be required as the Budget for the next fiscal has proposed allocation of 5% of annual collections under the USOF for the purpose of R&D to enable affordable broadband and mobile services in rural and remote areas.

The Indian Telegraph Act was amended in 2006 to repeal the term 'basic' and widen the scope to provide subsidy support for enabling access to all types of telecom services, including mobile services, broadband connectivity and creation of infrastructure like optical fiber cable (OFC) in rural and remote areas.© Provided by The Financial Express The Indian Telegraph Act was amended in 2006 to repeal the term 'basic' and widen the scope to provide subsidy support for enabling access to all types of telecom services, including mobile services, broadband connectivity and creation of infrastructure like optical fiber cable (OFC) in rural and remote areas.

Dominated by the BA.2 Omicron sub-variant, the Covid-19 cases in Asia have crossed the 100 million mark on Wednesday (March 30, 2022).

The region, which is witnessing a resurgence in coronavirus infections, is reporting over 1 million new cases about every two days, according to a Reuters analysis. With more than half of the world's population, Asia now contributes 21% of all reported Covid-19 cases.

The highly contagious but less deadly BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron has pushed the figures to greater highs in recent weeks in countries such as South Korea, China and Vietnam. 

BA.2 reportedly now represents nearly 86% of all sequenced cases.

Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday made a renewed pitch for a united opposition in a bid to stall the saffron juggernaut, writing to her non-NDA counterparts and other senior political functionaries for a conclave to highlight BJP’s alleged “misuse of central agencies with the sole intent of suppressing opposition leaders” and attempts “to influence a certain section of the judiciary”.

Trinamool functionaries said the proposed conclave could be held in Mumbai, going by the “very positive” response from both Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray and NCP’s Sharad Pawar.

Saying thatshe can’t tolerate "the vindictive politics of BJP that has led to a witch-hunt", West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee implored opposition leaders, including that of Congress, to unite into a "progressive force" and put up a united fight against the "oppressive BJP regime."