June 21

INSIDER INFO Activists Released 03 Focus: Politics of Billions 05 Legendary 12 Delivery to Space 14 Iranian 15 Wimbledon 16 What's Trending? 17 EURO Standings 18 American Standings 19 Coming This Week 20 Quotes Thoughts 21 Follow us on Instagram Get news updates R.A.W. | June 21, 2021

ACTIVISTS RELEASED Student activists Devangana Kalita, Natasha Narwal and Asif Iqbal Tanha were released from Tihar Jail as they were granted bail by the Delhi High Court on Tuesday. They were accused of conspiring to create unrest during the anti-CAA protests and riots in the city that took place last February. Charged with UAPA, they spent more than a year in jail when finally the High Court decided to grant bail. Even though the High Court ruled on Tuesday, their release was on halt as the Delhi Police sought more time to verify the addresses and sureties. However the High Court intervened on Thursday and ordered immediate release of the students. The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to consider Delhi Police's petition challenging the Delhi High Court's observation on anti-terror law UAPA but refused to invalidate the bail order. R.A.W. | 03

The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 is an act to provide for the more effective prevention of certain unlawful activities of individuals and associations and for dealing with terrorist activities. Its main objective is to make powers available for dealing with activities directed against the integrity and sovereignty of India. Under UAPA's section 43 D(5), an accused can be denied bail if there are reasonable grounds to believe the accusations are prima facie true. R.A.W. | 04

POLITICS OF BILLIONS Politics and Power were widely considered as the two sides of the same coin. But lately, a new entrant came in; Money, and that made a triangle revolving governance. In the recent past, 'Gandhi' became the dominant one, controlling the other two edges. So it has become a prerequisite to talk more about money in every conversation about politics, including this.

Political parties are the organs that practice and propagate politics in our society. They are organised to agitate, govern and mobilise. We are familiar that there are dozens of mainstream political parties in India, divided into national and regional parties, with member counts varying from thousands to crores. Nowadays, some of them are almost like a corporate giant - a national headquarters, various regional hubs, media wings, strategy partners, tactical collaborations and so on. Just like any other organisation, parties too need resources to compete against each other, run election campaigns, expand support base and horse-trades (comparatively new listing). Don't get mistaken by the term 'resources', it's mostly a rupee game. And the numbers involved are not anymore in thousands or lakhs but thousands of crores. R.A.W. | 06

Political parties in India are governed by 'The Representation of the People Act (RPA). It allows political parties to receive voluntary contributions from anyone including corporate companies. However they can't accept donations from foreign sources. Any association calling itself a political party needs to make an application to the Election Commission to get itself registered under section 29A of the RPA. And such political parties are given 100% exemption on their income including capital gains and voluntary contributions under section 13A. Certain conditions are to be met for claiming this benefit which includes furnishing an annual report of contributions received in excess of Rs. 20,000 to the Election Commission. The report in discussion here is of the financial year 2019-20.

As per the reports published by the Election Commission of India recently, Bharatiya Janata Party received Rs. 785 Crore as donations pushing aside all its opponents by a mile. Runners-up in the figures, the Indian National Congress managed to get Rs. 139 Crore, less than one-fifth the amount than the saffron party. But these aren't the final numbers as this just includes contributions made higher than Rs. 20,000 and excludes the electoral bond figures, which are yet to be published. Electoral Bond Electoral Bond is a financial instrument for making donations to political parties. The bonds are issued in the multiples of Rs. 1,000, Rs. 10,000, Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 1 Crore, without any maximum limit of purchase. State Bank of India is the one authorised to issue and encash these bonds which are redeemable in the Election Commission designated account of political parties. They are available for purchase for a period of 10 days in the beginning of all quarters - January, April, July and October. R.A.W. | 08

According to Association for Democratic Reforms, a total of 13,898 electoral bonds worth Rs. 7,230 Crore have been sold in sixteen phases between March 2018 and April 2021. Among these 50% of the total value of electoral bonds were purchased in two months alone - March and April of 2019, the period of general elections. Source: ADR No. Of Bonds Sold Amount in Rs.

Source: ADR R.A.W. | 10

Why do you think 'voluntary' donations to political parties are skyrocketing every year? Is it because corporates are largely interested in strengthening our democracy? No one spends a penny without a target to gain some. Especially in the money-bleeding corporate sector. All political parties are funded for benefits - direct or indirect. The donors want to befriend the government, the ruling party and even the opposition. This is nothing but a tax exempt modern bribery!! The Election Commission should seriously consider stepping in to control the situation. Else elections will no longer be about counting votes, but funds. Companies should be barred from funding any particular party. If they're so passionate to fund Indian Democracy, they should do it into a common pool, controlled by the Commission. All elections and related expenses should be met from this fund (The 2019 LS Election should have wiped at least Rs. 5,000 Crore from the exchequer) and the leftover amount should be divided among the parties taking into account the seats they had contested in the previous elections. If a political imbalance is created by money, it's ofcourse the duty of the guardian to ▪ensure it is rectified

Profiles of the Greatest LEGENDARY RIP ONE OF INDIA'S GREATEST SPRINTERS OF ALL TIME R.A.W. | 12

Profiles of the Greatest LEGENDARY India's Flying Sikh, Milkha Singh, the sprint superstar was born in Punjab. He started his athletic career while serving in the Indian Army. He had won 4 Gold medals in Asian Games, 2 Gold and a Silver in National Games and a Gold medal in the Commonwealth Games. His achievements were in the 200m, 400m and the 4×400m relay events. His performance in the 1960 Olympic Games, in which he secured fourth position, stays a dark event in history as he was expected to win a medal and was leading in the first half of the race. Singh joined the army as a sepoy but later promoted as a Junior Commissioned Officer in recognition of his success in the 1958 Asian Games. He later served as the Director of Sports in Punjab. He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1959. His autobiography 'The Race of My Life' co-written by his daughter, was published in 2013 and later inspired the biographical film 'Bhaag Milkha Bhaag' which was a box office super hit. Last week, he died from Covid related complication at the age of 91. His wife Nirmal Kaur, a former volleyball captain, also died with Covid recently. R.A.W. | 13

DELIVERY TO SPACE China has successfully sent its first astronauts to the country’s Tiangong space station onboard the Shenzhou-12 – its first manned spacecraft since 2016. China’s space agency said Shenzhou-12 spacecraft carrying three male astronauts onboard a Long March-2F rocket docked with Tianhe, the main section of the Tiangong station, hours after blasting off from the Gobi Desert in northwest China on Thursday. The astronauts, Nie Haisheng, 56, Liu Boming 54, and Tang Hongbo, 45, appeared before the media at a ceremony at the Jiuquan satellite launch centre.

IRANIAN Iran's current judiciary chief Ebrahim Raisi has comfortably won the country's presidential election in a vote marked by low turnout and calls for a boycott. In official results, Raisi won 17.9 million votes overall, nearly 62% of the total 28.9 million cast. Raisi is under US sanctions in part over his involvement in the mass execution of thousands of political prisoners in 1988. R.A.W. | 15

WIMBLEDON Four time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka has decided not to participate in the Wimbledon Championship which is scheduled to begin on 28th June. She had earlier pulled out of French Open halfway, citing mental health issues and inability to participate in the mandatory press conferences. Earlier Rafael Nadal announced his decision to withdraw from Wimbledon and Olympics saying it was made to prolong his professional career. However Osaka will be participating in the Olympics this year, which will be a home event for the Japanese.

Top Google Searches of the Week WHAT'S TRENDING? #GangaDussehra : One of the major festivities observed in India in the honor of Goddess Ganga. This year it was observed on June 20th. #FathersDay : Father's Day falls on the third Sunday of June every year. #INDvsNZ : India playing against New Zealand in the maiden World Test Championship. #BattlegroundMobileIndia : The Indian version of PUBG was available in open beta in the play store. #CristianoRonaldo : Ronaldo pushed aside a couple of coke bottles during a press meet; $4bn drop in its market value. #AdaniPowerShare : Adani shares crashed earlier last week after freeze placed on its foreign promoters.

UEFA EURO 2020 EURO STANDINGS

COPA AMERICA 2021 AMERICAN STANDINGS R.A.W. | 22

COMING THIS WEEK June 21 : International Yoga Day June 21 : Summer Solstice June 23 : International Widows' Day June 26 : International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking R.A.W. | 20 All News Stories published here have been compiled from various sources. No copyright infringement is intended.

QUOTES THOUGHTS We live in a highly competitive world. Everyone is bothered just about winning and hunting down others to get what they need. Our lives have so changed that we are no longer compassionate enough even to our dear ones. Will we sacrifice something for others, to earn a smile? It's not just your fault. The circumstances have forced us to be self centric in our run to live - eat or be eaten. Actually we may have a lot of talented people around but will find it difficult to acquaint ourselves with a loving mind as trust and affection are the virtues we threw away to enjoy this life. \"It is very easy to defeat someone, but very hard to win someone\" R.A.W. | 21