Times Top10: Today’s Top News Headlines and Latest News from India & across the World

• Hockey: A 41-year wait finally ended when the Indian men’s team secured an Olympic medal by beating Germany 5-4 in a pulsating bronze medal encounter.
• Germany had opened the scoring in just the second minute, but Simranjeet Singh drew India level in the second quarter before the Men in Blue conceded two goals in as many minutes. Two penalty corners for India saw Hardik Singh score on the rebound from the first, while Harmanpreet Singh nailed the second. At half time, it stood 3-3.
• India started brightly in the third quarter and nosed ahead courtesy Rupinder Pal Singh’s penalty stroke in the first minute. Three minutes later, Simranjeet scored a second to extend India’s lead to 5-3. With 12 minutes to go in the final quarter, Germany scored another goal, but it was not enough as a determined India held on to end one of the longest droughts in Indian sport.
• In all, it’s India’s third bronze and 12th hockey medal at the Games (and the first on astroturf), pulling them ahead of Germany as the country with the most medals in men’s hockey.
• The Indian women will play for bronze today morning against Great Britain, giving them the opportunity to be the only nation with medals in both men’s and women’s hockey at Tokyo.

• Wrestling: Ravi Kumar Dahiya settled for silver after losing a thrilling men’s 57 kg freestyle final 4-7 to two-time world champion Zavur Uguev of the Russian Olympic Committee. Uguev used all his experience in the first period to open up a 4-2 lead. He then pushed Ravi out of the mat at the start of the second to go up 5-2 and effected another takedown to make it 7-2. Ravi exerted a lot of pressure in the last 90 seconds but the Russian’s defence was formidable and hard to break down.
• Deepak Punia narrowly missed out on a medal after losing 2-4 to San Marino’s Myles Amine in the men’s 86 kg freestyle category’s bronze medal bout.
• Vinesh Phogat suffered a massive upset after being pinned by Belarus’ Vanesa Kaladzinskaya in the women’s 53 kg freestyle quarters. She didn’t make the repechage round.
• Anshu Malik’s medal hopes ended as well after she lost 1-5 to Russia’s Valeria Koblova, the Rio 2016 silver medallist, in the repechage round of the women’s 57 kg freestyle.
• Golf: Aditi Ashok remains in contention for a historic Olympic medal after carding a flawless five-under 66 in the second round with five birdies. She is currently tied second on nine-under 133. Diksha Dagar, on the other hand, returned a 72 to share 53rd place on six-over 148.
• Athletics: Sandeep Kumar, Rahul Rohilla and KT Irfan had a disappointing show in the men’s 20 m race-walk finishing 23rd, 47th and 52nd, respectively.

All updates here

The government on Thursday tabled the Taxation Laws (Amendment) Bill in Lok Sabha which seeks to do away with the contentious retrospective tax amendment introduced in 2012.

What’s it about

• In a written statement, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that “the bill proposes to amend the Income-tax Act, 1961 so as to provide that no tax demand shall be raised in future on the basis of the said retrospective amendment for any indirect transfer of Indian assets if the transaction was undertaken before 28th May, 2012.”
• The date is significant as it was on that day the 2012 Finance Act which allowed the government to impose retrospective taxes was given assent by then President, Pratibha Patil.

Whom will it benefit

• Sitharaman also said that any “demand raised for indirect transfer of Indian assets” made before the Act came into effect will “be nullified on fulfilment of specified conditions such as withdrawal or furnishing of undertaking for withdrawal of pending litigation.”
• That in effect means that if Vodafone and Cairn Energy withdraw their cases from both Indian and international courts, the government will not only withdraw its tax demand but also “refund the amount paid in these cases” albeit without any interest.

Why now

• The bill comes just a month after a Paris court accepted Cairn Energy’s plea to freeze $24 million worth of Indian sovereign assets in order to force the Indian government to cough up the $1.2 billion in damages, exclusive of interests and costs, awarded to it by the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague in a retrospective tax dispute for an amount of Rs 10,247 crore in addition to interest and penalty.
• The Centre had also lost face against Vodafone last year when an international arbitration panel at The Hague ruled that imposition of retrospective tax against the company, along with penalties, which amounted to Rs 22,100 crore, was in contravention of an India-Netherlands bilateral investment treaty.
• Intriguingly, the bill also comes almost two months after former Vodafone Idea chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla, who resigned from his post on Wednesday, offered to give up his stake in the company “to any entity-public sector/government/domestic financial entity” in order to keep the company afloat, in a letter to the Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba.

• The Supreme Court on Thursday asked petitioners seeking a court-appointed probe into reports of large-scale surveillance using Pegasus spyware to serve notice to the union government, observing that the media reports, if true, are serious.
• The court, however, did not issue a formal notice to the union government, saying one of the petitioners, M.L. Sharma, had named Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah as personal parties in his petition.
• It also asked if the petitioners had any proof to submit before the court and if those whose phones have been allegedly infiltrated have filed a police complaint under Telegraph Act or I-T Act. “They know about the provisions of the Indian Telegraph Act and Information Technology Act to file criminal complaints. It appears, they have not stated in their writ petition, whether any of them had made any effort to file criminal complaints against any,” the court observed.
• A two-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India N.V. Ramana was hearing a batch of petitions including by journalists N. Ram, the Editors Guild of India, Rajya Sabha Member John Brittas, lawyer M.L Sharma and five journalists whose phones showed traces of the Pegasus spyware according to an analysis by Amnesty International’s cyber division.
• The bench listed the case for August 10 and sought the union government’s presence for the hearing.

Meanwhile, the inquiry commission set by West Bengal Thursday sought information on Pegasus from the public and organisations having direct on indirect knowledge. The commission comprises former SC judge and former Calcutta High Court chief justice Jyotirmay Bhattacharya.

• Assam and Mizoram Thursday agreed to maintain peace and not deploy state forces to patrol disputed inter-state border areas and welcomed the “neutral” central paramilitary forces to man the region, over a week after six Assam policemen and a civilian were shot dead in a conflict between state police forces.
• Central paramilitary would take over the security and patrol of inter-state border areas in the districts of Karimganj, Hailakandi, and Cachar in Assam, and Mamit and Kolasib districts in Mizoram, a joint statement issued by the two states said.
• The Assam government also revoked an unusual advisory issued against travel to Mizoram. The representatives of Mizoram government officially conveyed condolences for the loss of lives of six Assam policemen and wished those injured a speedy recovery.
• The agreement comes days after chief ministers of both states ordered the withdrawal of cases filed against each other’s officials, including against an MP from Mizoram and Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Stars and struggles

• 31-year-old Jamaican Hansle Parchment (in pic) beat world champion and overwhelming favourite Grant Holloway of the US to gold in the men’s 110 metres hurdles.
• The US failed to make the men’s 4×100 metres relay final after finishing sixth in their semifinal due to poor changeovers. The team included two individual 100m finalists, Fred Kerley and Ronnie Baker, and the season’s best Trayvon Bromell. The US had won 15 of the 18 Olympics relay gold they entered from 1920 to 2000, but a succession of disqualifications and setbacks have contributed to the US failing to win gold since.
• In the men’s 400m, Steven Gardiner of the Bahamas won gold to shut out the Americans once again in an event they once dominated. Anthony Zambrano of Colombia took the silver, and Kirani James of Grenada grabbed bronze.
• In football, pre-tournament favourites US women settled for bronze after beating Australia 4-3.
• But Katie Nageotte kept the US flag high, winning the women’s pole vault gold medal.

The all-rounders

• Canada’s Damian Warner set a new Olympic mark of 9,018 points to win the men’s decathlon after two days of gruelling competition that featured 10 different track and field disciplines. Kevin Mayer of France took silver; Ashley Moloney of Australia the bronze.
• Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam won her second consecutive gold medal in the Olympic heptathlon on Thursday, becoming the first woman since Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1992 to win back-to-back Olympic heptathlon titles.

Perfect at 14

• 14-year-old Quan Hongchan of China scored a perfect 10 twice in her five attempts to win gold in the women’s 10-metre diving. All seven judges gave Quan perfect 10s for her second and fourth dives in the five-round competition.

• Kerala, as per 2021 data, has the maximum proportion (16.5%) of elderly people in its population, followed by Tamil Nadu (13.6%), Himachal Pradesh (13.1%), Punjab (12.6%) and Andhra Pradesh (12.4%), according to a government report.
• The proportion is the least in Bihar (7.7%) followed by Uttar Pradesh (8.1%) and Assam (8.2%), according to the report of the Technical Group on Population Projections for India and States for 2011-2036, whose findings have been cited in the ‘Elderly in India 2021’ document released on Thursday by the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (MOSPI).
• The projections for 2031 show that Kerala will have the maximum proportion (20.9%) of elderly people in its population, followed by Tamil Nadu (18.2%), Himachal Pradesh (17.1%), Andhra Pradesh (16.4%) and Punjab (16.2%), according to the report.
• The report says that the general population has grown by 12.4% during 2011-2021, in comparison to around 18% in the earlier decade, while the elderly population grew by 36% in each of the last two decades (2001-2011 and 2011-2021). The growth in elderly population has been attributed to the longevity of life achieved because of economic well-being, better healthcare and medical facilities and reduction in fertility rates.
• Old age dependency ratio provides a clearer picture of the number of persons aged 60-plus per 100 persons in the age group of 15-59 years. The report said that an increasing trend has been observed in the old age dependency ratio — it has risen from 10.9% in 1961 to 14.2% in 2011 and is further projected to increase to 15.7% and 20.1% in 2021 and 2031, respectively.
• Among the major states, the overall old-age dependency ratio, according to Census 2011, varied from 10.4% in Delhi to 19.6% in Kerala. However, for the projected figures for 2021, it varies from 12.7% in Assam to 26.1% in Kerala. For the year 2031, the old age dependency ratio varies from 15.6% in Bihar to 34.3% in Kerala, the report said.

• Israeli fighter jets struck missile launch sites in Lebanon on Thursday in response to the rockets fired on the previous day, as the proxy battle between Iran and Israel threatens to boil over into a full-scale war. The Israeli Defence Force warned Lebanon “against further attempts to harm Israeli civilians and Israel’s sovereignty.”
• Lebanese President Michel Aoun said Israel’s use of its air force to target Lebanese villages “indicated the presence of aggressive, escalatory intentions”, adding that Lebanon would submit a complaint to the United Nations. The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon said it was aware of the rocket fire and Israel’s artillery response and appealed for a cease-fire.
• Earlier, three rockets were fired from Lebanon on Wednesday, two of which landed in Israeli territory. Palestinian factions in Lebanon is suspected to be behind the attack but experts believe they may have had the endorsement of Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia that holds sway over the politics and security of Lebanon.
• Fragile politics: The escalation ends a period of relative quiet along the border since Israel’s 2006 war against Hezbollah and comes amidst political uncertainty. Lebanon is crippled economically and has been without a functioning government for a year. On Wednesday, it marked the first anniversary of the Beirut explosion that killed over 200 and left scores homeless. Israel’s new eight-party governing coalition, meanwhile, is trying to hold a fragile ceasefire that ended an 11-day war with Gaza’s Hamas militants in May.
• Proxy battle: The conflict is a manifestation of the tensions between Israel and Iran, which has been accused of targeting its regional rivals, including Saudi Arabia, through proxies in Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon.

• India were expected to dictate proceedings having dominated the opening day with the ball, and they seemed to be doing fantastically well until the stroke of lunch on the second day at 97/0. But Rohit Sharma fell for the short ball trap from Ollie Robinson.
• The clouds then gathered ominously in the second session enabling James Anderson to run riot in testing conditions. Cheteshwar Pujara fell pushing his sixth delivery against the pacer while Kohli got lured into a needless poke first ball to turn the match wide open. Anderson also became the third-highest wicket taker in Tests, level with Anil Kumble’s 619 scalps. Between all of this, Rahane found a way to get himself out searching for a non-existent single.
• Maybe, the visitors had bad light and rain to thank to stop the onslaught — India lost four wickets for just 15 runs. KL Rahul, who was dropped off Anderson soon after reaching his 11th Test fifty, will have to do it all over again along with Rishabh Pant and the lower-middle-order today.
• Scorecard: India 125/4 (Rahul 52 not out, Anderson 2/15) trail England 183 by 58 runs

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Punjab. Election strategist Prashant Kishor resigned on Thursday as principal advisor to chief minister Amarinder Singh ahead of the state elections next year, saying that he was taking “a temporary break from active role in public life” and added he has yet to decide on his next move. The move is bound to disappoint Amarinder, who had announced Kishor’s appointment in March this year, and is approaching the Punjab polls amid a fragile truce with his rival Navjot Singh Sidhu.