News in Short

• The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) announced KL Rahul as Team India’s vice-captain for the upcoming Test series against South Africa.
• Rahul will play the role of Virat Kohli’s deputy in red-ball cricket in Rohit Sharma’s absence who is ruled out of the series after sustaining a hamstring injury.
• The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had confirmed that Rohit Sharma was ruled out of the three-match Test series against South Africa due to a hamstring issue.

• Justice (retired) GT Nanavati, who headed commissions probing the 2002 Gujarat riots and the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, passed away. He was 86.
• Justice Nanavati’s commission probed the Godhra train burning and the subsequent riots in which nearly 1,200 people were killed in Gujarat.
• He was the Chief Justice of Orissa High Court in January 1994 and was transferred as Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court in September 1994.
• He was subsequently appointed as Judge of the Supreme Court of India in March 1995, and retired as a judge in 2000.

• Russia published security proposals addressed to NATO and the United States and called for urgent talks with Washington as tensions between Moscow and Western capitals soar over the conflict in Ukraine.
• The far-reaching proposals say NATO must not allow any new members to the U.S.-led military alliance and call for no new military bases to be established in ex-Soviet countries.
• The West has accused Moscow of preparing an imminent invasion, claiming Russia has deployed tens of thousands of troops along Ukraine’s borders.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin denies planning an attack and blames NATO for the rise in tensions, demanding “legal guarantees” the alliance won’t expand eastwards.

• India successfully test-fired the Agni Prime missile off the coast of Odisha in Balasore. This was the second test of the Agni Prime missile.
• Agni-P is a new generation advanced variant of Agni class of missiles. It is a two-stage canisterised missile with range capability between 1,000 and 2,000 km.
• A lot of new features have been added to the nuclear-capable strategic missile Agni Prime during this test.
• The ballistic missile weighs 50 per cent less than Agni 3 and can be launched from rail and road and stored for a longer period and transported all across the country as per operational requirements.

• The Competition Commission of India (CCI) froze its approval given in November 2019 to Amazon’s investment in a Future Group unit
• The decision comes on the grounds that the U.S. e-commerce company had suppressed the scope and full details of its investment while seeking regulatory approval.
• The antitrust regulator also imposed a penalty of ?200 crore on Amazon for failing to notify the details of its ‘combination’, as required in law.
• Amazon has 60 days to pay the monetary penalty. It has the same period to notify the combination afresh with “true, correct and complete information”.