LEAD

To mark Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday on September 17, the Ministry of Culture is organising an e-auction of gifts and mementos received by the PM.

On the block are as many as 1,300 items, which include the javelin thrown by Olympic gold medalist Neeraj Chopra, which he had presented to the PM recently. Sources in the Ministry of Culture have said the base price of the javelin is expected to be around Rs 75 lakh, and that they are expecting it to fetch above crores.

The T-shirt worn by Avani Lakhera has a base price of Rs 15 lakh, while the javelin thrown by Sumit Antil and Chopra have a base price of Rs 1 crore each. Lovlina Borgohain’s boxing gloves have a base price of Rs 80 lakh while a stole with signatures of Tokyo Olympic players carries a base price of Rs 90 lakh.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has urged US defence companies to invest in India, asserting that the country is a strong and reliable investment destination in terms of co-production and co-development.

He said that US companies should focus on the transfer of technology through joint ventures and be part of India's Make in India initiative aimed at self-reliance.

The defence minister was delivering the inaugural address at the 18th India-US Economic Summit on the theme 'Bouncing Back Resilient Recovery Path Post Covid-19', organised by the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce through video conferencing on Wednesday.

The Special Cell of the Delhi police today said it has arrested six terrorists who were planning to set off bombs in various parts of the country during the upcoming festival season. The arrests, including of two persons who are said to have received training in Pakistan and returned recently, followed a massive multi-state operation, officials said.

Today's operation, spanning Delhi, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, was launched based on alerts on the said terror module from various agencies.

"During a raid in the morning, a terrorist from Maharashtra was arrested in Rajasthan's Kota. Three were arrested with the help of the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terror Squad (ATS) while two others were caught in Delhi," Neeraj Thakur, a senior Special Cell official, told NDTV.

A geneticist of Banaras Hindu University's Zoology department, Professor Gyaneshwer Chaubey, said that the third wave of coronavirus would be less deadly, especially for the vaccinated group of people, persons who have been cured of the virus, and children.

Chaubey added that people who have been vaccinated and cured of Covid-19 would fall under the protected group during the third wave.

He added that the wave would likely hit after at least three months, but the ongoing coronavirus vaccination will boost people's immunity and help them resist the wave.

To provide a "cutting-edge technology to enhance India's counter-terror capabilities", Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to launch the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) soon, official sources said.  

The final "synchronisation and testing" of the ambitious electronic database seems to be going on so that it can go live without any hiccups. It was mooted after the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks in 2008.

Recently, Union Home Minister Amit Shah indicated that NATGRID may finally see the light of day. It has been conceptualised as a seamless and secure database for information on terrorists, economic crimes and similar incidents.