India-China Agree On 5-Point Plan For Resolving Border Standoff In Ladakh; Other Top Stories

External affairs minister S Jaishankar and his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi met for crucial talks in Moscow on Thursday evening with hopes of making a breakthrough in the face of a spike in tension along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) after both countries amassed more troops in the Ladakh sector. India on Thursday added 99,181 cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) as it continued to set new global records for daily cases, inching closer to the sombre threshold of 100,000 cases in a day.

In first of its kind of arrangement in the history of Indian Parliament, Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha will have turn wise sittings in the forthcoming Monsoon session to adhere to social distancing norms owing to the coronavirus pandemic. The monsoon session of the Parliament is scheduled from September 14 till October 1. The Supreme Court on Thursday gave two weeks to the Centre and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to decide on the plea seeking waiver of interest on being charged on deferred EMIs and also the downgrading of credit rating of the commercial borrowers during the six month moratorium period.

Amid raging India-China border tensions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe held a "very warm" 30 minute "summit telephone talk" on Thursday after it was officially announced that two countries had signed a key mutual defence logistics support pact called the "Agreement Concerning Reciprocal Provision Of Supplies and Services between the Armed Forces of India and The Self-Defence Forces of Japan" a day earlier on Wednesday. Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao has instructed TRS MPs to be combative with the Centre during the monsoon session of Parliament to secure the state's pending demands and the state's legitimate share of GST monies, Deccan Chronicle reported.