Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping held bilateral talks on Wednesday on the margins of the BRICS Summit in Russia’s Kazan, in their first structured meeting in the last five years.

The meeting took place two days after India and China firmed up an agreement on patrolling by their militaries along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh, in a major breakthrough to end the over four-year standoff.

In a post on X, PM Modi said he met President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Kazan BRICS Summit. “India-China relations are important for the people of our countries, and for regional and global peace and stability. Mutual trust, mutual respect and mutual sensitivity will guide bilateral relations,” he said.

During the meeting, Prime Minister Modi emphasised the importance of not allowing differences to disrupt the peace and tranquility in the region. He welcomed the recent agreement on the India-China border and stated that maintaining peace on the border should be India’s top priority.

Expressing his pleasure at the meeting, Jinping acknowledged that it was the first official meeting between both leaders in five years. Jinping said China and India are both ancient civilizations, major developing countries, and important members of the Global South.

“For both sides, to keep to the trend of history and the right direction of our bilateral relations, both sides need to have more communication and cooperation, properly handle differences and disagreements, and to facilitate each other’s pursuit of development aspirations. It’s also important for both sides to shoulder our international responsibility, set an example for boosting the strength and unity of developing countries, and to contribute to promoting multipolarization and democracy in international relations,” said Chinese President Jinping.

In November 2022, PM Modi and President Jinping engaged in an exchange of pleasantries and held a brief conversation during a dinner hosted by the Indonesian President for the G20 leaders.

Similarly, in August of the preceding year, Modi and Jinping engaged in a brief and informal conversation in Johannesburg on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit.

The last structured meeting between the two leaders took place during their second informal Summit in Mamallapuram in October 2019. The eastern Ladakh border dispute emerged in May 2020.

Online food delivery firm on Wednesday launched the ‘Swiggy Seal’ initiative to improve hygiene and food quality standards among their restaurant partners.

The program is currently active in Pune and will expand to cover over 650 cities in India by November.

Participating restaurants will display a ‘Swiggy Seal’ badge on their menu pages to showcase their commitment to providing hygienic, high-quality meals in quality packaging.

“Since the program’s launch two weeks ago, restaurant partners have shown high interest, with hundreds of requests for hygiene audits already received. Should any concerns arise about a restaurant holding the Seal, Swiggy will thoroughly review the feedback and may revoke the badge if the restaurant fails to maintain the established standards,” Swiggy stated.

The initiative includes hygiene audits, feedback reviews, and support for restaurant partners to maintain established standards. Swiggy aims to enhance restaurant hygiene practices by offering insights from customer reviews and professional hygiene audits through FSSAI-accredited agencies. 

“Leveraging insights from over 7 million verified customer reviews in the past six months, the Swiggy Seal program aims to elevate restaurant hygiene practices. It offers restaurant partners comprehensive insights and actionable support to ensure the delivery of hygienic, well-cooked food in high-quality packaging,” Swiggy said.

Earlier in July this year, the food delivery majors, Zomato and Swiggy, both increased their platform fees by 6 per cent for food orders.

The food giants were initially charging in the national capital and IT hub, Bengaluru, the platform fee, distinct from delivery fee, goods and services GST, handling charge and restaurant charges.

After the hike, the platform fee went up to Rs 6 per order from an earlier Rs 5 per order. Gradually, the higher platform fee was roll out to other cities as well.

Notably, this fee applies universally to all food orders, irrespective of customer enrollment in loyalty programs offered by both food giants. The charges directly contribute to the companies’ revenue streams and cost management efforts. The platform fee goes to the food aggregators to apparently control costs and increase revenues.

In April, they charged Rs 5 per order, but now it’s been increased by Rs 6 per order. That’s a 20% increase in fees for food delivery. This change in their strategy to adjust the price in a market as they expand their services.

The Union Ministry of Electronics and IT slammed social media platform X through which many of the hoax bomb threats targeted at several airlines were circulated. Over 120 flights operated by Indian carriers have received bomb threats in the past few days.

Joint Secretary Sanket S Bhondve held a virtual meeting with representatives of airlines and social media platforms such as X and Meta. Reportedly, the official said that the situation amounts to X abetting crime and questioned its representatives on the steps taken to stop such alarming rumours from spreading.

Notably, the Centre pulled up the microblogging site after the Delhi Police failed to get the details of the user’s ID or domain of a few X accounts that were found to be involved in posting threat messages to flights.

So far, the Delhi Police has filed eight cases in connection with bomb threats. Reports quoted a senior police official as saying that the threats messages were received through anonymous posts on X which were later suspended by the authorities.

The officer also said that three accounts on social media platform ‘X’ namely, @adamlanza111, @psychotichuman and @schizobomer777 have been found involved in posting threat messages to flights.

A Delhi Police official said that they have registered eight separate cases in response to threats to over 90 domestic or international flights operating from Delhi.

Reportedly, the first case was registered on October 16 following a bomb threat received through X, targeting a Bengaluru-bound Akasa Air flight. The officer stated that it was suspected that the handler used VPN (Virtual private network) or dark web browser to set up the accounts on X and then posted the messages from more than one account.

On Tuesday, 30 flights operated by IndiGo, Vistara and Air India received such threats. Following the threats, the airlines said they followed standard operating procedures, and that authorities were alerted and security protocols were followed.

Meanwhile, Civil Aviation Minister K Rammohan Naidu while addressing the press on Monday, said that the government is trying to tackle the situation without compromising passengers safety. He further added that those circulating such hoax threats will face tough action, including being put on a no-fly list.

The Minister also asserted that the government plans to amend the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against Safety of Civil Aviation Act so that action could be initiated for offences when an aircraft is on the ground. At present, the aviation security norms largely cover in-flight offences.