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Opposition Congress in Madhya Pradesh will bring no-confidence motion against Shivraj Singh Chouhan govt during winter session of Assembly beginning on Monday, the party said in a statement.

Elon Musk, under fire for recent policy changes at Twitter Inc, is asking users to vote on whether he should step down as head of the social media site. The billionaire owner of Twitter and Tesla CEO will abide by the results of the poll, he pledged in a tweet Sunday. Musk also said that going forward he will hold votes on major policy changes. Since his takeover of Twitter, Musk has weathered criticism for his sweeping changes at the social network — such as firing more than half its staff and bringing back previously barred accounts — as well as calls to refocus on Tesla, whose share price has been plummeting.

India’s economy appeared to slow rather than accelerate last month, as high-frequency indicators tracked by Bloomberg signaled worsening business and consumption activity. Although a dial measuring so-called animal spirits showed activity was steady for a fifth straight month in November, the needle was just one bad data point away from swinging to the left. Exports, a key growth lever in the past year, was among three of eight metrics that performed poorly. The rest were unchanged.

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Nearly 200 nations adopt key biodiversity pact to protect 30% lands, oceans

Nearing the conclusion of a sometimes fractious two-week meeting, nearly 200 nations of the world on Monday agreed on a historic package of measures deemed critical to addressing the dangerous loss of biodiversity and restoring natural ecosystems.

 

Convened under UN auspices, chaired by China, and hosted by Canada, the 15th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Biological Diversity adopted the "Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework" (GBF), including four goals and 23 targets for achievement by 2030.

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Soul of good governance is administration at citizens' doorsteps in villages: Jitendra Singh

Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Monday said the soul of good governance is to take administration to the doorsteps of citizens right up to the villages.

 

Inaugurating the good governance week with a nationwide 'Prashasan Gaon Ki Ore' campaign here, he said for sustainable development of rural India, schemes must take into account the needs and wishes of the people in the true bottom-up approach and should be implemented through latest technological tools in a transparent, effective and accountable manner.

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Maha should stand firmly behind people from Marathi-speaking areas of K'taka: CM Shinde amid boundary dispute

Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde on Monday said the state should stand firmly behind people in the Marathi-speaking areas of neighbouring Karnataka and appealed to political parties not to behave in a way that would hurt them.

 

Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said the state government will initiate a special programme for the development of villages located along the border and resolve their pending issues

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NTH to offer EV battery testing at Mumbai & Kolkata centres from next fiscal

 

Anticipating a rise in demand for electric vehicles (EV), the government's National Testing House (NTH) on Monday said it will offer testing services for EV batteries and charging systems at its Mumbai and Kolkata centres from the next fiscal.

 

Currently, the Manesar-based International Centre for Automotive Technology and the Pune-based Automatic Research Association of India (ARAI) are the two agencies in the country providing testing services for EVs and their batteries.

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Law must not be used as tool to harass accused, says SC

The law must not be used as a tool to harass the accused and courts must always ensure that frivolous cases do not "pervert" its sacrosanct nature, the Supreme Court has said.

 

The apex court, which quashed the criminal proceedings pending at a Chennai court against two people, said law is meant to exist as a shield to protect the innocent rather than being used as a sword to threaten them

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Karnataka Govt not to introduce "Uniform Civil Code" bill in ongoing session

Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday said the bill regarding implementation of "Uniform Civil Code" (UCC) in the State will not be introduced during the ongoing winter session of the legislature here.

 

"There are no chances of tabling it during this session," Bommai told reporters in response to a question whether a bill on UCC will be tabled during this session.

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Wipro acquires packaged food and spices brand Nirapara

Wipro Consumer Care on Monday announced its entry into the packaged food and spice segment by acquiring Nirapara, one of the largest-selling traditional food brands in Kerala.

 

The deal size was not disclosed by the company. The Wipro group arm has signed a definitive agreement with Nirapara, a company statement said.

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India crosses milestone of 2.2 billion vaccine doses: Mandaviya

India crosses milestone of 2.2 billion vaccine doses, says Union minister Mansukh Mandaviya

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Loans worth Rs 1,009,511 written off in last 5 financial years: Sitharaman

Sitharaman said recovery in NPA (non performing asset) accounts, including written-off loans, was an on-going process.

 

According to Reserve Bank of India (RBI) data, public sector banks have recovered Rs 4,80,111 crore, including Rs 1,03,045 crore from written-off loans, during the last five financial years, she said.

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'Kisan Garjana' rally: Farmers converge at Ramleela Ground, demand measures

Farmers have started converging at the Ramleela Ground here for the 'Kisan Garjana' rally to demand various relief measures from the government.

 

A note issued by the organisers -- Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS), a branch of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) -- said "the government will face trouble if it did not heed the farmers' demand in time".

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Centre will introduce Repealing and Amending Bill 2022 in Lok Sabha

The Centre will on Monday introduce in Lok Sabha the Repealing and Amending Bill, 2022 for repealing certain enactments.

 

Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju will introduce the bill in the lower house.

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BJP set to unveil Savarkar's photo at Karnataka Assembly hall; Congress protests

Karnataka unit of Congress on Monday staged a protest against the state BJP's decision to install a picture of the controversial freedom fighter Veer Savarkar in the Legislative Assembly at Suvarna Vidhana Soudha here.

Condemning the proposed move of installing Savarkar's picture right behind the Speakers' Chair, senior Congress MLAs, including the Opposition leader of Siddaramaiah, state party President DK Shivakumar staged a protest in the Assembly.

The ruling BJP is all set to unveil photographs, including that of Savarkar, inside the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha on Monday, the first day of the session.

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India eyes quality control measures for rubber, cement industries

India aims to implement quality control measures for the light engineering, rubber, cement and concrete building materials industry by next year, a government source told Reuters on Monday.

"Drawing from the example of measures taken for the toy industry in India, better standards helped comply with international standards. The industry then saw exporting opportunities and now they are exporting. We expect a similar thing to happen in other sectors," the source said.

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Hospitality industry set for buoyant 2023, cashes India's G20 presidency

The domestic hospitality industry is looking to 'fly' in 2023 cashing in on India's G20 presidency, having received the 'oxygen' to run in 2022 after being crippled in the past two years by the pandemic.

Domestic travel, especially the leisure segment, gave wind to the industry this year and is expected to continue into the next. Industry players believe that as international arrivals are also likely to pick up even further, the outlook for 2023 is buoyant.

However, for travellers, room tariffs are likely to remain high going forward, with a demand-supply mismatch continuing in the hospitality sector.

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India jumps forty spots to 71st in mean mobile download speed

In November, India jumped 40 ranks to the 71st spot globally in terms of mean download speed, according to a report. Its mean mobile download speed in November was 50.26 Megabits per second (Mbps), nearly double 27.13 Mbps in October.

In terms of the median mobile download speed, India jumped eight spots to rank 105th globally, with a speed of 18.26 Mbps as compared to 113th in October.

The Speedtest Global Index for November released by network intelligence company Ookla showed that the median mobile download speed in October was 16.50 Mpbs. In November, the download speed showed an improvement of over 1.75 Mbps. Read more