LIVE: PM Modi lays foundation stone for development projects in Kutch

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday laid foundation stones of a desalination plant, a hybrid renewable energy park, and a fully automated milk processing and packing plant in his home state Gujarat.
 

Delhi chief minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal today said that the party shall contest the 2022 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh. “In 2022, the AAP will contest Uttar Pradesh elections… A lot of people from Uttar Pradesh who live in Delhi have told us over the last few years that Uttar Pradesh too deserves good governance, welfare and benefits like Delhi,” said the chief minister in a video press briefing.

The Income Tax Department has detected tax evasion of more than Rs 700 crore after it recently raided multiple locations of Chennai-based Chettinad Group, the CBDT said on Tuesday.
 

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman convened a meeting of the Financial Stability and Development Council (FSDC) today to discuss about the state of the financial sector and revival strategy for the economy that has been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.

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1:49 AM

Saudi Arabia says 2020 budget deficit will surge to $79 billion amid pandemic

1:02 AM

Biden picks Buttigieg as transportation chief

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to pick former South Bend, Indiana, mayor Pete Buttigieg to head the transportation department, according to three people familiar with the plans.

 

Buttigieg, one of Biden's rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination, was a breakout star of the primaries, sharing victory in the nation's first caucus with Bernie Sanders. He suspended his campaign before Super Tuesday and endorsed Biden.

 

Biden has compared the 38-year-old Buttigieg to his late son, Beau.

 

"To me it's the highest compliment I can give any man or woman. And, like Beau, he has a backbone like a ramrod," Biden said during the March event, as Buttigieg stood behind him, bowing his head.

11:41 PM

US hits alleged Iran-backed Bahrain group with sanctions

The Trump administration on Tuesday slapped sanctions on an alleged Iranian-backed Shiite group in Bahrain that it accuses of trying to overthrow Bahrain's government and plotting terrorist attacks on Americans in the country, which is home to the US Navy's 5th Fleet.

 

The State and Treasury departments announced the sanctions as part of an administration-wide push to ramp up pressure on Iran before President Donald Trump leaves office next month.

 

The sanctions freeze any assets the Saraya al-Mukhtar group has within US jurisdictions and bar Americans from doing any business with it or its members.

10:56 PM

Govt considering reprinting some books written by Subhash Chandra Bose, starting fellowships for students to commemorate his 125th birth anniversary celebrations

9:56 PM

Maharashtra Assembly adjourned till March 1, 2021. The budget session will be held on the same date.

9:29 PM

Facebook, Twitter will face UK fines if they fail to limit harmful content

Facebook, Twitter and Chinese-owned TikTok face fines of up to 10 per cent of turnover if they fail to remove and limit the spread of illegal content such as child sexual abuse and terrorist material under laws proposed by Britain on Tuesday.

 

Tech platforms will also need to do more to protect children from being exposed to grooming, bullying and pornography, the government said.

 

"We are entering a new age of accountability for tech to protect children and vulnerable users, to restore trust in this industry, and to enshrine in law safeguards for free speech," Britain's Digital Secretary Oliver Dowden said.

 

Governments are wrestling over measures to better control illegal or dangerous content on social media, with the European Union set to unveil its own package on Tuesday.

9:05 PM

US court terminates $100 million lawsuit against PM Modi, Amit Shah

A US court has dismissed a USD 100-million lawsuit filed against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah after the litigants - a separatist Kashmir Khalistan outfit and two associates - failed to appear before it at two scheduled hearings.

 

The suit was filed on September 19, 2019, days before Modi's historic "Howdy, Modi!" event in Houston, Texas. It challenged the Indian Parliament's decision on Jammu and Kashmir that abrogated the special privileges of the state and carved out two union territories and sought a compensation of USD 100 million from Modi, Shah and Lt. Gen. Kanwal Jeet Singh Dhillon.

 

Dhillon is currently serving as the Director-General Defence Intelligence Agency and Deputy Chief of Integrated Defence Staff under the Chief of Defence Staff. READ MORE...

8:51 PM

Exports dip 8.74% in Nov; trade deficit narrows to $9.87 billion: Govt data

8:39 PM

Gujarat mega energy park to attract Rs 1.5 trillion investment: PM Modi

The upcoming hybrid renewable energy park in Kutch district is expected to attract an investment of Rs 1,50,000 crore and create employment opportunities for 1 lakh people, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Tuesday. Modi, who was on a day-long visit of Gujarat, was speaking after virtually laying foundation stones for three big projects in Kutch district, which borders Pakistan, from a function at Dhordo village.

 

These projects are - a 30,000 megawatt capacity hybrid renewable energy park along the Indo-Pak border at Khavda, a desalination plant at Mandvi and a milk processing and packaging unit at Anjar.

 

The hybrid energy park, being touted as the biggest such facility in the world, will be capable of producing 30,000 megawatt, or 30 gigawatt, of electricity using both solar panels and wind farms installed at one place. Spread over 72,600 hectares of waste land, the first of its kind energy project is expected to play a major role in fulfilling India's vision of generating 450 gw (4,50,000 mw) of power by 2030.

8:26 PM

SC asks states to give Rs 2,000 per month for education of children restored with families

Observing that COVID-19 has affected normal life since March and children did not had the opportunity to attend classes, the Supreme Court on Tuesday directed all the states to provide Rs 2,000 a month for the education of each child who was in a child care institution (CCI) and has now been restored to his or her family during the pandemic.

 

The apex court was told that 2,27,518 children were in CCIs when the COVID-19 pandemic started and 1,45,788 have been restored with their families or guardians. Taking note of the plight of children who are residing in CCIs during pandemic period, the top court stressed on the need to provide them requisite infrastructure for education and said that states should ensure that required number of teachers are made available to teach them.

 

A bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao also said state governments should provide necessary infrastructure, including books and stationery, to CCIs for the online classes of children living there on the basis of recommendation from district child protection units within 30 days.

8:20 PM

PM Modi to light up ‘Swarnim Vijay Mashaal’ at National War Memorial in Delhi tomorrow

8:11 PM

Govt says no winter session due to Covid-19, plans Budget session early in January

The winter session of Parliament will not be held this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Budget session will be convened in January 2021, the government has conveyed to the opposition, a move slammed by the Congress as the "decimation of parliamentary democracy".

 

In a letter to leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said, "Winter months are very crucial for managing the pandemic because of recent spurt in cases during this period, particularly in Delhi. At present, we are in the middle of December and a covid vaccine is expected very soon."

 

The minister said he had informally contacted floor leaders of various political parties and "they have expressed their concerns about the ongoing pandemic and opined of doing away with winter session". READ ON...

 

7:53 PM

Govt trying to create five crore jobs in next 5 years: Nitin Gadkari

Union Road Transport and Highways and MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari said on Tuesday that the government is trying to create five crore jobs in the next five years. He said that the turnover of rural industries is Rs 80,000 crore, which is targeted to be Rs 5 lakh crore in the next five years. For this, work is going on in a planned way in agriculture and rural areas.

 

The Union Minister was speaking at the Agri-Food Processing Summit organised by the Agrovision Foundation through virtual medium. On this occasion, he said that the Central government's schemes will create employment opportunities in agriculture and food processing in the near future.

 

Referring to the bumper production of food grains in the country, Gadkari said that India has 280 lakh tonne of rice, which we can supply to the world markets. He said that a Rs 2 lakh crore economy in the agriculture sector will be made up of ethanol, out of which Rs 1 lakh crore will go into the pockets of farmers. The programme, organised through virtual medium, was attended by Union Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Rural Development, Panchayat Raj and Food Processing Industries Minister Narendra Singh Tomar as the chief guest. READ ON...

7:15 PM

India Post Payments Bank launches its digital payments’ services ‘DakPay'

6:48 PM

Tata Sons must seek NCLT nod for conversion to pvt firm: Mistry to SC

Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata group, must apply to the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) for conversion into a private company as per the Companies Act of 2013, the Mistry family argued before the Supreme Court today.

 

“After the new Companies Act of 2013 came into force, if a public company wants to become a private company then it must apply to the NCLT for reconversion to private company,” C A Sundaram, the counsel for Mistry family, told the court today. As Tata Sons had become a deemed public company, then it should follow the procedure for reconversion, he argued.

 

"There is no provision under the Companies Act for such conversion overnight. Article 121 was being interpreted in a way that it went beyond the scope of Companies Act 2013. By the stroke of a pen at midnight, when the application of stay was filed in the NCLT, the name "private" was added before the name," he said. READ ON...