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The Centre on Monday called protesting farmers for a meeting on December 30 in Delhi to discuss the three contentious farm laws, after the farmers’ unions agreed to restart negotiations with the government in a bid to resolve the stalemate. The invite comes amid one of the largest strikes by the farmers’ unions on the borders of the national capital in decades to demand that the Centre revoke the three laws approved by Parliament in September. The three laws essentially change the way India’s farmers do business by creating free markets, as opposed to a network of decades-old, government marketplaces, allowing traders to stockpile essential commodities for future sales and laying down a national framework for contract farming.

India on Thursday said there has been no change with regard to the invitation to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to be the chief guest at next year’s Republic Day celebrations in the wake of the detection of a new and more infectious Covid-19 variant in the UK. UK foreign secretary Dominic Raab had announced the acceptance of India’s invitation to Johnson during a recent visit to New Delhi. Asked whether the spread of the new variant of coronavirus in the UK, which has already resulted in several countries restricting the entry of travellers from Britain, would affect the invitation to Johnson, ministry of external affairs spokesperson Anurag Srivastava said there had been no change. “We had invited the prime minister of the UK as chief guest of the Republic Day parade in 202...

Aries You begin the day with a strong desire to enjoy your spontaneous, expressive side, dear Aries. Today's transits tend to invite errors or delays in communication, however. Ideally, these things can lead to critical thinking or interesting detours. Some dissatisfaction can motivate you to make progress, but if you're nurturing tension instead of using it as fuel, you're likely to spin your wheels. It's probably best to focus on problem areas or to take a step back so that you can look at a situation or concern more objectively. Chances are, the problems can be fixed with a little patience or perspective. With today's transits, it's probably best to avoid stirring up controversy and putting others on the defensive. Instead, you might focus on doing some heavy digging on a more impe...

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held an all-party meeting on Covid-19 vaccination in the country, Maharashtra Cabinet Minister and NCP leader Nawab Malik has said that Covid-19 vaccine should be given free to every citizen of the country. Speaking to ANI, Malik said, “The Prime Minister held an all-party meeting and now they are saying State and Centre will decide the price, how can it be? In Bihar, they have given the assurance that vaccination will be free. We demand vaccine should be given to each Indian free of cost.” During an all-party meeting on Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi informed the opposition leaders that the Centre is in talks with all the state governments over the price of the vaccine and that the decision regarding the pricing will be taken keeping pu...

The US Treasury Department said on Saturday it has released $9.5 billion in additional funds from the Payroll Support Program to US air carriers, bringing to $12.4 billion the total provided to the airline sector hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic. In total, the government has disbursed grant funds to 10 major airlines and 83 smaller carriers. Congress approved $25 billion in grants for payroll assistance for passenger airlines. Treasury required major airlines receiving more than $100 million in assistance to repay 30% in low-interest loans over 10 years and issue warrants equal to 10% of the loan amount. Airlines must not cut pay or jobs through Sept. 30 as a condition of the grants and are barred from buying back stock or paying dividends and face restrictions on executiv...

Already delayed by over a year, the 10-kilometre Kharar-Chandigarh road expansion project that entails construction of two flyovers and three bridges is set to miss its deadline for the fifth time, with the National Highway Authority of India confirming that the work would not be completed before September 2020. The NHAI had handed over the ₹368-crore project to Larsen & Toubro, which began the construction in November 2015. It was to be completed by December 2018. However, in the past four years, only 68% work has been completed, and the deadline was shifted multiple times, only to leave motorists stuck in long traffic snarls on this busy national highway that connects Chandigarh to parts of Punjab besides Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Kharar remains a major bottleneck...

A panel of Union government secretaries has recommended a review of the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to make it applicable only to “deserving sections”. The NFSA, which came into force in 2013 during the second term of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), offers subsidized foodgrains to 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population. The NFSA covers nearly two-thirds of the total population at the all-India level. It caters to two categories of beneficiaries: Antodaya Anna Yojana (AAY) households and Priority Households. The scheme provides foodgrains of 5 kg per person in the Priority Households category and 35 kg per household to AAY beneficiaries at Rs 3 per kg of rice and Rs 2 per kg of wheat. The so-called Sectoral Group of Secretaries on agricul...

With the implementation of the Paris Agreement commitments beginning on January 1, 2021, India has increased the budgetary outlays for climate-mitigation action across sectors. During her budget speech in Parliament on Saturday, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the country’s commitments will be executed in various sectors “by the departments/ministries concerned through the normal budgeting process”. She added that Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI), launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, will aid climate change adaptation through disaster resilient infrastructure. “India submitted its Nationally Determined Contribution, under the Paris Agreement in 2015 on a ‘best effort’ basis, keeping in mind the development imperative of ...