1. Citizenship Amended
Parliament on Wednesday passed a bill granting citizenship to religious minorities from three Muslim-majority countries in India’s neighbourhood, as the government rushed troops to the North-east to contain protesters who went on a rampage against the controversial legislation that opposition parties called divisive and unconstitutional.
After a seven-hour debate, the Rajya Sabha passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, or CAB, 125-99. The Lok Sabha had cleared the bill shortly after midnight on Tuesday, 334-106. It will become law once President Ram Nath Kovind formally gives his assent to the bill.
(Source: Hindustan Times)
2. Assam Burns Over Citizenship Bill; Guwahati Under Indefinite Curfew
Guwahati, the epicentre of anti-CAB protests, was placed under indefinite curfew while Army was asked to be on standby in Assam and Assam Rifles personnel were deployed in Tripura on Wednesday as the two northeastern states plunged into chaos over the hugely emotive Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, officials said.
A Defence spokesman had earlier said in a statement in Shillong that two columns of the Army were deployed in Tripura.
(Source: The Tribune)
3. Nanavati Gives Gujarat Govt Clean Chit in 2002 Riots
The final report of the Commission of Inquiry headed by retired Supreme Court judge, Justice GT Nanavati, probing the Godhra train burning incident of February 2002 that left 59 ‘kar sevaks’ dead, the subsequent communal riots that broke out in Gujarat over the following three months, and the role of the then chief minister Narendra Modi, along with other ministers and the police, was tabled in the state assembly on Wednesday, and found no pre-meditation or conspiracy in the riots that left over 1,200 people dead.
Giving a clean chit to the current prime minister, the 2500-page, nine-volume report stated: “There is no evidence to show that these attacks were either inspired or instigated by any minister of the state.”
(Source: Hindustan Times)
4. Lok Sabha Refers Data Protection Bill to Joint House Panel
Amid criticism that privacy provisions had been diluted, the personal data protection bill was referred to a joint select committee of Parliament soon after it was introduced with communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad moving a resolution which was passed by voice vote.
The panel will have 20 members from Lok Sabha and 10 from Rajya Sabha. The Upper House will provide names of members.
(Source: The Times of India)
5. SC Proposes Retired Judge for Probe Into Hyderabad Encounter
The Supreme Court on Wednesday proposed to appoint a retired judge of the top court to conduct an independent probe into the alleged fake encounter of four men accused of raping and murdering a woman in Hyderabad.
A Bench headed by CJI SA Bobde asked the Telangana government and others to suggest a former judge's name and posted the matter for further hearing on Thursday.
(Source: The Tribune)
6. SC to Take Up Ayodhya Review Peititons Today
The Supreme Court will on Thursday take up in a chamber a batch of review petitions seeking re-examination of its November 9 Ayodhya verdict which gave the Janambhhomi-Babri site for construction of Ram temple and ordered that five acres be allotted to Sunni Qaqf Board elsewhere in Ayodhya for construction of a mosque.
Eighteen review petitions have so far been filed in the apex court of which eight were filed by those who were parties in the Ayodhya land title dispute case and rest by third parties who were not involved in the decades-old legal battle.
(Source: The Times of India)
8. Mumbai 26/11 Attack Mastermind Hafiz Saeed Charged by Pak Court With Terror Financing
A Pakistani court on Wednesday indicted Islamist militant Hafiz Saeed, the alleged mastermind of deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai, on terror financing charges, a government prosecutor said.
The charges were read as Saeed was present in the court, Abdur Rauf told Reuters.
(Source: The Asian Age)
8. Slowdown a Correction, Liquidity Problem Behind Us: Tata Sons Chairman
The current economic slowdown that India is witnessing is a “correction process” as the country has seen “excesses”, Tata Sons Chairman N Chandrasekaran said at the Express Adda on Tuesday. He, however, said that India is taking “too long” to correct these excesses.
“According to me, what we are going through is also a correction process. We have had excesses. I am not blaming anybody. These excesses have to be corrected. The only thing is we are taking too long to correct it. If so much of NPA (non-performing assets) is there, the fact is it is there. It has accumulated in front of our eyes. So this correction has to happen, but it has to happen fast,” said Chandrasekaran. “The slowdown is real, but I am optimistic about India,” he said.
(Source: The Indian Express)
9. Real Rural Wages Plunge 3.8% in September
Real rural wages growth has fallen to an all-time-low of minus 3.8% in September, further confirming the deep structural slowdown in ‘Bharat’ that is also evidenced in sluggish fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and two-wheeler sales.
The daily wage rate in rural India for male workers across 25 occupations (12 agricultural and 13 non-agricultural) averaged Rs 331.29 during September, as per field data compiled by the Labour Bureau.
(Source: The Indian Express)
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