🔍Quixplained: Why Omicron is high risk, what you should do

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🚨 *The Big Story*

As expected, day one of the Parliament winter session began on a stormy note, with the Opposition demanding a debate on issues raised by farmers protesting against the three new agriculture laws being withdrawn by the government. However, the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021, cleared the two Houses via voice votes without any discussion.

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Meanwhile, 12 Opposition MPs were suspended for alleged unruly conduct towards the end of the monsoon session in August (
https://www.inexp.in/BYL30O). With the issue deepening the political divide and threatening a washout of the entire winter session, backchannel talks were held between the government and the Opposition to find an amicable resolution, but there was no immediate headway. The Opposition is set to take a call on whether to boycott the session or take the fight to the government.

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⚡ *Only in the Express*

South Africa is seeing "very low hospitalisation" directly linked to the "highly transmissible" Omicron Covid variant, the country's health authorities have conveyed to top medical experts in India. Significantly, the South African experts have informed that Omicron has not resulted in any deaths, as of now. “So far, it only manifests in the form of mild disease with extreme fatigue and throat irritation being the predominant symptom,” sources said.

https://www.inexp.in/NDHMz4

📰 *From the Front Page*

The BJP in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar, the Lok Sabha constituency represented by Union Home Minister Amit Shah, is planning to host tournaments in cricket and kabaddi under the label Gandhinagar Loksabha Premier League 370, or GLPL 370, to “draw maximum number of youth to the party”, local leaders said. According to Ahmedabad city BJP unit general secretary Jitubhai Patel, the league is named after Article 370, “which was abrogated in 2019 under Amit Shah’s leadership”.

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A question by Congress Rajya Sabha member K C Venugopal to the Minister of External Affairs on whether NRIs living abroad were harassed at airports and sent back, and some even asked by authorities to stop helping the farmers’ agitation, was provisionally admitted and scheduled to be answered on December 2, but dropped from the final list of questions for the day.

When contacted, Venugopal told The Indian Express, “Earlier they used to give a clear reason for dropping a question but this time they have only conveyed it orally. Another question of mine on the Jallianwala Bagh renovation eroding its heritage was also dropped.”

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👩‍💻 *Must Read*

Even as PM Modi asserted that the government was willing to discuss all issues with an “open mind”, the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021, was passed in nine minutes in Rajya Sabha and three minutes in Lok Sabha — without any discussion. The BJP government has often faced criticism for rushing Bills. The last session saw 15 Bills — 14 in Lok Sabha and one in Rajya Sabha — being passed in less than 10 minutes, and 26 Bills in less than half-an-hour.

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Of the seven states headed into Assembly elections next year, Uttar Pradesh has the highest proportion of people who are multidimensionally poor, at 37.79 per cent of its total population, while Goa has the lowest ratio at 3.76 per cent. Of UP’s 71 districts, as many as 64 have Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) higher than the national average. In Gujarat, 9 of 26 districts fall in this category; in Manipur, 4 of 9; and in Uttarakhand, 1 (Almora) of 13. On the other hand, all the districts of Punjab (20), Himachal (12) and Goa (2) have lower MPI than the national average.

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The bodies of two Covid patients were discovered from an old mortuary building in a government-run hospital in Bengaluru, after about 500 days of their death.

At the time, Bengaluru was struggling to cope with the Covid spread amid rising cases and deaths. The bodies of those who died due to the virus were not handed over to families by the government.

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⌛ *And Finally...*

Under fire for a selfie with six women MPs, which he posted with the caption “who says the Lok Sabha isn’t an attractive place to work?”, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor received support from TMC MP Mahua Moitra on Monday. While many, including Supreme Court advocate Karuna Nundy, pointed out that Tharoor’s caption attempts to “reduce elected political leader to their looks”, Moitra tweeted that the criticism seeks to “detract attention from this non-attractive government’s decision to not allow a discussion on the farm Act repeal.”

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Until tomorrow,

Leela Prasad G

🔍Explained: Can an RT-PCR test detect infection with Omicron variant of Covid-19?

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🔍Quixplained: Why Omicron is high risk, what you should do

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Read this briefing in a single page: https://indianexpress.com/article/live-news/top-news-briefing-today-7649968/

Good morning,

🚨 *The Big Story*

Aided by increased vaccination and an uptick in agriculture, the country's economy clocked a healthy growth rate of 8.4 per cent in July-September, the second quarter of financial year 2021-22. The GDP was 0.33 per cent higher than the pre-pandemic levels of Q2, 2019-20, indicating the economy has recovered the ground lost due to Covid-19. Barring construction, all industry segments posted a higher output level than Q2, 2019-20.

https://www.inexp.in/DaovMU

⚡ *Only in the Express*

The Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), spearheading the protest by farmers, will meet today to decide the names of the five representatives for inclusion in a committee proposed by the Prime Minister to discuss issues like promotion of zero-budgeting farming and making MSP more “effective and transparent”. Meanwhile, two farm leaders said discussions should begin on "lifting the dharnas from the borders".

https://www.inexp.in/QKBdiB

📰 *From the Front Page*

With Opposition-ruled governments questioning the extension of the BSF jurisdiction to 50 km inside the international border, the Director General of the paramilitary force, Pankaj Kumar Singh, said the probable reason for the Centre’s decision was that “the demographic balance has been upset in border states like West Bengal and Assam over a period of time”. He said a survey done by the BSF pointed to “a definite demographic change”.

https://www.inexp.in/1w9iIx

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said his government will not provide free treatment to Covid-19 patients who have not been vaccinated. He added that government employees and teachers who have not been vaccinated, excluding those with a doctor's certificate, will need to undergo an RT-PCR test every week, for which they have to bear the expenses on their own.

https://www.inexp.in/Zmpb2g

With Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu refusing to revoke the suspension of 12 of their MPs, Opposition parties led by the Congress said they would continue their protests, and their members would not apologise or express any regret. However, a proposal to boycott the Parliament session was shelved as there was no unanimity on it. The suspended MPs will begin a sit-in in front of Gandhi statue in Parliament from today.

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👩‍💻 *Must Read*

During the question hour in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, several members asked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman about the upcoming Bill on cryptocurrencies and the proliferation of ads for digital money and related trading. Sitharaman assured the House that the government is studying the existing regulatory framework for advertisements to look at how to handle them.

https://www.inexp.in/qgpS9E


To make educational content for students “free of biases”, a Parliamentary committee on education called for a review of the manner in which Indian freedom fighters are portrayed in school history textbooks and recommended that “ancient wisdom and knowledge” from the Vedas should be incorporated in the school curriculum. The Indian History Congress strongly opposed the recommendations, stating that review of such content must involve “recognised scholars from all over the country and with adequate attention to the academic content.”

https://www.inexp.in/zxN9oR

Tightening its genome sequencing measures to ensure early detection of new variants, the Union Health Ministry has asked states to send “100 per cent samples'' from Covid hotspots, starting with two recent clusters in Karnataka’s Dharwad and Maharashtra’s Thane. In a high-level review meeting, states were advised to send “all positive samples'' for genome sequencing to designated INSACOG labs “in a prompt manner”.

https://www.inexp.in/NJg6Ie

According to RBI statistics, a rural worker in Kerala earned an average of Rs 677.