6 daily for 2020-21 — way more than their counterparts in more developed states like Gujarat and Maharashtra and over double the national average. While the national average is Rs 315.3, in Maharashtra, considered as the most industrialised state and a leading producer of farm products, a rural worker earns just Rs 262.3, while rural wages in Gujarat this year stood at Rs 239.3.

https://www.inexp.in/97NVAI

⌛ *And Finally...*

It was only by chance that India’s prodigious talent, Vivek Sagar Prasad, got introduced to hockey. It all started at a ground near his house in Itarsi. Prasad reached the ground one evening to play cricket, but a local hockey team was falling short of one player. The rest, as they say, is history. Since then, he has led India to a Youth Olympics silver, won a bronze medal at the Olympics, and has been named as International Hockey Federation’s rising star twice.

https://www.inexp.in/khjyiy

Delhi confidential: Union Minister Bhupender Yadav, who was in charge of several key states as party general secretary, has co-authored a book — ‘The Rise of the BJP: The Making of the World’s Largest Political Party’ — with economist Ila Patnaik. The book tracks the BJP’s birth, its journey as a successor of the Jana Sangh, and how it pursued the idea of cultural nationalism.

https://www.inexp.in/NP1t47

In today’s episode of ‘3 Things’, we discuss why 12 Rajya Sabha MPs have been suspended, how the government is refusing to answer a question regarding farmers’ protests, and Twitter's new CEO.

https://www.inexp.in/MKMesg

Until tomorrow,

Leela Prasad G and Rahel Philipose

🔍Explained: How will Twitter’s new private info policy tweak work

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🔍Explained: Omicron cryptocurrency price shoots up 10 times in two days, here is why

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🔍Explained: Why Moderna CEO’s comments on vaccine effectiveness against Omicron has raised fresh worries

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🔍Explained: Why India may not resume commercial International flights

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🔍Explained: Why Moderna CEO’s comments on vaccine effectiveness against Omicron has raised fresh worries

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🔍Explained: Why India may not resume commercial International flights

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🔍Explained: Why has Centre asked Maharashtra to revise guidelines for international travellers?

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🔍Explained: GST collection surges in November, what it means

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🔍Explained: The gold mirrors of the James Webb Space Telescope

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UPSC CSE Key – December 1, 2021: Here’s what you need to read today

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🔍Explained: Bengaluru auto fare hike and how it will impact commuters

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🔍Common entrance test for central varsities: plan, criticism

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🔍Sudha Bharadwaj bail: how HC spelt out limitations of sessions court

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🔍The rise and fall of the UPA

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🔍Telling Numbers: Changing monsoon patterns over 30 years, and 2021 trends

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☕ *Your Expresso is ready*

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Read this briefing in a single page: https://indianexpress.com/article/live-news/top-news-briefing-today-7651835/

Good morning,

🚨 *The Big Story*

“What UPA? There is no UPA now..."

That was Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee responding to questions from the media after her meeting with NCP chief Sharad Pawar. She also took a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi when she said: “You can’t be abroad most of the time." Banerjee, who was once part of the UPA (United Progressive Alliance), also stressed that it will be “very easy to defeat the BJP” if “all regional parties are together”.

https://www.inexp.in/ytaAae

Bonus read: We explain how political exigencies led to the formation of the UPA and the many challenges it faced including arm-twisting by some allies, desertion of many constituents between 2004 and 2014

https://www.inexp.in/n2hMN6

⚡ *Only in the Express*

A kitchen store-room, an office that cannot be traced, a plaque and little else, a rented hall that was once a godown, the list goes on. Of as many as 16 centres for research that the five-year-old Mahatma Gandhi Central University (MGCU) in Motihari, Bihar, has launched during the pandemic lockdown only two have the approval of statutory bodies.

https://www.inexp.in/rWgBQ2

📰 *From the Front Page*

The prime accused in the lynching of AASU leader Animesh Bhuyan died allegedly in a road accident while trying to flee police custody. Niraj Das was among the 13 arrested, including his father and brother, after Bhuyan was beaten to death on a busy street in Jorhat town. Soon after the incident, Special DG G P Singh, appointed by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to personally supervise the inquiry into Bhuyan’s killing, tweeted: “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction – Newton’s Third Law.”

https://www.inexp.in/K-fkng

“The unprecedented scale and spread of anti-Muslim violence in Gujarat in 2002 took place under which government?”

This was one of the questions that appeared in the CBSE's Sociology test in the Term 1 Board Exams for Class 12. Options offered to the multiple-choice question were: “Congress”, “BJP”, “Democratic” and “Republican”. The Board apologised for it, called it “inappropriate”, and promised “strict action” against “responsible persons”.

https://www.inexp.in/K-fkng

The Bombay High Court granted default bail to lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj, an accused in the Elgar Parishad case, but rejected the pleas of eight others who had applied for bail on similar grounds. She is the first among 16 activists and academicians arrested in the case to have been granted default bail. Poet-activist Varavara Rao is currently out on medical bail. Jesuit priest Stan Swamy died in a private hospital on July 5 this year, while waiting for medical bail.

https://www.inexp.in/FdvXzP

👩‍💻 *Must Read*

For a chilling 66 hours, four residents of Jharkhand’s Tilataand village in Bokaro found themselves trapped inside a discarded coal mine after one of its entrances collapsed. “For two days, we remained at the same spot because we could still hear the stones falling above…Then, we felt the air coming in from somewhere, which lifted our hopes,” Anadi Singh, one of the four, recalled. On Monday morning, the residents of Tilataand were shocked to see the four men emerge near a temple about 3 km from where they had entered.

https://www.inexp.in/e9l3F5

In a first for the Madhya Pradesh police, a woman constable has been allowed to undergo a gender reassignment surgery. The 30-year-old constable had moved an application for sex reassignment operation in 2019 after undergoing the required psychological and biological tests, police said. She is likely to undergo the sex reassignment surgery at AIIMs in Delhi.

https://www.inexp.in/6qUeCn

Funds released under the Poshan Abhiyan Programme stand severely under-utilised, according to data released by the Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry. Of the Rs 5,31,279.

08 lakh released for the programme, which is aimed at curbing malnutrition in the country, only Rs 2,98,555.92 lakh has been utilised. A closer look at state-wise spending shows that while West Bengal hasn’t utilised any of the funds allotted to it, UP has spent only a small fraction.

https://www.inexp.in/SMa24h

⌛ *And Finally...*

“I am still dealing with it. It’s still in the process.” It’s been four months since shooting ace Manu Bhaker returned from the Tokyo Olympics, where a spot in the finals eluded her in the three events she took part in. But the 19-year-old, who was considered a favourite to medal at the Games, is yet to overcome the demons of the Tokyo disappointment.

https://www.inexp.in/8WUGfc

In today’s episode of ‘3 things’, we discuss the big takeaways from India’s Q2 GDP data, the Centre’s revised guidelines after the discovery of the Omicronvariant of coronavirus, and the details of lawyer-activist Sudha Bhardwaj’s default bail.

https://www.inexp.in/Ga4tPu

Until tomorrow,

Leela Prasad G and Rahel Philipose

🔍Explained: How do you say ‘Omicron’?

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🔍Explained: Why Thomas Piketty wants a global wealth tax on multimillionaires

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