(UNI) Reacting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement that the Government is contemplating to bring 99 per cent of goods at or under the 18 per cent Goods and Services Tax (GST) slab, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said “the Congress has jolted the PM from his deep slumber on the GST’.

‘’The Congress Party has finally jolted Narendra Modi Ji from his deep slumber on Gabbar Singh Tax. 

Though still drowsy, he now wants to implement what he had earlier called the Congress Party’s, “Grand Stupid Thought”. 

Better late then never Narendra Ji!,’’Rahul said in a tweet.

( UNI) Calcutta High Court today gave green signal to BJP to hold the rath yatra named “Save Democracy”, a major win for the state saffron party which fought out a legal battle for over a week to take out the rallies in several districts of West Bengal.
Laying down a set of conditions for the rallies, the single-bench judge Tapabrata Ckakraborty observed that the rallies must not cause any convenience to the public and must be peaceful in nature.
The bench also asked the police to be on alert to ensure safety when the rallies would be taken out and directed the saffron party to maintain peace during the yatra.
The BJP had filed an appeal before the court on Monday after the ruling Trinamool Congress denied it permission for the second time.

(UNI) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will be arriving India on a four-day visit on Friday, according to official sources here.
The dignitary will call on the President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhawan and later participate in the first meeting of the High Level Mechanism on People-to-People Exchanges.
There are possibilities of Signing of MOUs as well.
The meeting will be co-chaired by the External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Chinese counterpart.
The decision to establish the India-China High Level Mechanism on Cultural and People-to-People Exchanges was taken during the maiden Informal Summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Xi Jinping in Wuhan in April 2018.
“The High Level Mechanism reflects the desire on both sides to build greater synergies in the people-to-people ties between the two countries through enhanced exchanges in areas such as tourism, art, films, media, culture, sports and academic and youth exchanges,” a MEA source has said.

(UNI) Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar who was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in1984 anti-Sikh riots case on December 17, moved an application before the Delhi High Court on Thursday and sought 30 days’ time to surrender.

The court is likely to hear the matter on Friday. Senior advocate HS Phoolka, who has been fighting the case for the victims of the 1984 riots, said that they will oppose Sajjan Kumar’s application.

(UNI) Union Food Processing Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Thursday expressed the confidence that in coming years India will take the lead and become a torch-bearer in terms of providing technology and know how in food processing sector so that no Indian goes to bed without food.
“We have the potential to become the food factory of the world,” she said.

Speaking at the Platinum Jubilee Conference of the All-India Food Processors Association here which was inaugurated by President Ram Nath Kovind, Ms Badal said that in coming years India, China and Malaysia will hold the key to not only producing the maximum amount of food but also maximum mouths to feed in these countries.

(UNI) The Government introduced the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2018 which seeks to amend the Companies Act, 2013, in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley introduced the Bill that seeks to replace the Companies (Amendment) Ordinance, 2018 which was promulgated by President Ram Nath Kovind on November 2.

The Bill provides to amend clause (41) of section 2 of the Companies Act, 2013 so as to empower the Central Government to allow certain companies to have a different financial year instead of as determined by the Tribunal.

(UNI) Alleging that vested interests, including some occupying positions of authority in J&K, are trying to engineer a delay in Assembly elections, National Conference (NC) vice-president Omar Abdullah urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to commit his government to holding polls in the state.

‘Your government’s handling of J&K will be judged by whether Assembly elections are on time or not sir,’ Mr Abdullah, who is the former chief minister of the state, said.

New Delhi, Dec 20 (UNI) Taking a dim view of food wastage in a country like India “with undeniable inequalities in income and consumption’’, President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday said that it does not just pose economic questions but moral as well. Addressing the Platinum Jubilee Conference of All-India Food Processors Association here, he said while food wastage can easily be prevented by better and more rational food distribution, the issue of post-harvest wastage was still more pressing.

` A few years ago, a report by the Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology had estimated the value of such waste at almost Rs 100,000 crore. This is a tragedy,’’ he said.<br>“A majority of our agriculturalists are engaged in subsistence farming. Their produce is a source of sustenance for them. If it is damaged or destroyed because of inadequate storage or logistics, the livelihood of innocent families is hurt,’’ he pointed out.

Union Minister for States for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju on Tuesday said that the National Citizen Register (NRC) is to identify foreigners in Assam not for Indians.
Speaking at India Today conclave, Mr Rijiju said that the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath is imposing NRC in Madhya Pradesh.
He was referring to Kamalnath’s statement that people from Bihar and Uttar-Pradesh get employement in Madhya Pradesh at the cost of locals.
Nath told reporters after taking office on Monday that his government will provide incentives to industries that gives 70 percent of their jobs to those from Madhya Pradesh.

(UNI) Responding to those labelling him as the ‘silent Prime Minister’, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday stated that he had never been afraid of speaking to the press although he did not brag about his goals are his achievements as the Prime Minister.

Speaking at the launch of his book, “Changing India’ published by Oxford University Press, Dr Singh said,“People say I was a silent Prime Minister. I think these volumes (of his book ‘Changing India’) speak for themselves. I don’t want to boast about my goals or my achievements as Prime Minister. But the events that took place are well described in these volumes, particularly the volumes which deal with the Prime Minister’s speeches. ‘

He further said that “I was not the Prime Minister who was afraid of talking to the press. I met the press regularly and on every foreign trip I had a press conference on return in the plane or immediately after landing”.

‘Changing India’ is a collection of Dr Singh’s writings, speeches and the journey to public life, in five volumes.

(UNI) The Lok Sabha on Wednesday passed the Bill which permits surrogacy only for couples who cannot conceive a child whereby prohibiting commercial surrogacy, and allowing altruistic surrogacy.

Congratulating members for supporting the Bill, Health Minister J P Nadda said despite the ruckus, a quality debate had taken place and this shows the concern of the members.

Despite the din, among others Supriya Sule (NCP), B Mahtab (BJD) , Kakoli Ghosh Dastidaar (Trinamool Congress), Nishikant Dubey (BJP) and N K Premachandran (RSP) debated the Bill and shared their views.

The Minister said, ‘The Bill protects the dignity of women and children. It rejects commercial surrogacy totally and at the same time , the intention is to save the family.’

The Bill has been brought to regulate the surrogacy process so that couples without children can use medical science and extend family, he said.

(UNI) A bust of Mahatma Gandhi has been unveiled at the Auguste-Viktoria-Gymansium, one of the oldest schools in the German city of Trier, as part of the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi.
Ambassador of India to Germany, Mukta Dutta Tomar, who unveiled the bust with Lord Mayor of Trier, Wolfram Leibe last week, highlighted the significance and relevance of the principle of non-violence to achieve peace, tolerance and understanding in the contemporary world.
She reminded about the continuing relevance of Gandhian thoughts on sustainable living and appreciation for natural resources and his teaching that “The earth, the air, the land and the water are not an inheritance from our fore fathers but on loan from our children. So we have to handover to them at least as it was handed over to us.”

(UNI) An adolescent star in the midst of a dramatic growth phase has been observed with the help of two NASA space telescopes.
The youngster belongs to a class of stars that gain mass when matter swirling around the star falls onto its surface, NASA said in an official statement on Wednesday.
The star belongs to a class of fitful stars known as FU Ori’s, named after the original member of the group, FU Orionis (the capital letters represent a naming scheme for variable stars, and Orionis refers to its location in the Orion constellation).
The in-falling matter causes the star to appear about 100 times brighter.
Typically, these stars, which are less than a few million years old, are hidden behind thick clouds of dust and hard to observe. This new object is only the 25th member of this class found to date and one of only about a dozen caught in the act of an outburst.
The new findings shed light on some long-standing mysteries surrounding the evolution of young stars, including how they acquire all of their mass. This rarely observed outbursting behavior could be common but might typically be hidden from our view by thick clouds of dust.

ISRO Scientists at the Mission Control Centre, including its
Chairman Dr K Sivan, were watching the course of the flight
with bated breath. About 19 minutes after lift off, the 2,250 kg GSAT-7A would
get separated from the launch vehicle and injected into the
orbit. This was a record seventh mission for ISRO in 2018.
This is the seventh flight of the GSLV Mk-II with indigenous
cryogenic stage and the third successive successful GSLV
mission this year.

Each new stage of London’s hysteria over alleged threat coming from Russia coincides with aggravation in the Brexit process, Alexander Venediktov, an aide to the Russian Security Council secretary, said in an interview with Sputnik.
“The UK-related example is an illustrative one. Each new stage of hysteria over alleged Russian threat coincides with aggravation of crisis related to the painful Brexit process. This is already a system, a smoothly running and predictable one,” Venediktov said.
The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union in a referendum in June 2016 and is expected to do so by late March 2019.
On December 11, UK Prime Minister Theresa May postponed the vote on her Brexit deal with the European Union, which led to a vote of no confidence against May later in the week. Though she won the vote 200 to 117, the future of Brexit deal is not yet decided and no-deal Brexit also remains possible.

(UNI) Amid the differing voices in the opposition over DMK president M K Stalin proposing Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the PM candidate for the 2019 elections, Congress leader Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said the decision on the top post would be taken by the UPA after the elections.
He, however, added that Mr Gandhi is “100 per cent” ready to be India’s prime minister”.
Speaking at the ‘Agenda Aaj tak 2018’, Scindia said,’’Rahul is 100 per cent ready to be PM. However, it is the UPA that will choose PM candidate.’’
When asked whether he was unhappy on not being chosen as Chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, Scindia, who was one of the contenders for the post, said he never wanted the post, and that he just wanted the Congress to win.
‘’I did not want the post of MP Chief minister . Just wanted Congress to win,’’Mr Scindia said.
The Guna MP said the Congress’ surge in the Hindi heartland in the assembly elections marks Rahul Gandhi’s first major success as party president. 

(UNI) The Meghalaya Human Rights Commission (MHRC) has filed a Sou Moto case against the Meghalaya government for compensation of 14 miners trapped in the illegal coal mine in East Jaintia Hills district, an official said on Wednesday.

On the other hand, the fate of 14 miners, who were trapped inside the 370 feet deep coal mine now for the last one week, remains unknown, even as rescuers from National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force are making all efforts to evacuate the trapped miners.

‘The State Human Rights Commission has issued a notice to the Chief Secretary Y Tsering to cause an effective enquiry to be conducted into the entire matter and submit the detailed report thereof so as to reach the same before the State Commission within 30 of receipt of this notice,” MHRC Secretary, Aldous Mawlong said.