Author: Samikhsya Bureau

(Xinhua) British Prime Minister Theresa May on Wednesday won by a large margin a confidence vote by her fellow Conservative members of parliament.
The prime minister won the secret vote, which started at 1800 GMT and ended two hours later, with 200 out of 317 Tory MPs supporting her to stay on as the party leader.
“The result of the vote is that the parliamentary party does have the confidence in the prime minister,” Graham Brady announced the result. Brady was head of the so-called 1922 Committee which organized the vote after reaching required threshold that 48 Tory MPs called in their letters for the ballot to be held.
An applause erupted in the hall upon the vote outcome.

(UNI) Robert Vadra, businessman and brother-in-law of Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that he is not fleeing the country and he is cooperating with the investigation, however adding that he will not allow his name to be used for political blackmail.

“I am an Indian citizen and we are not above the law. I am not running away or going to live in some other country. We have always maintained that we will cooperate. But will not allow my name to be used for political blackmail”, said the 49 year old businessman who is married to UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) last week raided Mr Vadra’s offices and houses of two of his associates in connection with the alleged forgery and corruption related to a land deal in Bikaner, Rajasthan.

Mr Vadhra said the charges against him are totally false and politically motivated and added that while he is cooperating with the investigation, the process should be fair and legal.

He also said that the investigation agencies did not follow the legal procedure though he had submitted all the documents, and his family is under stress due to this.

(UNI) Mahindra Electric, the electric vehicle and e-mobility arm of the Mahindra Group, on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with home-grown electric vehicle fleet operator SmartE to introduce first 1,000 Mahindra Treo and Treo Yaari electric three wheelers in Delhi-NCR by March next year.
Besides, Mahindra Electric is also mulling to deploy a total of 10,000 Mahindra electric three-wheelers across the country by 2020.
Speaking on the occasion, Mahesh Babu, CEO, Mahindra Electric, said, ?As the pioneers of electric mobility, we are happy to join forces with SmartE to accelerate the adoption of electric mobility. India is witnessing rapid urbanisation and metros are driving the multi-modal mobility needs of the large working population in urban cities. Associations with partners such as SmartE will make it easier to adopt electric mobility and enable our cities to be more environment friendly.?
“As a pioneer in the electric mobility service space, SmartE plans to roll out 100,000 vehicles by 2022. We believe Mahindra Electric’s solutions will play a critical role in our growth strategy”, said Co-Founder and CEO, Goldie Srivastava, Smart E.

Tianjin, Dec 12 (Xinhua) Striking Chinese gongs for 50 years, Liu Zibin, a 70-year-old folk artist in northern China’s Tianjin Municipality, is eager to introduce the traditional musical instrument used in Chinese opera to more people.
Liu became addicted to Chinese opera in his childhood when his grandfather frequently took him to watch performances.
At the age of 13, he joined Hebei Bangzi Opera training team.
Hebei Bangzi Opera is one of the oldest types of Chinese opera in northern China, which became popular in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Like Peking Opera, it is a traditional Chinese opera combining music, vocals, dance and acrobatics.
“It took me hours to practice the basic skills of gongs,” he said. “This round piece of metal can help performers on the stage to express joy and sorrow when hit by a stick with different rhythms, so I must bear in mind all kinds of rhythms for various situations.”

(UNI)UK Prime Minister May to face Vote of Confidence Wednesday:Statement
Moscow, Dec 12 (UNI) UK Prime Minister Theresa May will face a vote of confidence in her leadership of the Conservative Party on Wednesday night after the 15-percent threshold necessary for the ballot has been exceeded amid the delay on the Brexit deal vote, according to a statement of Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee.
On Monday, May said she was delaying the vote on the Brexit deal in the House of Commons, originally slated for Tuesday, amid lawmakers’ concerns over the Irish border backstop, Sputnik news said in a report.
“The threshold of 15% of the parliamentary party seeking a vote of confidence in the leader of the Conservative Party has been exceeded. In accordance with the rules, a ballot will be held between 1800 and 2000 on Wednesday 12th December in committee room 14 of the House of Commons. The votes will be counted immediately afterwards and an announcement will be made as soon as possible in the evening,” the statement said.
May will lose her position if 158 out of 315 Conservative lawmakers vote against her later on Wednesday.
A number of Conservative lawmakers have rushed to express their support for the prime minister. Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Home Secretary Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Amber Rudd, and Chairman of the Conservatives Brandon Lewis, as well as several others have publicly backed May.
Several lawmakers, including Jacob Rees-Mogg, the chairman of the Conservatives’ strongly pro-Brexit European Research Group, called for a confidence vote back in November, when the government unveiled its latest draft of the Brexit agreement. However, no vote took place at that time, and the deal went on to be endorsed by the European Union.
The draft agreement was still facing a barrage of criticism in the Commons, whose approval it requires, from the opposition and some of the Conservatives alike.

On Tuesday, several opposition parties told Labour in a letter that they would back the official opposition should they bring forward a motion of no confidence in the government.

(UNI) Mahindra Electric, the electric vehicle and e-mobility arm of the Mahindra Group, on Wednesday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with home-grown electric vehicle fleet operator SmartE to introduce first 1,000 Mahindra Treo and Treo Yaari electric three wheelers in Delhi-NCR by March next year.
Besides, Mahindra Electric is also mulling to deploy a total of 10,000 Mahindra electric three-wheelers across the country by 2020.
Speaking on the occasion, Mahesh Babu, CEO, Mahindra Electric, said, ?As the pioneers of electric mobility, we are happy to join forces with SmartE to accelerate the adoption of electric mobility. India is witnessing rapid urbanisation and metros are driving the multi-modal mobility needs of the large working population in urban cities. Associations with partners such as SmartE will make it easier to adopt electric mobility and enable our cities to be more environment friendly.?
“As a pioneer in the electric mobility service space, SmartE plans to roll out 100,000 vehicles by 2022. We believe Mahindra Electric’s solutions will play a critical role in our growth strategy”, said Co-Founder and CEO, Goldie Srivastava, Smart E.

Tianjin, Dec 12 (Xinhua) Striking Chinese gongs for 50 years, Liu Zibin, a 70-year-old folk artist in northern China’s Tianjin Municipality, is eager to introduce the traditional musical instrument used in Chinese opera to more people.
Liu became addicted to Chinese opera in his childhood when his grandfather frequently took him to watch performances.
At the age of 13, he joined Hebei Bangzi Opera training team.
Hebei Bangzi Opera is one of the oldest types of Chinese opera in northern China, which became popular in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). Like Peking Opera, it is a traditional Chinese opera combining music, vocals, dance and acrobatics.
“It took me hours to practice the basic skills of gongs,” he said. “This round piece of metal can help performers on the stage to express joy and sorrow when hit by a stick with different rhythms, so I must bear in mind all kinds of rhythms for various situations.”

(UNI) Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday raised concern over the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and said it must be addressed.

The Congress has managed to win Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh comfortably and is all set to form its government in these two states. However, in Madhya Pradesh it requires support from other parties being short of few seats.

On a question about EVMs, Mr Gandhi said, “As far as the EVMs are concerned, there is a generic issues. If the people in the country are uncomfortable with the EVM, then it’s a big issue which needs to be addressed.”

In earlier elections, the Congress party had consistently attacked the BJP over alleged ‘manipulation’ of the EVMs, after it faced debacles.

He also said the chip available in the EVMs can be easily manipulated.

“But the central issue of EVM is still there, if the chip is manipulated you can affect the entire voting system, that’s not possible with manual voting. This is a question that has been answered in the US and other countries, where they’ve said that we don’t want an EVM,” he added.

He also launched a blistering attack on the saffron outfit and said, “The BJP has one ideology. We have defeated them today and we will defeat them in 2019 also.”

He also said unlike BJP, the Congress will not give a call for BJP-free India.

( UNI) Scientists from the Feldman Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the Academic University of Pavlov Medical have developed a drug useful in the treatment of mental illnesses, including schizophrenia and mania.
According to a report in TASS news, a contributor to the new drug Elia Sukhnov said that scientists have developed a substance that affects nerve communication.
“When lab mice were injected with this drug, TAAR1 receptors were activated in the central nervous system, which affected signal transmission between neurons in the brain,” he added.
Scientists confirm that the pharmaceutical formula enables the production of tablets for the treatment of mental disorders and is a new way to treat schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia affects more than 21 million people worldwide and is characterized by a disorder of thought, cognition, emotions, language, behavior, etc.

(UNI) Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has launched Parliament Digital Library website. ”As an initiative towards e-Parliament, a website of ”Parliament Digital Library” has been developed at eparlib.nic.in,” Lok Sabha Secretariat said in a statement on Wednesday.

The website was formally launched on December 11 by the Speaker, the statement said.
It contains several parliamentary documents, including Lok Sabha debates and various Parliamentary Committee Reports since 1952. The portal also has historic legislative debates of the Indian Legislative Council, Central Legislative Assembly, Council of State, Constituent Assembly and Provisional Parliament. The portal is user-friendly and acts as a search engine.

(UNI) In a record seventh mission in 2018, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was all set to launch the 2,250 kg operational communication satellite GSAT-7A using GSLV-F11 from the spaceport of Sriharikota on December 19. In its 13th flight, the 50 m tall GSLV-F11 will lift off from the Second  Launch Pad (SLP) at Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR Range, Sriharikota, and inject GSAT-7A into a Geosynchronous Transfer

(UNI) Following were the indicative currency rates and travellers’ cheques buying and selling rates per unit.
CURRENCY NAME BUY SALE
UAE DIRHAM 18.2482 21.1892
AUSTRALIAN DOLLAR 48.5424 55.023
BANGLADESH TAKA 0.789857 1.224398
BAHRAIN DINAR 178.0577 203.1757
CANADIAN DOLLAR 49.7287 57.1153
SWISS FRANC 67.5756 77.6541
CHINESE YUAN 7.44 12.33
DANISH KRONE 9.9812 11.8903
EURO 76.3795 86.4709
STERLING POUND 84.3276 95.4466
HONG KONG DOLLAR 8.3477 10.2633
JAPANESE YEN 0.5917 0.6782
KUWAITI DINAR 196.7053 244.4097
SRI LANKA RUPEE 0.3218 0.4837
MALAYSIAN RINGITT 15.402 19.123
NORWEGIAN KRONE 7.6145 9.1565
NEPALESE RUPEE 0.5749 0.6251
NEW ZEALAND DOLLAR 45.3053 53.3085
OMANI RIAL 174.233899 199.375061
PAKISTAN RUPEE 0.4704 0.7648
SAUDI RIAL 17.8285 20.9962
SWEDISH KRONA 7.1464 8.6352
SINGAPORE DOLLAR 48.0562 56.8916
THAI BAHT 2.0253 2.3975
US DOLLAR 67.4135 76.4005
SOUTH AFRICAN RAND 4.3871 5.5434

(UNI) The newly elected Congress Legislature Party (CLP) at its first meeting here on Wednesday adopted a resolution to authorise the party high command for choosing it’s leader to become the next Chief Minister of Rajasthan.

The one liner moved by AICC general secretary and former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot was adopted at the first session of the meeting after seeking views of all newly legislators. AUCC state incharge general secretary Avinash Pandey and observer K C Venugopal were present.

Mumbai cops have gone at winning hearts by some creative contents through the social media. Taking up current topics through memes that the Maximum city came up features two characters from Rudyard Kipling’s ‘the jungle book’ like Mowgli etc conveying the messages over fighting drugs and it was an instant success.

(UNI) Tamil Superstar Rajinikanth on Wednesday turned 69. It might be a low key celebration for his fans, but they were not complaining as they have enough reasons to rejoice as the teaser of actor’s upcoming film ‘Petta’ was released in the social media and as expected it went viral immediately. Leaders of various political parties, including DMK Chief M K Stalin, BJP Tamil Nadu unit President Ms Tamilisai Soundararajan, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan and film personalities, including his good friend Kamal Haasan, Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar greeted Rajinikanth on
the occasion.

(UNI) The Lok Sabha was adjourned till noon due to protests by Congress members demanding JPC on Rafale deal and also for construction of Ram Temple and Cauvery issue by Shiv Sena and AIADMM members.

Among Congress members, Sushmita Dev and others trooped into the well of the House. The Congress party is likely to gear up attack against the government on Rafale aircraft deal row.

Lok Sabha was adjourned till 12 noon after ruckus over Ram Temple and Cauvery farmers issues after the House made obituary references to the former members who breathed last during the inter session period.

The House could not take up the listed questions.

The House could function for only about 15 minutes during the Question Hour when the Speaker Sumitra Mahajan made obituary references in honour of former members including the likes of N D Tiwari, Gurudas Kamat, Madan Lal Khurana and C K Jaffer Sharief.

(UNI) Universal Health Coverage (UHC) Day, commemorated each December 12, is the anniversary of the first unanimous United Nations resolution calling for countries to provide affordable, quality health care to every person, everywhere.
The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals that all UN Member States have agreed to try to achieve Universal Health Coverage by 2030. This includes financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all.
To mark this day, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted, “Today is Universal Health Coverage Day. In #Bangla, healthcare is free at govt hospitals and health centres. We have also set up fair-price medicine shops and diagnostic centres, ICCUs, HDUs, CCUs, mother & child hubs and more. We are committed to the welfare of all.”
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), at least half of the world’s populations still do not have full coverage of essential health services. For World Health Day 2018, WHO calls on world leaders to take concrete steps
to move towards universal health coverage (UHC). This means ensuring that everyone, everywhere can access quality health services without facing financial hardship, as set out in the Sustainable Development Goals all countries agreed in 2015.
Where health systems fail to provide adequate financial protection, people are forced to choose between health care and other basic needs. This undermines access to services, lowers health status, deepens poverty and exacerbates inequalities.
UHC means that all individuals and communities receive the health services they need without suffering financial hardship. It includes the full spectrum of essential, quality health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation,
and palliative care.
UHC enables everyone to access the services that address the most significant causes of disease and death, and ensures that the quality of those services is good enough to improve the health of the people who receive them.

(UNI) The BJP workers have been accused of attacking congress workers
when they were celebrating victory of congress in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and
Rajasthan and also allegedly setting fire on party offices of Congress and CPI (M) in
Charilam of Bishalgarh in Sepahijala district in West Tripura last night.
According to report, jubilant congress workers were gathered after confirmation of their
participation in by-election to urban local bodies in the evening and later brought out a
small procession in Charilam market celebrating their victory in three states. They rally
was allegedly attacked by BJP cadres and the congress supporters ran away. Later, the
miscreants set the party office on fire.
Followed by the incident, the miscreants set CPI(M) party office on fire at Charilam
bazaar in presence of civilians gathering and police. But nobody is arrested so far in
this connection with the incidents and tension continued in the locality.

(UNI) “Victory and defeat are an integral part of life”, tweeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the election results in five states and within hours after Congress president Rahul Gandhi had said that the mandate in the polls reflected people’s anguish against Mr Modi.
Prime Minister accepted people’s mandate “with humility” and took to the micro blogging site to say:
“We accept the people’s mandate with humility”.
“I thank the people of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan for giving us the opportunity to serve these states. The BJP Governments in these states worked tirelessly for the welfare of the people,” Mr Modi wrote.

He also congratulated the Congress and the TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao for convincing and “thumping win” in Telangana and also Mizo National Front (MNF) in Mizoram. While TRS has all along maintained anti-BJP, anti-Congress stance, MNF led by former Chief Minister Zoramthanga is a constituent of BJP-led NEDA in the northeast.

(UNI) As the Congress scored a win over the BJP in the Hindi heartland states of Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, political observers credited the victory to a shift in momentum in favour of the grand old party in relation to digital media strategy.

Those associated with the Congress social media campaigns during the campaigning for the assembly polls in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh said the win by the party was attributable to the successful social media campaigns run by the Congress.

‘’Congress Party’s compelling win in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh validates a major shift in momentum as far as election strategies are concerned, especially in relation to digital media campaigns,’’said Naresh Arora, political strategist and director of the Design Box, which conceived the party’s social media campaign in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.