Mr. Duarte Pacheco of Portugal has been elected the new President of Inter Parliamentary Union (IPU) for the period 2020-2023. Lok Sabha Speaker, Om Birla congratulated Mr. Pacheco for his election as President of IPU. Mr. Birla hoped that Mr. Pacheco’s belief in ideals of democracy, rule of law, consensus building and multilateralism would help in building a stronger and more focused Inter Parliamentary Union in sync with the changing times.
The election process to elect the new IPU President took place through remote electronic secret ballot, with a 24 hour window for casting votes. Earlier, the Governing Council of IPU, Geneva resumed its business during the 206th Session in virtual format.
Day: November 3, 2020
COVID-19 recovery rate in country reaches nearly 92 pct
Government today said that the country’s COVID-19 recovery rate has reached nearly 92 per cent. During the last 24 hours, more than 58 thousand COVID patients have been recovered. Health Ministry said, the total number of recoveries has gone up to over 76 lakh. The actual caseload currently comprises only 6.55 per cent of the total positive cases. Presently, the total number of active cases in the country is five lakh 41 thousand.
During the past 24 hours, 38 thousand 310 new cases were reported taking the total number of positive cases in the country to over 82 lakh. The Ministry said, that effective implementation of the strategic and graded Test, Track and Treat approach has led to higher recoveries and lower fatality. Currently, India’s Case Fatality Rate is at 1.49 per cent, which is one of the lowest globally. During the last 24 hours, 490 deaths were reported taking the toll to one lakh 23 thousand 97.
According to Indian Council of Medical Research, more than ten lakh 46 thousand tests were conducted during the last 24 hours. The total number of samples tested so far has reached 11 crore 17 lakh.
IPL: Delhi Capitals beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets
In IPL Cricket, Delhi Capitals beat Royal Challengers Bangalore by six wickets in Abu Dhabi last night to ensure a top-two finish for themselves and set up a clash against Mumbai Indians in Qualifier 1 on Thursday.
RCB will finish third or fourth depending upon the result of the match between Sun Risers Hyderabad and Mumbai Indians today. Both teams have, however, qualified for the playoffs.
Today, Sun Risers Hyderabad will take on Mumbai Indians in Sharjah.
US Secy of State condemns arrest of 8 pan-democratic politicians in Hong Kong
US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo has said that arrest of the eight lawmakers in Hong Kong is a clear abuse of law enforcement for political purposes. While condemning the incident Pompeo also said that the Hong Kong government’s attempts to stifle dissent are stark examples of its ongoing complicity with the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party. He said the United States strongly condemns the arrests of eight pan-democratic politicians in Hong Kong, including five sitting members of the Legislative Council. The arrest of these lawmakers six months after the incident in question is a clear abuse of law enforcement for political purposes.
Pompeo further said, the Hong Kong government’s harassment and intimidation of pro-democracy representatives and attempts to stifle dissent are stark examples of its ongoing complicity with the authoritarian Chinese Communist Party, which seeks to dismantle the promised autonomy of Hong Kong and eviscerate respect for human rights.
Till yesterday, in a fresh crackdown against anti-establishment leaders, the Hong Kong Police detained eight opposition activists, including five lawmakers.
Dept of Posts releases special cover to commemorate Golden Jubilee of DST
Science and Technology Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan and Minister of State for Posts Sanjay Dhotre today released the Special Cover of Department of Posts for commemorating the Golden Jubilee of Department of Science and Technology at a function in New Delhi today.
Dr Harsh Vardhan congratulated DST saying that scientists have proved their mettle in all fields of science at international level.
He revealed that India has international collaboration with over 80 countries in various scientific areas as on today.
MoS for Posts Sanjay Dhotre applauded the achievements of the DST and said, the Department of Posts feels proud in providing Special Cover for the DST highlighting its immense achievements.
He said Indian scientists have contributed a lion’s share in country’s development.
US goes to polls today to elect new president
The United States will go to polls today to elect a new President. Both candidates President Donald Trump and Joe Biden made their last ditch efforts yesterday to woo the voters. Trump campaigned in Michigan, Iowa, North Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Biden held multiple events in Philadelphia as he seeks to win Pennsylvania.
Nearly 9.2 crore Americans have already cast their votes that could take days or weeks to be counted in some states. A winner might not be declared in the hours after polling closes tonight.
Centre releases Rs 2,200 cr as first installment to 15 states for improvement of air quality
The Centre has released 2,200 crore rupees as the first installment to 15 states for the improvement of air quality measures in their million-plus cities. The amount has been released based on the recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission.
In a tweet, Office of Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that this will help the beneficiary states to undertake air quality measures, including capacity-building of the local bodies within their million-plus cities.
The states which have been given the amount include Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Of the total amount, 396.5 crore rupees has been released to Maharashtra, 202.5 crore rupees to Gujarat, 357 crore rupees to Uttar Pradesh and 209.5 crore rupees to West Bengal.
All 10 candidates for Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh declared elected unopposed
In Uttar Pradesh, all 10 candidates have been declared elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. Eight BJP candidates and one each from Samajwadi Party and Bahujan Samaj Party were declared elected unopposed to the upper house yesterday.
The BJP candidates declared elected include Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri, Arun Singh, Haridwar Dubey, Brij Lal, Neeraj Shekhar, Geeta Shakya, Seema Dwivedi, and BL Varma. Prof Ram Gopal Yadav of the Samajwadi Party and the BSP’s Ramji Gautam were also elected to the Upper House. All candidates except Hardeep Singh Puri and Prof Ram Gopal Yadav received their certificates from Returning Officer Ashok Kumar yesterday evening.
Polling underway for 2nd phase of assembly elections in Bihar
In Bihar, polling is underway for the Second Phase of State Assembly Elections amid tight security arrangements. Polling is being held in 94 constituencies spread over 17 districts including Patna, Vaishali, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga and Madhubani in this phase. Around 19.26 per cent of eligible voters exercised their franchise till 11 a.m. Voting began at 7 a.m. and it will close at 6 p.m. Over 2.86 crore voters will decide the fate 1,463 candidates. They include 146 women and one transgender.
Elaborate security arrangements have been made to ensure free and fair polling. Chief Electoral Officer H.R. Srinivasa said, polling will be upto 4 p.m. in eight Naxal-affected constituencies including Raghopur, Paru, Minapur and Alauli. Out of 41 thousand 362 booths, eight thousand 694 booths are sensitive. Election Commission has made arrangements of live webcasting from 3,548 booths.
Additional Chief Electoral Officer Sanjay Kumar Singh said security forces have been deployed in Naxal-infested areas to ensure trouble-free polling.
Election Commission has issued orders to follow COVID-19 protocol during the conduct of elections. Every person has been instructed to wear mask during election related activities.
The voters have to wear mask during exercising their right of franchise. Thermal scanning of all persons will be carried out and sanitizers will be made available at all locations during polling. All polling booths have already been sanitized. In view of COVID situation, only one thousand electors will exercise their right of franchise at each Polling Station instead of 1,500.
BJP is contesting on 46 seats, JD(U) on 43 and Vikassheel Insaan Party (VIP) on five seats in this phase. While RJD is contesting on 56 seats, Congress has fielded 24 candidates. LJP has fielded 52 candidates, RLSP-36, BSP-33 and NCP-29 candidates.
This phase is crucial for RJD as the party had won 33 seats in 2015 assembly elections. JD(U) won 30 seats while BJP 20 and Congress seven seats. Four others were also elected.
Chief Ministerial candidate of Grand Alliance Tejaswi Yadav is seeking re-election from Raghopur constituency. Political fortunes of four Cabinet Ministers of Nand Kishore Yadav, Shravan Kumar, Rana Randhir and Ram Sevak Singh will be decided in this phase.
Elections are being held in three phases for 243-member Bihar Legislative Assembly. The First Phase polling was held on 28th of October, while Third and Final Phase polling will be held on 7th of November. Counting of votes will be taken up on 10th of November.
Blogger.Com Turns On HTTPS On All Blogspot Domain Blogs
For many bloggers, enabling the free HTTPS support for your blog on blogspot offers a number of benefits. However, if the latest news from Blogger.com is true you may not need to manually enable the HTTPS support from now on. Every current non-HTTPS blogs are going to be automatically changed to HTTPS and this means a whole new world for bloggers and webmasters who use this particular domain.
First, this means that all blogs on blogspot will be granted a free SSL Certificate whether it is something that you want or not. Before, the webmaster was the one who decided whether the HTTPS was right for your site. Today, it has become mandatory which means that you will need to be prepared for the benefits and potential consequences.
The Blogger.com HTTPS Notification
The notification that was sent out by Blogger.com essentially stated that everyone who visits a blog on their domain would be able to view it through an encrypted connection. In addition, all bookmarks and links will still work on your site, but the HTTPS Availability setting will no longer be present and your blog will always use the HTTPS version that is available.
Those who log into their Blogger account will see the message and can interpret for themselves the ramifications of what it truly means. It should be noted that this is only for domains on Blogger.com that are free and that the custom ones will continue to go on functioning as they have in the past. That means there will be no support provided by free SSL HTTPS to custom domains.
While this will naturally cause some concern for webmasters because Blogger.com does have some limitations that are well known, the truth is that this particular change may bring about a better, more secured experience to those visiting the sites as well as have a positive impact on search engine optimization (SEO).
What is HTTPS?
The use of Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is basically a secure version of HTTP. This means that the data which is transferred between the user and server is now encrypted and protected from access or hacking from unwanted third parties.
HTTPS as a ranking signal
Perhaps the most notable impact is how it will affect the SEO of your site. With Google in particular placing a higher importance of HTTPS as compared to HTTP sites, the secured connection actually makes a positive impact thanks to the additional security. Better security means higher ratings for your blog.
In addition, your blog might actually run a little better with a secured connection as compared to your competition, some of which might not enjoy such a connection.
Since all of your traffic will now be automatically diverted, there will not be a negative effect in terms of loss or lowering of your SEO. In fact, this is actually a good move for blogspot.com and is certainly a worthwhile addition to all of their blogs as the support offers solid benefits for every blogger who uses their domain.
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