In Kerala, the ruling CPI-M announced its list of 83 candidates for the upcoming Legislative Assembly Election, yesterday. According to reports, 33 sitting MLAs including five ministers in the present cabinet are not contesting this time as the party strictly follows a two-term policy. Due to this policy, some prominent leaders were left out of the list.
 
In the ruling LDF, CPM published the list of its candidates for 83 constituencies last day.The list includes 74 party candidates and 9 independents supported by the party.
 
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will contest from Dharmadom. In UDF, as selection talks in Congress is progressing in New Delhi, the primary list is expected to be published today.
 
In NDA the candidate selection process in BJP is in the final phase. Declaration may follow the electoral committee meeting to be held today.
 
Meanwhile, the official notification of assembly polls in Kerala will be out tomorrow. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Kindle version of Swami Chidbhavananda’s Bhagavad Gita and also address the occasion today through virtual mode. The event has been organised to commemorate the sale of over five lakh copies of the Swami Chidbhavananda’s Bhagavad Gita.
 
Swami Chidbhavananda is the founder of Sri Ramakrishna Tapovanam Ashram at Thirupparaaythuray situated near Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu. Swami Chidbhavananda, a man of letters, has authored 186 books. His scholarly work on the Gita is one of the most extensive books on the subject.
 
Tamil version of the Gita with his commentary was published in 1951 and became an instant hit. It was translated into English in 1965. The translations of the epic literary work into Telugu, Odia, German and Japanese were undertaken by the devotees of Swami Chidbhavananda.

Vaccine passports are digital documents that are supposed to function as proof that the holder has been vaccinated against Covid-19 and is, therefore, ‘safe.’ The idea is modelled on the proof of vaccination that several countries required even before the pandemic – travelers from many African countries to the US or India are required to submit proof that they have been vaccinated against diseases such as yellow fever. Another key function that vaccine passports will perform is that of digitizing vaccination records across countries. 

Last month, Israel became the first country to introduce a certification system that allows those who have been vaccinated against Covid-19 to access certain facilities and events. Vaccination against the novel coronavirus has been considered to be the inflection point at which life would start to get back to normal. Israel’s “vaccine passport” is meant for public facilities such as restaurants, gyms, and hotels in the country — but certification of this kind has a bearing on the full resumption of international air travel as well. 

In addition to those like the ones issued by the Israeli government, several associations and non-profits have been issuing their own versions for international travel. The International Air Transport Association — the global trade body representing airlines — is developing an app called IATA Travel Pass that will provide airlines and other aviation industry stakeholders with a common platform to check for the proof of vaccination and its validity. Non-profit Commons Project has been trying out an app called CommonPass, which contains a passenger’s vaccination record. 

The primary benefit will be to the tourism and the hospitality industries, which are both seen as being at the heart of Covid-19 spread and are the worst hit by the pandemic. This includes international air travel, which suffered massively because of the outbreak. However, a major difficulty in implementation will be the lack of uniformity across jurisdictions in requirement and issuance of proofs of vaccination, and the fact that no common vaccine passport has been designed yet.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) opposed the introduction of Covid-19 vaccination proofs as a requirement for international travel, ‘given that there are still critical unknowns regarding the efficacy of vaccination in reducing transmission.’ It also said that preferential vaccination of travelers could result in inadequate supplies of vaccines for priority populations considered at high risk of severe Covid-19 disease, and that the introduction of a requirement of vaccination as a condition for travel has the potential to hinder equitable global access to a limited vaccine supply and would be unlikely to maximize the benefits of vaccination for individual societies and overall global health. In addition, several experts have raised privacy concerns as there is a possibility that the passports would be used by authorities to track the movement of their holders.

The fourth edition of Prime Minister’s interaction Programme Pariksha Pe Charcha will be held this month.

The programme will be held virtually.

Through this programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a brain storming session with school students, teachers and parents in connection with the upcoming examinations.

The registration process for the programme is underway on MyGov platform and it will remain open till Sunday.

The questions related to dealing with examination stress from school students of Class 9 to 12 are being invited through MyGov platform and selected questions will feature in the programme.

About two thousand school students, teachers and parents from all across the country are to be selected winner and there will be attractive prize for the winners.

The selected participants will be taking part in the programme online from their respective State and UT headquarters and will be presented with a special Pariksha Pe Charcha kit.

Both the Houses of the Parliament passed legislation today amid ruckus created by opposition parties over the issue of farm laws.
The opposition parties hard pressed on their demand of holding a discussion under Rule 267 over the farm laws.

In the Lok Sabha, when the House met post lunch after repeated adjournments, the opposition party members trooped into the well and raised slogans against the government.

When the Lower House initiated its proceedings today, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury raised the issue of farmers’ protest at Delhi borders and said that many of them have lost their lives in the course of the agitation.

He said, the House must take cognizance of the issue and a discussion may be allowed. Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla expressed unhappiness over the ruckus in the House.

He said, the House is for discussion over the issues related to people and sloganeering is against the sanctity of the House.

He repeatedly urged the agitating members to get back to their seats and allow the House to function.

In the Rajya Sabha also, when the House met after the repeated adjournments, opposition parties trooped into the well and started sloganeering against the three farm laws.

Amidst the noisy scene, the House took up the Arbitration and Conciliation (Amendment) Bill, 2021. After passing the bill, the House was adjourned for the day.

Today, when the proceedings of the House started, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge said that the opposition parties have given adjournment notices to discuss the farm laws.

Rajya Sabha Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu said the matter has already been discussed during the first leg of the Budget Session.

He however said, the issues can be discussed during the deliberations on other legislative business.

Amidst uproar, Mr. Naidu tried to run the House and appealed to the agitating members to maintain decorum.

Proceedings of both the Houses will resume on Monday morning at 11 AM.

Tirath Singh Rawat took oath as the Chief Minister of Uttarakhand in Dehradun today.
 
He was administered the oath of office by Uttarakhand Governor Baby Rani Maurya.
 
Earlier, accompanied by BJP MLAs and MPs, Mr Rawat met the Governor at Raj Bhawan to stake his claim to form the government.
 
Tirath Singh Rawat was the state BJP president from 2013 to 2015 and is currently the party’s national secretary.
 
Trivendra Singh Rawat stepped down as Uttarakhand’s chief minister on Tuesday.

France launched its first military exercise in space this week to evaluate its ability to defend its satellites and other defense equipment from an attack. Michel Friedling, the head of France’s newly created Space Command said the exercises are a “stress-test of their systems. He said that they were a first for the French army and even a first in Europe. The exercise, codenamed “AsterX” in memory of the first French satellite from 1965, will be based on 18 simulated events in an operations room.

During the drill, the French military will monitor a potentially dangerous space object as well as a threat to its own satellite from another foreign power possessing a considerable space force. The new US Space Force and German space agencies are taking part in the French exercises which began on Monday and will last until Friday. The French Space Forces Command, Commandement de l’Espace (CdE) was created in 2019 and is set to have 500 personnel by 2025.

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has raised the projection for India’s economic growth rate by 4.7 percentage points at 12.6 per cent for 2021-22. That would enable India to retain its earlier tag of the fastest growing large economy in the world. In its interim report on economic outlook, OECD said, activity moved above pre-pandemic levels in India, helped by strong fiscal and quasi-fiscal measures and a recovery in manufacturing and construction.

It, however, pegged economic growth rate to come down to 5.4 per cent in 2022-23, which would be higher by 0.6 percentage points than its earlier estimates. That year, India would share its fastest-growing large economy tag with Indonesia, according to the OECD. The Indian economy was projected to decline by 8 per cent in the current fiscal year. However, OECD believes that contraction would be less steep at 7.4 per cent. In the report, titled Strengthening the recovery: The need for speed, OECD said fiscal measures announced in India and a few other countries would help growth in 2021-22 as well.

Additional discretionary fiscal measures announced in several countries during the past three months will add to the overall support, including in the US, Japan, Germany, Canada, and India, the report said. The OECD also unveiled major upgrades to its global outlook, saying that economic prospects have improved markedly in recent months thanks to the deployment of coronavirus vaccines and additional stimulus announcements.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had a fruitful conversation with his Japanese counterpart Mr. Suga Yoshihide on the progress of India-Japan Special Strategic and Global Partnership, yesterday. The two leaders expressed satisfaction at the positive momentum in India-Japan Special Strategic & Global Partnership in the last few years, guided by mutual trust and shared values.

They appreciated that bilateral exchanges were maintained over the last year despite the COVID-19 pandemic. They also welcomed the recent signing of the Memorandum of Cooperation on Specified Skilled Workers (SSW) and looked forward to its early implementation. Prime Minister Modi noted the Mumbai Ahmedabad High Speed Rail (MAHSR) project as a shining example of India-Japan bilateral strategic partnership and expressed his commitment to its successful implementation.

The two leaders further exchanged views on regional and global issues of mutual interest and concurred that the partnership between the two countries could play a pivotal role in addressing common challenges. In this regard, they emphasized that their engagement with like-minded countries such as Australia and the U.S. in the form of QUAD consultations holds value and agreed that these useful discussions must continue.

The leaders agreed to celebrate in a befitting manner, the 70th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries that falls in 2022. Prime Minister Modi invited his Japanese Counterpart to visit India at the earliest for the Annual Bilateral Summit.

President Ramnath Kovind is on a three day visit to Tamilnadu. He will leave for Vellore by helicopter and attend the 16th annual convocation at Thiruvalluvar University. State Governor Banwarilal Purohit will preside over the function. Earlier, he arrived at Chennai yesterday and was received by Tamilnadu Governor Banwarilal Purohit, Chief Secretary Rajeev Ranjan and other top officials.

President Kovind will confer doctorate degrees to 217 students.in the function.  Thirty five students will be given their  graduate and 31 students will get their post graduate degrees in the convocation. A total of more than 80 thousand students will be getting their graduate and post graduate and M.Phil degrees from the University this year.

The President will visit the Golden temple at Sripuram Vellore in the afternoon after which he will return to Chennai. Tomorrow the President will attend the 41st Annual Convocation at the Anna University after which he will depart to Delhi by Indian Airforce Flight.

Election Commission ordered the removal of West Bengal Director-General of Police, Virendra yesterday. It has appointed P Nirajnayan as  DG and IGP in his place with immediate effect. EC said the decision has been taken after reviewing the poll preparedness in the state.

The Election Commission of India has transferred the Director General of Police Sh Virendra in poll bound West Bengal. After a review meeting on the poll preparedness yesterday evening, the ECI has ordered the Chief Secretary of the state to transfer Virendra, 1985 batch IPS OFFICER and appoint Nirajnayan Pandey , 1987 Batch IPS OFFICER as the DGP of the state. The ECI also ordered not to give any posting to Virendra which is directly or indirectly related to conduct of elections.

Election Commission ordered the removal of West Bengal Director-General of Police, Virendra yesterday. It has appointed P Nirajnayan as  DG and IGP in his place with immediate effect. EC said the decision has been taken after reviewing the poll preparedness in the state.

The Election Commission of India has transferred the Director General of Police Sh Virendra in poll bound West Bengal. After a review meeting on the poll preparedness yesterday evening, the ECI has ordered the Chief Secretary of the state to transfer Virendra, 1985 batch IPS OFFICER and appoint Nirajnayan Pandey , 1987 Batch IPS OFFICER as the DGP of the state. The ECI also ordered not to give any posting to Virendra which is directly or indirectly related to conduct of elections.

Chief Minister Shri Trivendra Singh Rawat submitted his resignation to Governor Smt. Baby Rani Maurya yesterday. The Governor accepted his resignation and asked him to remain the acting Chief Minister till the appointment of a new Chief Minister in the State.

Our correspondent reports that the meeting of BJP  legislative party will be held today in Dehradun to elect a new leader of   legislative party in the presence of  Central observers.

According to sources the names of Union Minister and former Chief Minister of the state  Dr. Ramesh Pokhariyal Nishank, Rajya Sabha member Anil Baluni and Minister of state Independent charge Dr. Dhan Singh Rawat are considered for the post of new chief Minister.