• Prime Minister Narendra Modi says, our Digital Public Infrastructure solutions can improve the lives of citizens around the world.

• Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya says, several precautionary measures have been taken to tackle challenge of new Corona virus variant, Omicron.

• Center asks States and Union Territories to be extra vigilant to contain spread of Omicron.

• National Covid vaccination coverage crosses 126 crore mark.

• Government sets target to open about ten thousand five hundred Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Kendras by March 2025 across the country.

• President Ram Nath Kovind confers annual National Awards on International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

• Cyclonic storm Jawad likely to reach west-central Bay of Bengal off north Andhra Pradesh-south Odisha coasts by tomorrow morning.

• And In Cricket: Riding on Mayank Agarwal's century, India post 221 for Four in first innings against New Zealand at Stumps on Day One of Mumbai Test.

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As India marches towards administering 150 crore vaccine doses against COVID-19, news about the fresh Corona variants is also causing concern. In this situation we appeal to our listeners to get fully vaccinated at the earliest and also help others get vaccinated. Please continue to follow these three simple steps to stay safe--

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that India's digital public infrastructure solutions can improve the lives of citizens around the world. After inaugurating the InFinity Forum through video conferencing today, he said that India has proved to the world that it is second to none when it comes to adopting technology or innovating around it. Mr Modi said, transformational initiatives under Digital India have opened doors for innovative Fintech solutions to be applied in governance.

India has proved to the world that it is second to none when it comes to adopting technology or innovating around it. Transformational initiatives under Digital India have opened doors for Fintech  innovations to be applied in governance. Technology has also catalyzed financial inclusion. From less than 50 percent Indians having bank accounts in 2014, we have almost universalized  with 430 million Jan Dhan accounts in the last 7 years.

The Prime Minister said, Finance is the lifeblood of an economy and technology is its carrier and both are equally important for achieving Antyodaya and Sarvodaya. Highlighting the importance of fintech, Mr. Modi said, fintech has immense opportunity in the country and now it is time to convert these fintech initiatives into a fintech revolution. He said, this revolution will help to achieve financial empowerment of every single citizen of the country. Mr Modi said, Fintech is resting on four pillars - income, investments, insurance and institutional credit.

Fintech revolution that helps to achieve financial empowerment of every single citizen of the country. Fintech industry has achieved huge scale, and scale means people from all walks of life as customers. This fintech acceptability among the masses has a unique feature. That feature is trust. The common Indian has shown immense trust in our Fintech ecosystem by embracing digital payments and such technologies! This trust is a responsibility. Trust means that you need to ensure that the interests of people are secured. Fintech innovation will be incomplete without fintech security innovation.

The InFinity Forum event is being hosted by International Financial Services Centres Authority under the aegis of Government of India in collaboration with GIFT City and Bloomberg. Indonesia, South Africa and the U.K. are partner countries in the first edition of the Forum.

Our correspondent reports that this two day event is a thought leadership forum with a focus on aspects relating to FinTech and using it for inclusive growth. InFinity Forum has an interesting theme ‘Beyond.’ InFinity Forum will witness participation from over 70 countries. NITI Aayog, Invest India, FICCI and NASSCOM are some of the key partners in this year's Infinity Forum.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Dehradun in Uttarakhand tomorrow. He will inaugurate and lay the foundation stone of multiple projects worth around 18 thousand crore rupees in Dehradun. He will also address a public meeting at Parade Ground in Dehradun.

A significant focus of the visit will be on projects to improve the road infrastructure, which will make travel smooth and safer and also increase tourism in the region. 

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Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya has said that several precautionary measures have been taken to tackle the challenge of the new Corona virus variant, ‘Omicron.’ In his 90-minutes reply in the Lok Sabha to the marathon discussion on the COVID pandemic, he said, two cases of infections due to the Omicron strain have been detected in Bengaluru, including one traveller from South Africa and another from the city. He said, contact tracing has been done in both the cases and the COVID status of all the contacts has been ascertained. He said, the genome sequencing of the viral samples drawn from those who tested positive among them is underway. He said, the new strain has been detected in 25 different countries as of 25th of November.

On the question of administering booster doses against COVID, the Minister said, the scientific opinion of the experts group on it will be taken into account while deciding about it.

The discussion was initiated yesterday by Shivsena member Vinayak Raut under House Rule 193, which went on for over 12 hours till late last night. Several members representing various political parties participated in it.

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The Centre has asked States and Union Territories to be extra vigilant in enforcing public health measures to contain the spread of Omicron variant of COVID-19.   Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has written to Additional Chief Secretary and Principal Secretary of all States and UTs in this regard. He said, International passengers are arriving from both At-Risk and other countries to different States and Union Territories. He said, all State Surveillance Officers have been provided an access to Air Suvidha portal of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. Mr Bhushan asked the states to access the portal every day to know in advance the details of passengers coming in their respective State from different international airports.

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India’s COVID-19 vaccination coverage has crossed 126 crore 44 lakh today. The Health Ministry said, over 126 crore 44 lakh 92 thousand vaccine doses have been administered till now. It said, over 66 lakh 58 thousand vaccine doses were administered today. National recovery rate stands at 98.35 per cent.

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The Government has set a target to open about ten thousand five hundred Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Jan Aushadhi Kendras (PMBJK’s), by March 2025 across the country. In a written reply in Lok Sabha, Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya said, about  eight thousand 533 PMBJKs are functioning till 28th of last month. It covers all districts in the States and Union Territories of the country. He said, the product basket of Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana, PMBJP, comprises one thousand four hundred fifty one medicines and two hundred forty surgical and consumables.

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The Deep Depression over west-central Bay of Bengal has intensified further into Cyclonic Storm JAWAD. It lay centred over west-central of Bengal  about 420 kilometres south-southeast of Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, 530 kilometres south-southeast of Gopalpur, Odisha and 650 kilometres south-southwest of Paradip, Odisha.

Director General of National Disaster Response Force, NDRF Atul Karwal said, forty six teams have been deployed in West Bengal, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu and Andaman and Nicobar.

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Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba today chaired the second meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee, NCMC in New Delhi and reviewed the preparedness of States and Central Ministries and Agencies to deal with the Cyclonic Storm Jawad.

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On International Day of Persons with Disabilities today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appreciated the stellar achievements and contributions of Persons with Disabilities to India’s progress. In a tweet, Mr Modi said, their life journeys, their courage and determination is very motivating. He said, Government of India is actively working to further strengthen infrastructure that empowers Persons with Disabilities. The Prime Minister said, the emphasis remains on equality, accessibility and opportunity.

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Speaking on the occasion, Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Dr. Virendra Kumar said, the government has taken several steps for the empowerment of Persons with Disabilities. He said, Unique ID for Persons with Disabilities project is being implemented with a view of creating a National Database for Persons with Disabilities and to issue a Unique Disability Identity Card to each person with disabilities. He said, more than 64 lakh Unique Disability ID Cards have been issued till date.

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Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Singh Thakur and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath inaugurated Earth Station of Doordarshan Kendra in Gorakhpur today. Three FM stations of All India Radio in Etawah, Lakhimpur Kheri and Bahraich districts were also inuaugurated at this juncture virtually.

Addressing the gathering, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said, with the inauguration of Earth Station at Gorakhpur, four decade old demand of the local artists has been fulfilled.

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Replying to a discussion on the COVID-19 situation in the country, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya informed the Lok Sabha that RT-PCR tests of 16,000 passengers from 'at-risk' countries for Omicron have been conducted so far, as two cases with the new variant have been confirmed in Bengaluru. He also said that genome sequencing for the Omicron variant is underway for the international passengers who tested COVID positive and those among the contacts of the two affected people. He said, the Union Government has taken measures to make the country ready for any future challenges and adopted the buffer stock policy to ensure that all states have enough medicines to deal with any further surge in COVID-19 cases.  A decision on booster dose and jabs for children will be taken on the basis of scientific advice, he said and appealed to Opposition parties to trust scientists and not to politicise the issue.  In his reply to a 12-hour marathon debate on the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya asked Opposition parties to not do politics over the issue of pandemic and noted that India has had one of the lowest death rates per million population in the world. Mr. Mandaviya hit out at the Opposition for making a political issue onthe availability of ventilators, which were funded through the PM-CARES Fund and hailed the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the testing times. He said, orders were placed for the supply of 58,000 ventilators, mostly with public sector companies and 50 thousand 200 of them had been delivered to states and 48 thousand have been installed at various hospitals.  Besides ventilators, the government also ensured availability of COVID protocol medicines across the country to ensure that the states did not appear wanting in the fight against the pandemic. Mr. Mandaviya also slammed the Opposition parties for creating doubts about home grown vaccines which affected the vaccination drive.

To the questions on the vaccination drive, the Minister said, the government is committed to fully vaccinate all the eligible beneficiaries. He said, 85 per cent of the beneficiaries have received the first dose, while 56 per cent have been fully vaccinated. He asked the members to ensure 100 per cent vaccination in their respective constituencies to speed up the inoculation drive.

Dr. Mandaviya said, the Modi Government had embarked on strengthening the health infrastructure across the country without blaming previous governments who had ignored the sector. Earlier, in replying to a question, Dr. Mandaviya today asked the Opposition parties to  stop playing politics over the issue of oxygen shortage during the second wave of COVID-19 infections and took note of the Centre's efforts to ramp up the production of Oxygen to meet the surge in demand if any in future. Hitting out at the Opposition over claims about deaths due to oxygen shortage during that period,  he said, the Centre sought data from states on the matter and only the Punjab Government replied that there were four suspected cases of such deaths and a probe into them was underway. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said at the Chief Ministers' meeting that there was no need to hide the number of deaths due to shortage of oxygen. The Centre wrote to states thrice, requesting them to provide dataon the number of people who died due to shortage of oxygen, the Health Minister said. The discussion on the issue had started on Thursday. The government mean while sought Parliament's nod to infuse over 62,000 crore rupees into the company that holds residual assets and liabilities of Air India after its privatisation, as part of over 3.73 lakh crore rupees additional spending planned in the current financial year. The extra spending would include 58,430 crore rupees by way of additional fertiliser subsidy,  53,123 crore rupees towards payment of pending export incentives and  22,039 crore rupees to Rural Development Ministry for transfer to National Rural Employment Guarantee Fund. Minister of State for Finance Pankaj Chaudhary tabled the second batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants in the Lok Sabha envisaging a net cash out go of over  2.99 lakh crore rupees and  74,517 crore rupees extra expenditure would be matched by savings by different ministries. 

Later, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman tabled the supplementary demands for grants for 2021-22 in the Rajya Sabha.  As per the document, 62,057 crore rupees would be given to the Civil Aviation Ministry for equity infusion in Air India Assets Holding Company(AIAHL) for repayment of past government guaranteed borrowing and pastdues/liabilities of Air India.  In October, the government signed the share purchase agreement with Tata Sons for the sale of Air India, along with low-cost carrier Air India Expressand ground handling arm AISATS, for 18,000 crore rupees. The amount includes payment of 2,700 crore rupees in cash and take over 15,300 crore rupees of the carrier's debt. As of August 31, Air India had a total debt of 61,562 crore rupees. Of the total amount, Talace (a Tata Group company) will take over 15,300 crore rupees and the remaining 46,262 crore rupees will be transferred to AIAHL. As per the Supplementary Demands for Grants, an additional 2,628 crore rupees would be given towards loans and advances to Air India for recoupment of advance from Contingency Fund of India.  The additional fertiliser subsidy includes 43,430 crore rupees on account of payment towards indigenous and imported Phosphatic and Potassium subsidy and 15,000 crore rupees towards urea subsidy scheme. Besides, the Department of Food and Public Distribution would be givenan additional 49,805 crore rupees for meeting expenditure towards various schemes of food storage and warehousing.  About  2,400 crore rupees would be given to the Department of Commerce formeeting expenditure towards subsidies under the Interest Equalisation Scheme and Investment under the Export Credit Guarantee Corporation scheme among others.  Another over 5,000 crore rupees and over 4,000 crore rupees have been earmarked for additional spending by the ministries of Defence and Home. The 2021-22 Budget had projected the government's total expenditure at 34.83 lakh crore rupees. But, this is expected to overshoot considering the two batches of Supplementary Demands for Grants presented by the government so far. As per the Supplementary Demands for Grants, about 14,000 crore rupees additional amount has been sought for Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs including for meeting the requirement for non-performing asset under Prime Minister's Street Vendors' Aatmanirbhar Nidhi (PM-SVANidhi) and grants for creation of capital assets under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana Urban (PMAY-U). For meeting additional expenditure towards grants for creation of capital assets under MPLADS (Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme), the government has proposed Rs 1,153 crore for the current fiscalyear. During the Zero Hour, BJP's Raigarh MP Gomati Sai thanked Home Minister Amit Shah for his efforts to bring down the violent activities by Naxals in Bastar. She said that due to the pressure exerted by Central forces, the Naxals are on the backfoot.

Two bills were introduced in Lok Sabha to extend the tenures of Directors of the Central Bureau of Investigation and the Enforcement Directorate up to a maximum of five years from the present two years amidstrong protests from Opposition members. The Central Vigilance Commission (Amendment) Bill and the Delhi Special Police Establishment (Amendment) Bill were introduced in the Lok Sabha by Minister of State for Personnel Dr Jitendra Singh to limit the tenures of Directors of the CBI and ED to a maximum of five years respectively. The two bills seek to replace Ordinances issued during the inter session period. Opposing the introduction of the two bills, Congress member Shashi Tharoor said the move to extend the tenures of the directors of central investigative agencies were in flagrant disregard of the Supreme Court observations. Mr Tharoor said, the Apex Court had observed that extension of tenure granted to officers who have attained the age of superannuation should be done only in rare and exceptional cases and the government move was malafide. Trinamool member Saugata Roy opposed the move contending that both the ED and CBI were two arms of the government that are being used to harass Opposition leaders. Congress members K. Suresh, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury and RSP member N. K. Premachandran also opposed the introduction of the bill. The members said, piecemeal extensions would lead to officers' loyalty to the government. Seeking to allay the apprehensions of the Opposition members, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the earlier laws only fixed minimum limit on the tenures of the Directors of the CBI and the ED.

Soon after the laying of papers,  Manoj Kumar Jha of the RJD raised the issue of suspension of Opposition MPs saying that the opposition MPs aresitting in protest at the Gandhi statue.

Amid the noisy scenes by Opposition members, Chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu said that the Leader of the House and Leader of the Opposition should sit together to resolve the issue. He said that there is a misconception that Leader ofthe Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge was not allowed to speak on the issue. He clarified that he had allowed the Leader of the Opposition to speak on the issue on November 30th

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In the second and final Cricket Test match between India and New Zealand in Mumbai, the hosts were 221 for the loss of four wickets in their first innings at stumps on the opening day. As a top scorer Mayank Agarwal with 120 runs on board, was at the crease with Wriddhiman Saha at 25. 

Opting to bat first after the delayed start due to wet patches on the outfield and the pitch, the Indian openers added 80 runs for the first wicket before Ajaz Patel took three wickets in consecutive overs to bring New Zealand back in the game. Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara and Shubman Gill were Ajaz's three dismissals. Later, Shreyas Iyer also lost his wicket succumbing to an Ajaz delivery.