20 flyers from U.K. test positive as stringent SOPs kick in
At least 20 passengers coming to India from the UK tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday as the government issued a stringent new SOPs mandating RT-PCR tests at all airports for each traveller from the country and isolation in a separate institutional facility for positive cases in view of the new coronavirus strain.
Southern States step up surveillance at airports
The Kerala government has decided to intensify the surveillance and to strengthen SARS-CoV-2 testing facilities at airports and the seaport now that the new U.K. variant of the virus, known as B.1.1.7, which is believed to be highly transmissible, could be in circulation.
Dilli Chalo | Farmer unions to decide on further talks with government on December 23
The meeting of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM) scheduled for Tuesday to discuss the response to the government’s offer of talks was postponed; a decision on the offer is now expected on Wednesday.
Registrar General writes to States to update ‘charge register’, a census document
The Registrar General of India (RGI) that conducts the decennial Census exercise has written to all State coordinators to update names of an area, locality, colony or a building in the “charge register,” an important census document that will help enumerators to collect details during the first phase of Census-House Listing and Housing Census and the National Population Register (NPR).
Kerala Governor denies assent to convene Assembly
The State government has not received gubernatorial consent to convene the Legislative Assembly on Wednesday to "discuss and reject" the new farm laws.
Pokhran’s ‘firefly bird diverters’ shine to save the Great Indian Bustard
The Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) along with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) India has come up with a unique initiative — a “firefly bird diverter” for overhead power lines in areas where Great Indian Bustard (GIB) populations are found in the wild. GIB is one of the most critically threatened species in India, with less than 150 birds left in the wild.
Coronavirus | Airlines reschedule U.K. flights to beat flight ban
Indian carriers Air India and Vistara rescheduled their flights from the UK to be able to return to India in time to comply with the ban on air travel from the island nation effective from from Tuesday midnight.
Health data shows India doesn’t need a two-child policy: experts
The latest data from the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) provides evidence of an uptake in the use of modern contraceptives in rural and urban areas, an improvement in family planning demands being met, and a decline in the average number of children borne by a woman, and prove that the country’s population is stabilising and fears over a “population explosion” and calls for a “two-child policy” are misguided, say experts.
Coronavirus | WHO calls meeting on new virus variant
The World Health Organization (WHO) will convene a meeting of members to discuss strategies to counter a new, more infectious coronavirus strain that emerged in Britain, its European chief said on Tuesday. He did not give a date for the meeting.
India vs Australia | Let it go and move on, Smith tells Indians
Australian batting star Steve Smith had a word of advice for the Indians who were battered into submission in the first Test — “let it go and move on”.