| | 5 THINGS FIRST | Municipal elections in Tripura; PM Modi to lay foundation stone of Jewar international airport in UP; India vs New Zealand, 1st Test, Kanpur, day 1; Davis Cup group stages begin; France to announce new Covid restrictions | |
| | 1. A crypto sell-off in India... |  | - The value of cryptocurrencies in Indian exchanges fell sharply on Wednesday as investors rushed to offload their coins a day after the union government listed a bill that would ban all private digital coins for the upcoming session of the parliament.
- Bitcoin was trading nearly 10% lower, Dogecoin over 14%, and Shiba Inu over 15% on WazirX, a popular India-based cryptocurrency exchange. The sell-off created an artificial drop in value in India as these cryptocurrencies were trading at a higher value in international exchanges.
- But... the union government's proposed bill may still have provisions to protect small investors who have already bought cryptocurrencies, Bloomberg reports, citing people familiar with the matter. The bill may allow for cryptocurrencies to be considered an asset, subject to a minimum threshold investment, even as it bans them as legal tender, the report said.
- There is also uncertainty as to the definition of “private cryptocurrencies” the bill would adopt. Is bitcoin, which is a decentralised platform with no private company issuing the coin rather mined through a peer-to-peer network, a private coin? Or is the bill designed to target cryptocurrencies such as Diem that Facebook is working on?
- Facebook's Diem, a stable coin — its value is pegged against US dollar, thereby eschewing the volatility of traditional cryptocurrencies — could make cryptocurrencies truly mainstream, thanks to the company's wide user base. Facebook has over 300 million users in India; its WhatsApp has over 400 million Indian users.
- The winter session of the parliament begins next Monday (Nov. 29).
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| Box | | 2. Cabinet clears Bill to scrap farm laws |  | - The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Bill to repeal the farm laws. It will be tabled in Parliament during the upcoming Winter Session for passage. (The Session begins November 29 and ends December 23.)
- The Cabinet has completed the formalities to repeal the three farm laws, said information & broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur. "In the upcoming session of Parliament, it will be our priority to take back these three laws," he added.
- However, he did not answer questions if the government will bring a law to guarantee minimum support price, which has been another major demand of the protesting farmers.
- The Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 will rollback the three laws — Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Act and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act — passed by Parliament in September last year, with an objective to bring reforms in the agriculture sector, especially marketing of farm produce.
- The Bill approval comes days after PM Narendra Modi's announcement to repeal the three central farm laws, one of the key demands of around 40 farmer unions protesting against these reforms for nearly a year now.
- Also on the day: The Cabinet approved an extension of the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana scheme till March 2022.
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| | 3. What brought Mamata to Delhi? |  | - A thaw? West Bengal (WB) Chief Minister (CM) Mamata Banerjee, who arrived in Delhi on a three-day visit ahead of the winter session of parliament, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi to demand withdrawal of the extension of the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force (BSF). The Union home ministry had last month extended the BSF’s jurisdiction to 50 km inside the international border in border states — such as WB, Punjab and Assam — from 15 km earlier to “improve operational efficiency” and “crack down on smuggling rackets.” Banerjee also invited Modi to inaugurate the state’s Global Business Summit next year.
- Party time? Bringing up the issue of violence in Tripura with Modi, Banerjee said Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers were being targeted by BJP workers in the state where the party is in power under CM Biplab Deb. Banerjee’s raising of the Tripura violence issue is significant as it came a day after the Supreme Court heard the contempt plea of TMC which alleged that the law and order situation in the state is “worsening” by the day, ahead of its urban local body elections that are being held today.
- National profile? Banerjee, who’s scheduled to visit Mumbai on November 30 where she will meet NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, said her party was “ready to extend help” to Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav in the upcoming assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh if he needed help. The TMC has seen some lateral inductions in the last few days, including former JD(U) spokesperson Pavan Varma, former president of the Haryana unit of Congress Ashok Tanwar and former cricketer-turned-MP Kirti Azad, who was earlier with the BJP and Congress.
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| | 4. Apple sues Pegasus maker |  | - Apple has filed a lawsuit against the maker of Pegasus spyware, Israel's NSO Group and its parent company OSY Technologies, accusing it of “concerted efforts in 2021 to target and attack Apple customers”, including US citizens.
- Whatsapp and its parent company Facebook, now known as Meta, too, had sued NSO Group in 2019 after University of Toronto's Citizen Lab revealed that Pegasus had exploited an error in chat service to hack into phones, including of lawyers and activists in India.
- Apple said it’s “seeking a permanent injunction to ban NSO Group from using any Apple software, services, or devices.” “State-sponsored actors like the NSO Group spend millions of dollars on sophisticated surveillance technologies without effective accountability. That needs to change..." its senior VP of software engineering Craig Federighi said in a statement.
- It will also donate $10 million, plus any damages it wins from its lawsuit, to assist Citizen Lab and other cyber-surveillance research groups, Apple said.
- Israel's NSO Group has been in the spotlight since several publications revealed a database of 50,000 numbers possibly selected by its clients as targets of surveillance, suggesting that the spyware sold as a tool against terrorism and crime is being used against a broader set of people. NSO says Pegasus is sold only to governments.
- At least 160 numbers in the database have been confirmed to be of Indians. These include Rahul Gandhi, former election commissioner Asok Lavasa, journalists, and several of the accused in the Bhima Koregaon-Elgar Parishad case. The Supreme Court last month appointed an expert committee to look into the allegations of surveillance.
- The US government had earlier this month blacklisted NSO Group, thus prohibiting it from buying parts and components from American companies without a special licence.
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| | | | 6. Take advance, not “ad hoc measures” on Delhi pollution, says SC |  | - International shame? Reminding the Centre that Delhi “is the national capital”, the Supreme Court (SC) asked the Centre what “signal we are sending to the world” with the poor pollution control measures adopted so far.
- Get scientific: The SC told the government “to have scientific analysis based on seasons of year, causes of pollution & expected wind direction” It dismissed the pollution control initiatives adopted so far as “all ad-hoc measures.” The next hearing is scheduled for Monday.
- Winded out: Directing the Commission for Air Quality Management in National Capital Region and Adjoining Areas “to do a scientific study by having statistical models”, the apex court said that since the commission had knowledge of “the wind pattern for the next 7 days”, it needed to inform the court as to “what will be the impact of those steps for the next 7 days.”
- Quality check: Correcting the government on the air quality index (AQI), which the SC said was 318 and not 280 as mentioned by the government, the court told the Centre that it could remove the restrictions if the AQI came down to “200 or something.” It also asked the states to use the “thousands of crores” collected as labour cess and lying with them to create a fund for the benefit of the construction workers since all construction activities are currently banned.
- Use your head: Reiterating its earlier observation on the bureaucratic apathy that had compounded the pollution problem in Delhi NCR, the court asked both the Central and state bureaucracy to use “common sense to discuss the issues” and queried as to why couldn’t the bureaucrats “go to the fields, talk to farmers and scientists and devise a permanent solution to prevent stubble burning.”
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| | 7. China fumes as US invites Taiwan for democracy summit |  | - The Biden administration has invited Taiwan to its Summit for Democracy next month, prompting sharp criticism from China, which considers the self-ruled island as a renegade province and objects to any sign of international recognition. In October, Biden had said the U.S. has a firm commitment to helping Taiwan defend itself.
- The invitation list features 110 countries, including Taiwan, but does not include China or Russia. India and Pakistan are invited, but Myanmar, where the military ousted the political leadership of Aung San Suu Kyi to take full control, was not. The summit is to be held virtually on December 9 and 10.
- China said the summit was US' attempt to "suppress other countries, divide the world, serve its own interest and maintain its hegemony in the world.”
- Blacklisted: The US Commerce Department, meanwhile, put a dozen Chinese companies on its trade blacklist citing national security concerns and for helping with the Chinese military's quantum computing efforts. 16 entities and individuals from China and Pakistan were also added to the blacklist for contributing to Pakistan's nuclear activities or ballistic missile programme.
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| | 8. Regular international flights to normalise by year-end, says govt |  | - Civil aviation secretary Rajiv Bansal on Wednesday was quoted by PTI as saying that India will resume regular international flights, which have remained suspended due to the pandemic, "by the end of this year".
- The big picture: The announcement comes as a major relief to the aviation industry as well as the tourism industry both of which have seen major losses due to Covid-19 and still continue to face challenges as infections continue to rise rapidly in some parts of the globe.
- Earlier: All international flights (except those on repatriation missions and carrying essential goods, like medicines and food) were grounded in March last year, as the country went into a lockdown.
- The Directorate General of Civil Aviation then extended the ban on scheduled international commercial passenger flights until November 30 this year, allowing only international scheduled flights on selected routes by the competent authority on a case-to-case basis and allowing cargo flights.
- India had entered into an air bubble pact with over 31 countries including France, Germany, the UAE, UK and US. (Under an air bubble arrangement, international passenger flights can be operated by member countries' respective carriers into each other's territories, subject to certain conditions.)
- Domestic flights: Similarly restricted during the lockdown, they were allowed at full capacity from last month, after also having only been allowed a certain number of flights in each sector initially. Bansal added the government is expecting domestic passenger traffic to go back to pre-Covid levels starting April 2022.
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| | 9. Germany gets Merkel’s successor, Sweden its first female PM |  | - Germany's finance minister Olaf Scholz, 63, will succeed Angela Merkel as the chancellor of Europe's largest economy after his Social Democrats (SPD) struck a coalition deal with the Greens and libertarian Free Democrats.
- The “traffic light” coalition, named after the parties’ respective colours — red for the SPD, yellow for Free Democrats (FDP) and green for the Greens — was confirmed nearly two months after an inconclusive election on September 26.
- It will be Germany's first three-way federal coalition government since the 1950s, ending Christian Democrats' 16 years in power. FDP leader Christian Lindner, 42, will take over at the finance ministry and Greens co-leader Robert Habeck, 52, will take on a newly expanded economy and climate change ministry.
- In Sweden, Magdalena Andersson, the finance minister, was approved as the country’s first female prime minister by the parliament. She was backed to replace Stefan Lofven as the leader of the Social Democratic Party and prime minister.
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| | | Answer to NEWS IN CLUES | Harmanpreet Kaur. The Melbourne Renegades star became the first Indian player to be named Australia’s Women Big Bash League (WBBL) Player of the Tournament. This after the India women's T20I captain ended the regular season as her side's leading batter with 399 runs and bowler with 15 wickets. | |
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| Written by: Rakesh Rai, Judhajit Basu, Sumil Sudhakaran, Tejeesh N.S. Behl
Research: Rajesh Sharma | |
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