Today’s Top News: 06 Jan 2021

1. Supreme Court allowed the Central Vista Project to go ahead: The Central Vista project aims to renovate 86 acres of land in the Lutyen’s Garden in New Delhi. It includes Landmark structures of Indian government such as Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament, India Gate and North and South Block.

2. The Centre’s ambitious Central Vista Project, covering a 3-km stretch from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate in Lutyens’ Delhi, the Supreme Court which found ‘no infirmity’ in the grant of environment clearance and other permissions.

3. Farmers protesting against the new Central agriculture laws Tuesday deferred their proposed tractor march from January 6 to January 7 due to a bad weather forecast, even as they asserted they will intensify their stir in the coming days.

4. The Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) has been training women hailing from villages in driving so that they can lead the procession of tractor-trolleys carrying farmers to participate in the tractor parade in Delhi on Republic Day.

5. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee turned 66 on January 5. Born in the year 1955, she started participating in political activities at the young age of 15. Her party All India Trinamool Congress, recently turned 23 as it entered 2021. In the 1984 general election, Mamata Banerjee was elected to the Lok Sabha as the youngest parliamentarian ever, defeating veteran Communist politician Somnath Chatterjee.

6. West Bengal Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Laxmi Ratan Shukla resigned from his post on Tuesday, giving yet another blow to the ruling Trinamool Congress ahead of the state assembly elections early this year.

7. A special National Investigation Agency court in Mumbai on Tuesday granted exemption from regular appearance to BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur in the Malegaon blast case of 2008. Thakur has multiple illnesses and is undergoing treatment at AIIMS.

8. The Union health ministry on Tuesday said it is prepared to roll out COVID-19 vaccine within about a week, but a final decision on the launch date is yet to be taken.

9. The Himachal Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur, Tuesday lifted night curfew in the four districts of Shimla, Mandi, Kullu and Kangra from Wednesday. The Cabinet also decided to allow coaching classes with 50 per cent capacity all over the state.

10. The Supreme Court asked the centre to repeal its three-year-old law which allowed the seizure of livestock from people even before they were found guilty of cruelty towards them. The 2017 law allowed authorities to seize cattle over suspicion of cruel treatment.

11. A special court has allowed Purvi Modi, sister of fugitive diamond merchant Nirav Modi, to become an `approver’ or a prosecution witness in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) scam case. Purvi, a Belgian national, is an accused in the case registered by the Enforcement Directorate. As per the investigating agency, Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi, in connivance with certain bank officials, cheated PNB to the tune of ₹14,000 crores by obtaining Letters of Undertaking (LoUs) fraudulently.

12. Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) on Monday released a list of 89 more candidates who have been recommended from the reserve list for civil services main exam 2019. The list can be accessed from the official website – upsc.gov.in.

13. Patiala police on Tuesday booked and arrested Punjabi singer and lyricist Shree Brar on the charges of promoting violence and gun culture in a song he had uploaded on social media. In the video, the singer is shown to have trespassed into Nabha police station in Patiala and rescue an arrested accused by pointing a weapon at the duty officer.

14. Former Vice-Chief of Naval Staff Vice-Admiral Melville Raymond Schunker, known by his nickname Dick Schunker, passed away at Manipal Hospital in Goa on Monday morning. He was 96.

15. India’s state-owned defence and aerospace firm Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) has received a contract to supply light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation dazzlers (laser dazzlers) for the Indian Navy.

16. IT major Tech Mahindra research and development arm, Makers Lab, has collaborated with the College of Military Engineering (CME), Pune to address challenges in the field of defence through technological innovations.

17. The Indian Army inducted 10-metre short-span new bridge for its operational preparedness in deserts and plain terrains. The mobile bridging group of the Research and Development Establishment (Engineers) laboratory of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

18. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) has started clearing snow from the Manali-Leh highway beyond the Atal Tunnel towards Keylong to connect the Lahaul valley.

19. Flights remained grounded while the Jammu-Srinagar highway continued to be closed as snowfall battered Kashmir Valley for the third consecutive day on Tuesday.

20. Coronavirus Cases:
10,369,514
Deaths: 150,028
Recovered: 9,986,904

✈️INTERNATIONAL NEWS

1. UK President Boris Johnson cancels Jan 26 India visit citing pandemic in the UK.

2. A 122-member triservice contingent of the Bangladesh Armed Forces will participate in the Republic Day parade of India this year, reported Indian newspaper The Hindu. This coincides with the 50th-anniversary celebrations of the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh.

3. Ahead of the transition of power in the White House. US envoy to India Ken Juster, on Tuesday, said that Washington is dedicated to not just bilateral relationships but to supporting India’s rise on the world stage

4. The suspension of the Kochi-London direct flight, introduced in August, has turned out to be a setback for Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL), which is receiving a lot of enquiries about the resumption of the service.

5. First meeting of High-Level Project monitoring committee for India funded projects held in Dhaka

🌎WORLD NEWS🌍

1. The government of Bangladesh has granted approval for the emergency use of the Oxford University-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.

2. The Congresswoman Nancy pelosi was re-elected as the speaker of US House of Representatives for the 117th Congress.

3. Google workers form Union: more than 200 Google employees have formed a workers Union in the United States. The union aims to ensure that employees work at a fair wage, without fear of abuse or discrimination.

4. UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that England will enter another lockdown, the third of its kind since the coronavirus pandemic began in the country early last year. The lockdown came into force at 12 a.m. on Tuesday,

Coronavirus Cases:
86,305,881
Deaths: 1,865,147
Recovered: 61,228,684

🚣🚴🏇🏁🏊Sports:

1. Indian men’s 65 kg freestyle wrestler Bajrang Punia who is currently in a training camp at Cliff Kean Wrestling Club in Michigan, USA, has had his camp sanctioned for an additional one month at an approximate cost of Rs. 11.65 Lakhs.

2. On January 4, 2021, 40th Indian Scientific Expedition to Antarctica was launched. The expedition was flagged off from Goa with 43 members.

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