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Voters in Switzerland have cast their final ballots on Sunday on an initiative championed by the top right-wing party to cap the rich Alpine country's population at 10 million. Early results showed Swiss voters were leaning against it. The populist Swiss People's Party, which has the most seats in parliament, has stirred up and fostered anti-migration sentiment over the years, notably about an influx of workers from the neighbouring European Union. Some have dubbed the proposal a "Swiss Brexit" because it could jeopardise Switzerland's deep ties to the European Union anchored by deals that foster economic growth, cultural ties and cross-border travel, among other things. Switzerland is not one of the EU's 27 member states, but it is all but surrounded by four of them Recent polling from the gfs.bern agency suggested that it could be a close contest. Preliminary results shared by the federal government showed that nearly 53 per cent of voters rejected the proposal, with nationwide .
The first phase of 'Census 2027' formally began in Uttarakhand on Friday with Governor Lt Gen (retd) Gurmit Singh and Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami registering their details digitally through the 'self-enumeration' facility. Under the program, house listing and house enumeration work has begun in the state. For the first time under 'Digital India', citizens have been given the opportunity to enter their information online before a census officer visits their homes. Officials said that this facility of self-enumeration will be available from April 10 to April 24 and after this, from April 25 to May 24, the census workers will go door to door to collect the data. On this occasion, the governor stated that the census is not merely a collection of data, but a cornerstone of the state's development. He appealed to citizens to actively participate in this important campaign through self-enumeration, ensuring the accuracy and reliability of the data. The CM said that accurate census
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed a plea seeking a direction to the Centre to stop caste Census, and slammed the petitioner for the language used in the PIL. "'Aapne apne petition me badtameezi ki bhasa likhi hai. Aapne kisse apna petition likhwaya hai' (You have written indecent language in your petition. Who has written your petition?)," a visibly angry Chief Justice Surya Kant told the petitioner, who was appearing in person. "Aap kahan se aisi bhasa likhte ho petition me (From where you write such language in your petition)," the CJI, who was heading the bench which also comprised Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi, told the petitioner. The bench dismissed the plea, which also sought a direction to the Centre to formulate policies to provide economic incentives to families with a single child. On February 2, the top court had refused to entertain a separate PIL questioning the procedure to be adopted to record, classify and verify the caste data of citizens in th
More than 5.72 lakh households have availed the self-enumeration facility so far during the first phase of the Census 2027, the Registrar General of India (RGI) said on Friday. This reflects the growing participation in the digital initiative of the Census, it said. "By choosing to provide their details online, these families have embraced a faster, smarter and a more convenient way to contribute to nation-building," the RGI said in a post on X. The self-enumeration facility is available to citizens in states and Union territories which will start physical Houselisting and Housing Census (HLO) from April 16. The Census 2027 kick-started on April 1 in eight states and Union territories, including New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) and Delhi Cantt areas of the national capital, with a 15-day self-enumeration window -- a first in the history of the massive exercise. A specially developed portal for self-enumeration has been opened for the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Goa, Karnataka,
The government has notified a set of 33 questions to be asked during the first phase of Census 2027 -- Housing Listing and Housing Operations (HLO) -- a month-long exercise to be conducted between April 1 and September 30 as per schedules finalised by states and Union Territories, a top official said on Monday. The Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan, said, according to a January 22 notification, enumerators will collect details such as building number (municipal or local authority or census number), census house number, and the predominant materials used for the floor, walls, and roof. They will also record the use and condition of the house and assign a household number. They will also ask about the total number of usual residents in the household, name and sex of the head of the household, whether the head belongs to a Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe or other category, ownership status of the house, number of dwelling rooms and the number