LIVE: No data available on deaths of labourer during migration, says govt

This is the first Parliament session being held after 20 soldiers lost their loves in the line of duty in Ladakh amid clashes with China. Stay tuned for Latest LIVE news

3:02 AM

The GST compensation conundrum: Maharashtra leads in dues, shows data

States have not got any compensation for the goods and services tax (GST) shortfall so far this fiscal year. Maharashtra leads in compensation dues requirement up to July, followed by Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Tamil Nadu.

 

In fact, the compensation requirement in the four months up to July for Maharashtra, UP, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Assam, and Meghalaya has exceeded that for the entire FY20. Read more

2:57 AM

US halts imports from China's Uighur region for forced labour

Four companies and a manufacturing facility in northwestern China were blocked from shipping their products to the US because of their suspected reliance on forced labour from people detained as part of a massive campaign against ethnic minorities in the region.
 

US Customs and Border Protection issued orders on Monday freezing imports from companies that produce cotton, clothing and computer parts in the Xinjiang region of northwestern China, where authorities have detained more than 1 million people in detention camps as part of the crackdown.
 

CBP also halted imports of hair products made at a manufacturing facility where authorities believe Uighurs and other ethnic minorities are forced to work.
 

Ken Cuccinelli, the acting deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, dismissed the notion that the facility is a “vocational” center as has been portrayed by Chinese authorities.
 

“It is a concentration camp, a place where religious and ethnic minorities are subject to abuse and forced to work in heinous conditions with no recourse and no freedom,” Cuccinelli said. "This is modern day slavery.” The treatment of people in Xinjiang has become a source of friction between the US and China amid broader tensions over trade and the response to the coronavirus outbreak.
 

The Trump administration has over the past year issued eight of what are known as “withhold release orders,” on goods from China to block goods tainted by forced labour and is considering further steps amid ongoing disputes over trade and other issues between the two countries.
 

9:34 PM

Rajnath likely to make statement in Parliament on Sino-India issue on Tuesday

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh is likely to make a statement in Parliament on Tuesday on the continuing standoff between Indian and Chinese troops along the LAC in eastern Ladakh, Parliamentary sources said.
 

The statement would assume significance in the backdrop of demands made by the Opposition for a debate on the issue.
 

Singh had met his Chinese counterpart Gen Wei Fenghe in Moscow recently.
 

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi had also met in Moscow a few days ago.
 

Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet and the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs are also likely to meet over video conferencing on Tuesday afternoon, government sources said.
 

During the monsoon session, which began on Monday, the opposition is seeking to corner the government on its handling of the standoff with China along the Line of Actual Control in Ladakh, the Covid-19 situation, economic downturn and unemployment, and is pressing for discussions on these issues.
 

The Congress and other opposition parties raised these demands in the first business advisory committee (BAC) meeting for Lok Sabha chaired by Speaker Om Birla on Sunday, but no time has been allocated yet for these discussions.
 

The BAC for Lok Sabha will be held again on Tuesday afternoon to further discuss the first week's business schedule.

Similar demands have been raised by the Congress in the BAC for Rajya Sabha as well.
 

9:31 PM

Ahead of 2021 polls, Mamata announces monetary help, housing for Hindu priests

Under frequent attack by opposition parties for "minority appeasement", West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday announced monthly financial assistance of Rs 1,000 and free housing for over 8,000 Hindu priests of the state, ahead of the assembly election which is likely to be held in April-May next year.
 

With an eye on the Hindi-speaking electorate and tribal voters spread across the state, she also said that a Hindi Academy and a Dalit Sahitya Academy would be set up by her government.
 

She made the announcement on the Hindi Diwas, which is observed on this day annually to commemorate the adoption of Hindi as one of the official languages of the country.
 

Opposition parties described the announcements as "poll gimmicks".
 

"We had earlier provided land to the Sanatan Brahmin sect to set up an academy at Kolaghat. Many priests in this sect are financially weak. We have decided to help them by providing them with an allowance of Rs 1,000 per month and also free housing under the state government's housing scheme," Banerjee said.
 

"I would request all of you not to find any other meaning in this announcement. It is being done to help the Brahmin priests. They will start getting the allowance from next month as it is the Durga Puja season," the chief minister told a press conference here.
 

The announcements came within a week of BJP president J P Nadda's accusation that the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal has an "anti-Hindu" mindset and is pursuing "minority appeasement" policies.
 

9:30 PM

Sell enemy properties valued at Rs 1 trillion for driving growth: EAC-PM member

India should look at selling enemy properties valued at over Rs 1 trillion to take care of the current expenditure which will drive growth, Nilesh Shah, a part-time member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, said on Monday.
 

Both India and Pakistan had brought in legislations to take over enemy properties following the 1965 war. While Pakistan was able to liquidate the assets in 1971, India is 49 years behind, Shah said.
 

"You need to monetise government assets so that we have money available for spending," Shah, the managing director and chief executive of Kotak Mutual Fund, said while speaking at an IMC webinar.
 

He said the assets were valued at Rs 1 trillion three years ago and added that this is the best time to remove encroachments and clear title deficiencies to sell such properties.
 

Shah said there are 9,404 such properties under a government-appointed custodian taken over in 1965.
 

"Liquidate these properties and raise Rs 1 trillion or so to fund your expenditure," he said while replying to a question on ways to push up the sagging economic growth.
 

9:28 PM

IAEA in wide-ranging talks with Saudi Arabia on tougher nuclear checks

The U.N. nuclear watchdog is in wide-ranging talks with Saudi Arabia about tougher supervision of the kingdom's nuclear activities, the agency said on Monday, part of a wider effort to eliminate a "weakness" in the global inspections regime.
 

Saudi Arabia has a nascent nuclear programme that it wants to expand to eventually include proliferation-sensitive uranium enrichment. It is unclear where its ambitions end, since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in 2018 it would develop nuclear weapons if regional rival Iran did.
 

Riyadh has yet to fire up its first nuclear reactor, allowing its programme to still be monitored under the Small Quantities Protocol (SQP), an agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency that exempts less advanced states from many reporting obligations and inspections.
 

"We are in conversation with them. They are interested in developing nuclear energy, for peaceful purposes of course," IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said when asked about verification in Saudi Arabia.
 

"So it is obvious that when they upgrade their activities including by the introduction of nuclear material in the kingdom, then we will have to have a stronger safeguards system.
 

And nothing makes me think that this is not going to be the case."
 

If Saudi Arabia were to introduce nuclear material into the research reactor in Riyadh that is near completion, it would void the SQP and its exemptions from regular safeguards.
 

9:27 PM

Alphabet's YouTube to launch TikTok-like product

Alphabet Inc's YouTube is rolling out its version of social media rival TikTok, a new short-form video service called Shorts, enabled within its video-sharing platform.
 

YouTube will first test the feature in India over the next few days and then expand to more countries in the coming months, it said in a blog post on Monday.

YouTube's new product, which will compete with Facebook Inc's Reels and TikTok, will let users record short mobile-friendly vertical videos and then add special effects and soundtracks pulled from a music library.
 

The announcement also comes as Oracle Corp and China's ByteDance team up to keep TikTok operating in the United States, beating Microsoft Corp in a deal structured as a partnership rather than an outright sale.
 

YouTube's entry into the short-form video service space coincides with TikTok's ban in one of its biggest market, India, following the country's escalating tensions with China.
 

8:56 PM

No data available on deaths of labourers during migration due to lockdown: Govt

The government does not have data regarding the number of migrants who died or were injured during migration to their native places due to the lockdown, Union minister Santosh Gangwar told the Lok Sabha on Monday.

"No such data is available," the Labour Minister said in a written reply.

The response was to BJD member Bhartruhari Mahtab's question on the "the number of such labourers died/ injured during migration to their native places due to such lockdown, State/ UT-wise".

8:48 PM

Maratha quota: Ordinance route will be checked, says Balasaheb Thorat

Bringing an ordinance to give quota relief to the Maratha community is a legal issue and the Maha Vikas Aghadi government will take a look into it, said Maharashtra minister and state Congress chief Balasaheb Thorat on Monday.

 

His comments come in the wake of NCP chief Sharad Pawar last week suggesting the ordinance route after the Supreme Court, on Wednesday, stayed the implementation of a 2018 law granting reservation to the Maratha community in education and jobs in the state. "It is a legal issue. We will check it," Thorat told reporters here, adding the state government had approached the apex court "well-prepared".

 

The Supreme Court's interim order of staying the implementation of the law is "incomprehensible", he added.

 

8:43 PM

Govt may launch mobile app to record off-mandi transactions under new bill

The central government might create a mobile application to record all off-mandi transactions done under a new Bill on agricultural trade, said a senior official.

 

The Farmers’ Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, which was tabled in the Lok Sabha by Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Monday, contains a provision that the Centre may prescribe a system for electronic registration for a trader, modalities of trade transactions, and mode of payment of the schedule farmers’ produce in a trade area. A trade area has been defined as an area that is outside regular mandis. Read more