farmers Update,Snowfall in India, Bihar Polls, Coronavirus news,

26 October 2020

• Himachal Pradesh’s Keylong sees season's first snowfall 

  Keylong and its nearby areas in Himachal Pradesh experienced the season's first snowfall on October 26, bringing smiles on the faces of the residents, who largely grow potatoes as well as exotic vegetables. The state capital and Manali witnessed dry weather, while the higher reaches of the state had light snow in the past 24 hours. 

• Coronavirus latest update: Maha Dy CM Ajit Pawar tests COVID-19 positive 

  Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar today said that he had tested coronavirus positive and got himself admitted to the city hospital.  Nationalist Congress Party senior leader Ajit Pawar tweeted that he was asymptomatic but as advised by his doctors got himself admitted to Breach Candy Hospital as a precautionary measure.  "My health is perfect. After a bit of rest, I shall be in your midst soon," Pawar said in a message, four days after he had gone into isolation after feeling feverish. 

• Union Minister Dilip Ray sentenced to three years jail for coal scam 

  A Special CBI court on October 26 sentenced former Union Minister Dilip Ray to three-years imprisonment in a coal block allocation case.  Ray was the Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 1999 and the case pertains to allocation of 105.153 hectares of non-nationalised and abandoned coal mining area in Jharkhand's Giridih district in favour of Castron Technologies Limited by 14th Screening Committee of the Ministry of Coal in 1999. 

• Airtel enters $1billion cloud communications market in India 

  Bharti Airtel today launched a new platform called Airtel IQ, marking the company's entry into an estimated $1 billion Indian cloud communications market. Airtel IQ, a cloud-based omnichannel communications platform, is designed to enable brands to deepen engagement with customers through timely and secure communication. 

• Centre to SC, will bring new legislation in 3 to 4 days to address air pollution via Stubble Burning

  Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on October 26 informed the Supreme Court that the Centre has taken a holistic view of the issue of air pollution in Delhi NCR, which also includes pollution due to stubble burning, and it intends to bring out legislation in next three to four days to tackle this issue. 

  A bench headed by Chief Justice S.A. Bobde told Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, it welcomes the Centre's decision to establish a body to address the menace of air pollution. "Everybody is choking in the city, it must be curbed", said the Chief Justice citing the menace of air pollution in the national capital. 

• High Court turns down NIFT students' plea against fee hike 

  The Delhi High Court has declined a petition filed by fourth-year students of National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) against fee hike which they dubbed "arbitrary" and "irrational". "There are no grounds to warrant any interference by this court. There is no merit in the present petition and the same is dismissed," said Justice Jayant Nath. 

• Mike Pompeo to attend India-US 2+2 ministerial dialogue 

  US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and defence secretary Mark Esper arrived in the national Capital on October 26 for a two-day visit, during which they will also hold bilateral talks with their Indian counterparts S. Jaishankar and Rajnath Singh. 

  The 2+2 ministerial dialogue, to be held on tomorrow morning, is expected to focus on regional security cooperation, defence information-sharing so that the two sides can tackle regional challenges more effectively, global cooperation, including public health collaboration to cope with COVID-19, economic cooperation, and working together in the Indo-Pacific.    

• BJP to overtake JD-U in Bihar seats as per opinion poll 

  NDA is comfortably returning to power in Bihar with a clear majority but the remarkable twist is that BJP is emerging as the single largest party much ahead of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar led JD-U. 

  Opinion poll data of Bihar state elections released by various news agencies says that Nitish Kumar led NDA comprising JD-U and BJP alliance will get 135-159 seats in the assembly elections, getting a clear majority whereas the BJP will be the largest party in the assembly as per the opinion with 73-81 seats while JD-U will get between 59-87 seats. RJD-Congress-led Mahagathbandhan alliance will get 77-98 seats whereas Chirag Paswan's LJP projected of 1-5 seats while other parties get 4-8 seats.