Now, you will be charged a fine of Rs 200 if caught flouting the COVID-19 norms in Mumbai. In a release on Sunday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said the residents of Mumbai will now be fined Rs 200 and will also be provided a free mask, if found without a face cover. The decision has been taken to encourage COVID-19-appropriate behaviour among the people. 
Farmers' protest against the Centre's three agriculture laws on Monday entered the fifth day. The farmers are demanding from the government to withdraw the three laws which according to them is not in the interest of the farming community. However, noted agriculture sector expert and economist, Vijay Sardana, said that the agitation is not about the laws, but it is about the traders who will be at loss.
West Bengal does not plan to resume physical classes in universities and colleges soon, state Education Minister Partha Chatterjee said. Education institutions have been closed across the country since March after the coronavirus outbreak. However, in October, the Union Ministry of Education had issued guidelines for reopening of schools.
AIMIM leader Asaduddin Owaisi on Monday raked up the issue of farmers protest in Delhi as he chided Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah for not listening to their demands.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday alleged that the Khalistanis and the Maoists have stepped in to propagate under the garb of the farmers’ protests and accused Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal of seeing this as an "opportunity to burn down delhi." Taking to Twitter, BJP IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya said, "Arvind Kejriwal led Delhi government has already notified the new Farm Laws on 23Nov20 and had started implementing them. But now that the Khalistanis and Maoists have stepped in to oppose, he sees an opportunity to burn down Delhi." "It was never about farmers. Just politics," he added.
With the mean minimum temperature dropping to 10.2 degrees Celsius, Delhi this year witnessed the coldest November in 71 years, the India Meteorological Department has said. Earlier in 1949, Delhi had recorded a mean minimum temperature of 10.2 degrees Celsius in the month of November. The mean minimum temperature for November was 9.6 degrees Celsius in 1938; nine degrees Celsius in 1931 and 8.9 degrees Celsius in 1930, according to IMD data.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said he has issued directives to reduce the price of the RT-PCR test in the national capital, saying it will help those going to private labs for COVID-19 tests. Currently, people have to spend Rs 2,400 for the RT-PCR test at private labs. "I have directed that the rates of RT PCR tests be reduced in Delhi. Whereas tests are being conducted free of cost in govt establishments, however this will help those who get their tests done in pvt labs," Kejriwal tweeted.
Colleges for final year undergradute students in Tamil Nadu will reopen from December 7, Chief Minister K Palaniswami said on Monday. Easing curbs further, Palaniswami said social, political and entertainment events would be allowed in auditoriums. Beaches including the Marina and tourist places shall be opened for public and swimming pools would be allowed to operate for training purposes, he said listing out fresh relaxations effective December 1.
An on-duty traffic personnel in Nagpur was dragged on the bonnet of a car for almost half a kilometre after he tried to stop the vehicle for breaking traffic norms. The incident took place on Sunday in Sakkardara area of Nagpur and the driver, Akash Chavan, was arrested soon after.
Air quality in Delhi was recorded in the 'very poor' category on Monday and is likely to deteriorate further with calm winds and low temperature allowing accumulation of pollutants. The city's air quality index (AQI) was 307. The 24-hour average AQI was 268 on Sunday. It was 231 on Saturday, 137 on Friday, 302 on Thursday and 413 on Wednesday.
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has increased the number of ICU beds to 500 in Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Covid Hospital at Delhi Cantonment, an official statement said on Sunday.
Elections to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) will be held on December 1. The counting of votes for the poll would be taken up on December 4. There are 150 wards in all in the corporation, and the mayor’s post is reserved for a woman this time. The GHMC is in charge of the civic administration and infrastructure of Hyderabad. In the 2016 elections, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi had won 44 seats. The TRS had pocketed 99 seats while the BJP secured just 4 seats. The TDP and Congress won two seats each.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to vaccine facilities was a recognition of Indian scientists and an acknowledgement of institutions that India has built over decades, Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma said on Sunday. Taking to Twitter, Sharma said, "Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi visit to Serum Institute, Bharat Biotech and Zydus Cadila was a recognition of Indian scientists and their work to produce the vaccine for COVID-19 That alone will lift morale of frontline warriors and reassure the nation (sic)."
India on Sunday strongly hit out at the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for making factually incorrect and unwarranted references to Jammu and Kashmir in resolutions adopted by the grouping at a meeting in Niger, and asserted that the union territory is an integral and inalienable part of the country.
Planning a visit to the Taj Mahal? As per a revised rule, you can book a maximum of five tickets for adults and three for children. Earlier, a person could book up to 20 tickets online for the Taj Mahal. The decision has been taken to curb the black-marketing of tickets to the Taj Mahal, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has said.
India's COVID-19 caseload crossed the 94-lakh mark on Monday, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease crossed 88,47,000, pushing the national recovery rate to 93.81 per cent, according to the Union Health Ministry data. The total coronavirus cases mounted to 94,31,692 with 38,772 new infections being reported in a day, while the death toll climbed to 1,37,139 with 443 new fatalities, the data updated at 8 am showed.
Stating that a clear picture on COVID-19 vaccine will emerge by the first few months of 2021, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said that by June-July, almost 30 crore people will get a scientifically approved, safe and efficacious vaccine, adding that experts are currently busy chalking out plans on how to roll out the distribution of the vaccine in the country.
The Rajasthan government has imposed a night curfew from 8 pm to 6 am within urban limits of 13 district headquarter towns. The towns are Kota, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Udaipur, Ajmer, Alwar, Bhilwara, Nagore, Pali, Tonk, Sikar and Ganganagar. The restridctions will remain in place from December 1 to 31.
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Rajasthan’s Rajsamand, Kiran Maheshwari, passed away on Sunday night at a hospital in Gurugram, news agency ANI reported. She was 69.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Monday interact with three teams involved in developing a vaccine for COVID-19 via video conferencing. According to a statement by the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), he will interact with the teams of the Gennova Biopharma, Biological E, and Dr Reddy's, who are involved in developing a COVID-19 vaccine.
A day after farmers turned down the government's offer to hold talks, the protesting farmers have threatened to block five highways connecting Delhi to Gurugram, Ghaziabad, and Faridabad. Till Sunday, only Singhu border and Tikri border were blocked by the farmers. The three entry points where security has been beefed up are Jaipur-Delhi highway that connects Gurugram to Delhi; Hapur-Delhi highway that connects Delhi with Ghaziabad; and Mathura-Delhi highway that connects Faridabad to Delhi.
At least five persons were booked on Sunday, on the charge of causing death by negligence, two days after a fire at a designated private COVID-19 hospital in Gujarat's Rajkot. According to the police statement, the probe into the incident has revealed violation of multiple norms by the hospital management. The accused included chairman, executive director, and other officials of Gokul Healthcare Pvt Limited which operates Uday Shivanand COVID Hospital, where the five deaths had occurred.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit his parliamentary constituency Varanasi on Monday to dedicate to the nation the widened Handia-Rajatalab section of National Highway 19, officials said. He will also undertake a site visit of Kashi Vishwanath Temple Corridor Project, the Sarnath Archaeological Site and later attend Dev Deepawali in Varanasi, they said.
As many as 52 people, including staff members of Indore Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. According to a statement by Amit Malakar, Nodal Officer of Indore (MP), as many as 22 samples from Indore Bench of Madhya Pradesh High Court were tested recently, out of which 52 have tested positive. 
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday offered prayers at the Bhagyalakshmi temple abutting the historic Charminar ahead of his participation in the BJP campaign for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections. The campaigning for the December 1 local elections will end on Sunday evening.
Bristling at the pitch by Yogi Adityanath on "renaming" Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi has hit back saying that the Uttar Pradesh chief minister's generation may end but the city will continue to be called as Hyderabad. His comment came after Adityanath had on Saturday during a mega roadshow in the Malkajgiri area of Hyderabad, said that the city will be renamed Bhagyanagar if the BJP is voted to power in Telangana.
Pakistani Rangers violated the ceasefire overnight by unprovoked firing on forward posts and villages along the International Border (IB) in Jammu and Kashmir's Kathua district, officials said on Sunday.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he was committed to the welfare of hardworking farmers. Addressing his radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat' today, the prime minister said the Centres' new farm laws were a step in this direction. The prime minister's statement comes amid farmers' protest on Delhi's interstate borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, over farm laws. 
The first FIR under the newly promulgated ordinance on forced religious conversions, popularly known 'love jihad', has been registered in Uttar Pradesh's Bareilly district. The complaint was filed at the Deorania police station on Saturday night. Tikaram, resident of the Sharif Nagar village under Deorania police circle, has lodged a complaint that a youth from his village has lured his daughter and is now forcing her to convert. A case under Sections 504/506 IPC and section 3/5 of the 'Vidhi Virudh Dharam Parivartan Adhiniyam' (anti-conversion law) has been registered in the matter.
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Sunday attacked the government over a media report which claimed that scholarship for 60 lakh SC school students was stuck after central funding was ended and alleged that in the "BJP-RSS vision of India, Adivasis and Dalits should not have access to education".
Madhya Pradesh, which is known as the ‘tiger state’ of India, has lost 26 striped animals so far this year, as per the National Tiger Conservation Authority.
Borders of Haridwar will remain sealed today and tomorrow (November 30) as a measure to ensure that devotees do not enter the district to take the holy dip in Ganga which is not allowed on the occasion of Kartik Purnima. Lakhs of devotees from different parts of the country including Delhi, Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh converge on the banks of the Ganga here for a ritual bath in the river on the occasion every year.
All subordinate offices and departments in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack will function with 75 per cent strength of employees next month, the Odisha government said on Saturday. The directions cover entire staff including Group-A officers. The General Administration and Public Grievance Department on Saturday issued an official order in this regard and said that also said that all state government offices throughout the state will remain closed on Saturdays.
A five-year-old boy was crushed to death in his building’s lift in Dharavi on Saturday. The deceased has been identified as Mohammad Huzaifa Sarfaraz Shaikh. According to the police, the incident took place in the Cozy housing society at Cross Road in Dharavi at 12:43 pm. Huzaifa boarded the lift with his younger and elder sister from the ground floor to go to his fourthfloor apartment.
The air quality in Delhi was recorded in the 'poor' category on Sunday and is likely to deteriorate further amid a dip in the mercury and the wind speed. The city's air quality index (AQI) was 245 at 9 am. The 24-hour average was 231 on Saturday, 137 on Friday, 302 on Thursday and 413 on Wednesday.
The national capital is all set to record coldest November in at least 10 years, with the mean minimum temperature for the month this year hovering around 10 degrees Celsius, according to India Meteorological Department data. In Delhi, the average minimum temperature for the month of November is 12.9 degrees Celsius.
The Delhi government issued work-from-home (WFH) orders for 50 per cent of its employees associated with non-essential services amid a surge in COVID-19 cases in the national capital. The govt also advised private establishments to stagger timings and the presence of staff in the view of the Covid pandemic.
The Yogi Adityanath government has launched a massive exercise to create storage space for the Covid-19 vaccine when it arrives.
Protesting farmers are set to decide their next course of action today (Sunday). According to a statement by Bharatiya Kisan Union (Dakaunda) president Buta Singh Burjgill, no decision has yet been taken on shifting to the Burari ground in Delhi, a place earmarked for their agitation by police. Meanwhile, Punjab BJP president Ashwani Sharma urged farmers take to discussions to resolve their issues. Sharma urged them to avoid holding demonstrations.
India reported 41,810 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 496 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the latest update by from the Union Health Ministry. There are currently are currently 4,53,956 active COVID-19 cases in the country, and 88,02,267 have recovered. 42,298 recoveries have been reported since the previous update, which lowered the number of active cases by 984.
Terrorists are making desperate attempts to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir and disrupt the District Development Council (DDC) polls in the Union Territory, Army Chief General MM Naravane said on Saturday. He also said terrorism emanating from across the border continues to be a serious threat and that it was not abating despite all the efforts being made to check it.
An officer of the CRPF's jungle warfare unit, CoBRA, was killed while nine commandos were injured in an improvised explosive device (IED) blast triggered by Naxals in the Sukma district, security officials said on Sunday.
After a rise in Covid-19 cases in Dehradun, the Uttarakhand Police announced that they would monitor details of the movement of people from other states to Uttarakhand. "Strict instructions are given to the policemen posted on the border check posts for proper checking and keeping the full details of people coming from other states to Uttarakhand," said Arun Mohan Joshi, Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Dehradun.
The Border Security Force (BSF) late on Friday spotted a drone at the International border in Jammu and Kashmir's RS Pura sector. According to the BSF statement on Saturday, the drone was spotted at the International Border in Arnia area. Commenting further, the BSF said the drone went back to Pakistan after its security personnel fired at it.
The Northern Railways has said some trains will be short terminated, short originated or will be diverted as the farmers' protest against farm bills continues in Punjab. The Chief Public Relations Officer, Northern Railways Deepak Kumar has issued a release in this regard. 
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to address the nation through his monthly radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat' today. Earlier on November 17, PM Modi had invited suggestions from the people, for the 71st edition of the programme.
Drug firm Zydus Cadila on Saturday said the presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at its Zydus Biotech Park will motivate the company to scale greater heights in its pursuit to bridge unmet healthcare needs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday began his three-city visit to review coronavirus vaccine development work by going to pharma major Zydus Cadila's manufacturing facility near Ahmedabad.
With more than 50,000 farmers assembled at the Haryana-Delhi border, and many more farmers on their way from Punjab, UP and Haryana to the national capital, the situation has now become tense. Delhi Police has offered Burari ground to farmers for staging their sit-in and all arrangements have been made, but some sections of farmers are insisting on marching towards Ramlila Maidan in central Delhi. Tractors of farmers who have reached Burari ground are being sanitized by Delhi Police to prevent outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic among farmers. On Friday, there were clashes between police and farmers at Delhi’s Singhu border and police had to use mild lathi charge, tear gas and water cannons to stop farmers from advancing. At Tikri border, on Delhi-Bahadurgarh highway, farmers clashed with police and there was lathi charge and tear gas shells were used. There were massive traffic jams on Delhi-Gurugram highway, Peeragarhi, Mukarba Chowk and Dhaula Kuan as farmers insisted on moving towards central Delhi. The only way out of the present impasse is immediate start of negotiations between the Centre and farmers’ representatives. If Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, one of the proponents of farmers’ interests, takes the initiative for talks, leaders of farmers’ organization may trust him. No one wants police to fire water cannons and resort to lathi charge on farmers in Delhi’s cold winter. If the government manages to persuade farmer leaders, a way out can be found. Neither the government, nor the farmers’ leaders should insist on remaining adamant, in the national interest. The farmers have two main demands, or if we can say, two main points for apprehension. One, the new farm laws do not guarantee Minimum Support Prices for them, and Two, if the new laws are enforced, the agriculture ‘mandis’ (markets) will be abolished and farmers will be fully dependent on the whims and fancies of big corporates. The farmers are apprehensive about abolition of MSPs because it is a fact that in many states, farmers do not even get the minimum support prices fixed by the Centre. They are forced to sell their produce at Rs 800 per quintal, even if the government fixes the MSP at Rs 1800. Farmers complain that they do not get MSPs for paddy, maize, mustard and some other crops. Several suggestions have been made in this regard, particularly the ‘Bhaavaantar’ scheme of Madhya Pradesh government, where the state government compensates for the difference between MSP and the price at which produce is being sold by farmers. Farmers’ leaders say that if this scheme is implemented across the country, farmers will get a lot of relief. As far as Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees(APMC) ‘mandis’ are concerned, nowhere in the new laws is there any provision for their abolition. The new laws only provide a window for farmers to sell their crops to buyers outside the ‘mandis’ and it is up to the farmers to opt for whichever system that is offering him a better price. The new laws do not provide for abolition of ‘mandis’. They only provide ‘alternate facility’ for farmers to sell their crops. The ‘mandis’ will continue to function, but the misfortune is that those who have misled the farmers have gained an upper hand, while those who were supposed to convince the farmers, failed to do so. I do not think Narendra Modi’s government is anti-farmer and is playing into the hands of big corporates. Let both sides join the negotiations at the earliest and the present impasse is removed. Farmers are our ‘annadatas’ (providers of food) and they provide the heft and strength to the nation, as was seen this year when the Covid-19 pandemic broke, and all industrial activity came to a standstill. Not a single person in India died of starvation nor was there any shortage of food and essential commodities, as was feared when the lockdown was announced. Hats off to our farmers.
Thousands of farmers have reached the national capital on their tractor-trolleys and other vehicles, responding to the “Delhi Chalo" call against the agri-marketing laws enacted at the Centre in September. On Saturday morning, it wasn’t clear if they will agree to move to the Burari ground on the outskirts of the city, where police said they can continue with their protest. Many protesters were demanding a better venue in the centre of Delhi. Originally, the protest was meant to be on November 26 and 27.Republic Day 2024 : As India's 75th Republic Day Parade kicked off in the national capital, a 30-member band contingent and a marching c...
