1. Gujarat Assembly poll results: Congress set to lose Leader of Opposition in 15th Assembly
2. Congress got Majority in Himachal Pradesh: ‘All Cong MLAs To Go To Raipur After Victory,’ Says Vikramaditya Singh
3. Assembly, Lok Sabha Bypoll Result 2022
4. “Will Protect Journalists, Pandits In Kashmir,” Says Home Ministry Amid Fresh Threats
5. Rafale M fighter edges out F/A-18 Super Hornet in equipping INS Vikrant

What Else

6. ISRO to develop Spatial Data Infrastructure geoportal for Ladakh: Union Minister
7. Plan to lease out another 11 airports for 50 years: Jyotiraditya Scindia says ‘process is on’
8. AIIMS’ hacked server limps back to normalcy after 15 days outage, poor and sick from remote areas suffered most
9. Twitter will charge iPhone users INR 900 for Twitter Blue, others to pay INR 570
10. During Xi’s visit to Middle East, China and Saudi Arabia sign 34 energy and investment deals
11. Canada raises concern over China-linked police radio deal
12. US to take action if terrorists regroup in Afghanistan: State Department
13. US blacklists Pakistan firms over nuclear activities
14. As China rolls back Covid-19 curbs, virus fears spread
15. ‘Deeply disturbing’: UN on 1st public execution since Taliban takeover
16. Bangladesh’s current account deficit widens as imports surge: Report

Gujarat Assembly poll results: Congress set to lose Leader of Opposition in 15^th Assembly

• Congress is headed for its worst show yet as the counting of votes nears an end on Thu, for the Gujarat Assembly Elections 2022.
• As of 4.55 pm, the picture is quite clear: BJP won 71 and led on 87, while Congress could manage only 6 with leed on 10.
• Even the debutant Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has won 2 seats and is leading 4 more.
• PM Modi’s party is set to form its 7^th govt in Gujarat. (here)

Congress got Majority in Himachal Pradesh: ‘All Cong MLAs To Go To Raipur After Victory,’ Says Vikramaditya Singh

• Congress candidate Vikramaditya is leading in the Shimla rural seat, son of the Former Chief Minister Late Veer Bhadra Singh.
• He said that the Congress Party in Himachal Pradesh will take all MLAs to Raipur after their victory and the Chief Minister will be decided after that meeting in Raipur.
• Congress secured a majority after getting 35 seats in, while is leading in 4 seats.
• BJP could win only 21 seats and is leading in 5 seats more, 3 went to others.

Assembly, Lok Sabha Bypoll Result 2022

• BJP candidate Akash Saxena has won in Samajwadi Party leader Muhammad Azam Khan’s bastion Rampur Sadar in Uttar Pradesh, defeating Asim Raja, Khan’s close aide
• Meanwhile, SP candidate Dimple Yadav has retained the party’s stronghold, the Mainpuri Lok Sabha seat.
• BJP’s Kedar Prasad Gupta has won in Bihar’s Kurhani Assembly segment;
• Meanwhile, Congress is leading in both Sardarshahar (Rajasthan) and Bhanupratappur (Chhattisgarh) Assembly constituencies. (here)

“Will Protect Journalists, Pandits In Kashmir,” Says Home Ministry Amid Fresh Threats

• Ministry of Home has accepted that 8 Srinagar-based media persons have received threats from militants, with 4 of them having resigned from their jobs over these threats
• This came after a fresh round of threats issued to Kashmiri journalists working in the Valley.
• Earlier this week, Kashmir Fight, the mouthpiece of terrorist outfit TRF, had released a fresh list of journalists and politicians, threatening to attack them in the Valley.
• The list has been published on the TRF blog, an outfit of the LeT terror outfit.
• According to the minister, a case has been registered at the Shergari Police Station in Srinagar.
• Earlier, security agencies went into a tizzy when Kashmiri Pandit teachers at govt institutions were threatened with dire consequences with their names. (here)

Rafale M fighter edges out F/A-18 Super Hornet in equipping INS Vikrant

• The French Rafale M fighter has edged out the American F/A-18 Super Hornet in direct competition to equip
• The Indian Navy with 26 new deck-based fighters for the country’s first indigenous aircraft carrier, INS Vikrant, HT (source) on Thu.
• The Rafale is manufactured by Dassault Aviation while the Super Hornet is a Boeing product.
• Dassault and Boeing demonstrated the capabilities of their aircraft to the navy at a shore-based test facility in Goa in Jan and Jun, respectively.
• The navy has submitted the trial reports of the 2 fighters to the defense ministry, and it is now for the govt to take a final call on the G2G deal. (here)

ISRO to develop Spatial Data Infrastructure geoportal for Ladakh: Union Minister

• The govt of the UT, Ladakh has approached the Indian Institute of Remote Sensing for developing “Spatial Data Infrastructure geoportal ‘Geo-Ladakh’ for UT”, said MoS, Sci&Tech on Wed.
• In a reply to a question in the LS, MoS said, the project encompasses spatial database generation using remote sensing, geospatial techniques, and the development of a Geo-portal for hosting this database.
• According to the Department of Space, the project also aims towards training of UT-Ladakh officials on Geospatial techniques and applications.
• Portal provides geospatial data visualization and analytics for UT-Ladakh, consisting of Spatial viewer, Carbon Neutrality, Geospatial utility mapping, and Geo-Tourism.
• He further said that a Memorandum of Understanding was also signed between IIRS and UT Admin on Jan 1, 2022, towards carrying out the above work. (here)

Plan to lease out another 11 airports for 50 years: Jyotiraditya Scindia says ‘process is on’

• India continues to be the fastest-growing aviation market in the world and the signs of revival post the Covid-19 pandemic are visible.
• Post Omicron, domestic air travel hit a fresh high on Mon (Dec 5), when the number of domestic passengers peaked 413716.
• Civil aviation minister is very bullish on the country’s aviation sector and is hopeful that India’s air passenger number will touch about 40 cr a year in the next 5 years.
• In a move to further boost the country’s aviation industry, Scindia has shared that the govt is looking to lease out 11 more airports. (here)

AIIMS’ hacked server limps back to normalcy after 15 days outage, poor and sick from remote areas suffered most

• India’s prime health institute, AIIMS, New Delhi is the biggest health facility in the nation.
• The AIIMS setup had been crippled for almost two weeks until it limped back to normalcy on Wed, Dec 7.
• It is unclear what happened with the Rs 200 crore ransom demanded by the hackers who had held the data that is so vital to the operations of this renowned health facility.
• AP reports that hospital authorities didn’t respond to requests for comment on who conducted the Nov 23 attack on the AIIMS server or where it originated.
• Times Now (sources) that AIIMS contacted DRDO around the eighth day of an outage to work towards resolving the issue. (here)

Twitter will charge iPhone users INR 900 for Twitter Blue, others to pay INR 570

• Twitter plans to change the Blue tick subscription product to $11, from $7.99, if paid for through its iPhone app, and to $7 if paid for on the website, reported on Wed
• The move was likely a pushback against Apple Inc’s (AAPL.O) 30% cut on any payments made by users via apps on the iOS operating system, the report said.
• The lower pricing on the website was also likely to drive more users to the platform as opposed to signing up on their iPhones.
• It did not mention whether pricing would change for the Android too. (here)

[NEIGHBORHOOD]

During Xi’s visit to Middle East, China and Saudi Arabia sign 34 energy and investment deals

• China and Saudi Arabia have signed 34 energy and investment deals as Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to enhance the comprehensive strategic partnership with Riyadh.
• Chinese and Saudi Arabian companies signed dozens of agreements covering green energy, informational technology, infrastructure and medical industries on Wed
• Xi started his state visit in Saudi Arabia before attending two key summits with Arab and Gulf countries over the next two days.
• The total value of the 34 deals was not revealed.
• But the agency reported earlier that the two countries had aimed to sign 20 preliminary agreements worth US$29.26 billion.
• In the first three quarters of 2022, imports from Saudi accounted for 17.8% of China’s total oil imports.
• The Middle East was also the main beneficiary of belt and road investment in the first half of 2022. (here)

Canada raises concern over China-linked police radio deal

• Canadian PM Justin Trudeau on Wed expressed dismay as he vowed to review a contract awarded to a Beijing-linked firm to supply and maintain federal police radio.
• The half-million dollar contract for a radio frequency filtering system to prevent spying went to Canada’s Sinclair Technologies, which is controlled by China’s Hytera.
• The Shenzen-based company is partly owned by the Chinese govt and blacklisted by the US – raising concerns about potential Chinese access to Canadian Police comm.
• “I find it disconcerting,” Trudeau told a news conference on the sidelines of a biodiversity conference in Montreal co-hosted by Canada and China. (here)

US to take action if terrorists regroup in Afghanistan: State Department

• The US has reiterated the President’s pledge of taking action “in a way that protects our interests” if the US sees “international terrorists regrouping in Afghanistan”.
• The statement came on Wed in response to a question about the rise of violence in Afghanistan and the Taliban’s failure to not provide “safe havens” to terrorist groups.
• Terrorist groups include Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan, al-Qaeda, the Islamic State, and others.
• Price said that the Afghan Taliban had been “either unable or unwilling to live up to the commitments that they’ve made in several areas”
• The US’ broader goal was to make sure that “terrorists and others aren’t able to use Afghanistan as a launch pad for attacks on Pakistan”.
• The vow comes almost a week after Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul came under attack, for which the IS claimed responsibility. (here)

US blacklists Pakistan firms over nuclear activities

• The Biden admin on Wed added 24 companies and other entities to an export control list for supporting Russia’s military, Pak’s nuclear, or supplying Iranian.
• The entities, based in Latvia, Pakistan, Russia, Singapore, and Switzerland, were added over US national security and foreign policy concerns.
• 10 companies in Pakistan say pose unacceptable risks of using or diverting items for un-safeguarded nuclear activities.
• The companies include Fiber Optic Solutions in Latvia, which produces fiber optic gyroscopes and other equipment and Russia’s AO Kraftway Corp PSC.
• The company says it builds and sells a wide range of IT solutions, including hardware manufacturing. (here)

As China rolls back Covid-19 curbs, virus fears spread

• Many Chinese gained freedom on Thu after the country dropped key parts of its tough zero-Covid regime,
• Some cities warned residents to maintain vigilance against a virus that, until now, has been largely kept in check.
• Three years into the pandemic, many in China had been itching for Beijing to start to align its rigid virus prevention measures with the rest of the world.
• Those frustrations boiled over into widespread protests last month, the biggest show of public discontent since President Xi Jinping came to power in 2012.
• China reported 21,439 new Covid-19 infections on Dec. 7, compared with 25,321 a day earlier. (here)

‘Deeply disturbing’: UN on 1st public execution since Taliban takeover

• What is believed to be the first public execution in Afghanistan since the Taliban seized power last year, drew criticism from the UN human rights office, OHCHR on Wed.
• Taliban carried out the first public execution of a man charged with murder since the militant group took over the country last year, VOA reported.
• Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said the public execution took place in a sports stadium in western Farah province.
• Hundreds of people witnessed the execution, including the group’s top officials.
• The Taliban spokesperson said that the executed person was tried in the Taliban courts and subsequent appellate tribunals. (here)

Bangladesh’s current account deficit widens as imports surge: Report

• Bangladesh’s current account deficit further widened in Oct as imports continued to increase in comparison to the combined receipts from exports and remittances.
• The current account records Bangladesh’s transactions with the rest of the world, particularly its net trade in goods and services.
• The data from the central bank has revealed that the current account stood at $4.5 bn in deficit at the end of Oct.
• Earlier in 2021, the current account had a deficit of $3.83 bn, a reverse from the corresponding period in 2020 when it was a surplus of $4.05 bn. (here)