GOVT INVITES FARM LEADERS FOR TALKS TODAY; PM BLAMES PROTEST ON

MISINFORMATION

The Centre on Monday night invited agitating farmer unions for talks on

December 1, two days ahead of a scheduled meeting, as their stir against the

new agri-marketing laws appeared to intensify despite a strong defence of

the legislation by the government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi who

accused the opposition of 'playing tricks' on farmers again through

misinformation.

The development came a day after the protesting farmers rejected the

Centre's offer to start talks as soon as they move to Burari - they

continued to stay put at Singhu and Tikri borders of the national capital.

Long queues of vehicles choked the roads as the Delhi Police kept the Singhu

and Tikri borders closed and heightened checking at others.

"Keeping in view the cold and COVID-19, we have invited leaders of farmer

unions for discussion much before the scheduled December 3 meeting,"

Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said, and urged the farmers to end

their stir.

Addressing a press conference on Monday, representatives of agitating

farmers said that they have come to Delhi for a 'decisive' battle and asked

Prime Minister Modi to listen to their 'mann ki baat'.

The opposition parties too stepped up pressure, asking the Centre to

'respect the democratic struggle' of the farmers and repeal the laws.

The prime minister, who was visiting his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi

yesterday, allayed concerns that MSP and mandi mechanism would be

discontinued, even as he attacked the opposition. "The farmers are being

deceived on these historic agriculture reform laws by the same people who

have misled them for decades," he said, in an apparent reference to parties

that are supporting the protest. He reiterated that farmers who wanted to

follow the old system of trading -- referring to the 'mandis' where they can

get the MSP -- are still free to do so. But the three laws gave them new

options to sell for more, he said.

He said whenever new laws are enacted questions are bound to be asked. "But

presently a new trend is being seen in the country. The protests are based

on creating doubts through misinformation," Modi said at a public gathering.

"We must remember that those doing so are the ones who had for decades

deceived farmers," he claimed. The MSP used to be declared but very little

procurement was done on it, he claimed.

"Farmers have faced deceit on MSP, loan waiver schemes, urea and

productivity for a long time in the past," he said. He claimed that it is

because of this 'long history of deceit' that farmers are again wary as they

are seeing the new move in the same manner.

OPPN PARTIES SLAM CENTRE'S STAND AGAINST FARMERS

Though the protesting farmers have been adamant about not allowing any

political party to use their platform, the opposition has come out in their

support. The Congress launched a social media campaign to muster support for

the farmers and said its members will extend assistance to the protesters,

while the DMK and its allies too issued a statement slamming the

government's stand.

'The Modi government has persecuted the farmer -- first it brought black

laws and then used lathis against them, but it forgot that when the farmer

raises his voice, it resonates throughout the country. 'You also raise your

voice against the exploitation of farmers and join the #SpeakUpForFarmers

campaign,' Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet in Hindi.

A joint statement was issued by Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam president M K

Stalin, Tamil Nadu Congress Committee chief K S Alagiri, MDMK general

secretary Vaiko, CPM state secretary K Balakrishnan, CPI state secretary R

Mutharasan and others slamming the Centre's stand.

VACCINE: PM MODI TALKS LOGISTICS WITH FIRMS, ALL-PARTY MEET SOON

Two days after he visited vaccine manufacturing facilities in Ahmedabad,

Hyderabad and Pune, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday held a virtual

meeting with three more pharmaceutical companies whose vaccine candidates

for Covid-19 are currently in clinical trials.

The vaccine development and distribution programme is also expected to be

discussed at an all-party meeting called by the Centre on December 4 to

discuss the Covid-19 situation. The parliamentary affairs ministry, which is

coordinating the virtual meeting to be chaired by Modi from 10.30 am on

Friday, has extended invitations to the floor leaders of all parties in both

the Houses.

At his meeting with the teams from Gennova Biopharmaceuticals Ltd, Pune,

Biological E Ltd, Hyderabad, and Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd, Hyderabad, on

Monday, Modi asked them for suggestions on regulatory processes.

"He also suggested that they should take extra efforts to inform the general

public in simple language about the vaccine and related matters such as its

efficacy etc. Matters relating to logistics, transport, cold chain, etc in

respect of delivering the vaccines were also discussed," said a statement

from the PMO.

INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

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MODERNA SAYS VACCINE 100% EFFECTIVE AGAINST SEVERE COVID, SEEKS CLEARANCE

Moderna Inc will apply for US and European emergency authorization for its

COVID-19 vaccine on Monday after full results from a late-stage study showed

it was 94.1% effective with no serious safety concerns, the company said.

Moderna also reported that the vaccine's efficacy rate was consistent across

age, race, ethnicity and gender demographics as well as having a 100%

success rate in preventing severe cases of a disease that has killed nearly

1.5 million people.

The filing sets Moderna's product up to be the second vaccine likely to

receive US emergency use authorization this year following a shot developed

by Pfizer and BioNTech which had a 95% efficacy rate in trials. "We believe

that we have a vaccine that is very highly efficacious. We now have the data

to prove it," Moderna Chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks said.

"We expect to be playing a major part in turning around this pandemic."

Of the 196 volunteers who contracted COVID-19 in the trial with more than

30,000 people, 185 received a placebo while 11 got the vaccine. Moderna

reported 30 severe cases -- all in the placebo group -- which means the

vaccine was 100% effective in preventing severe cases.

Moderna said it was on track to have about 20 million doses of its vaccine

ready to ship in the United States by the end of 2020, enough to inoculate

10 million people.

Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines proved more effective than anticipated

and were far superior to the 50% benchmark set by the US Food and Drug

Administration (FDA).

Both of the vaccines use a new technology called synthetic messenger RNA

(mRNA) whereas others, such as Britain's AstraZeneca, are using more

traditional methods to develop their vaccines.

Moderna shares opened 13% higher at a record $144 following the results and

then went on to hit a peak of $150.14, or a gain of 668% so far this year.

WOMEN SET TO ROCK IN WHITE HOUSE

After powering the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket to the White House,

American women in all their diversity are heading towards a fair share of

executive office 100 years after they won the right to vote in the US. In a

striking recognition of their capability, merit, and majority support for

the Democratic Party, President-elect Biden on Sunday rolled out an

all-female team to head the White House communications office - a first, and

is expected to nominate Indian-American Neera Tanden as the budget director

in a finance team that will also be dominated by women.

He is also expected to name Cecilia Rouse, a Princeton University economist,

as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, with economists Jared

Bernstein and Heather Boushey serving as the other members. Along with

former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, who was picked as treasury

secretary last week, they will constitute a troika of women who will call

the shots on monetary and budgetary matters, areas long dominated by men.

Separately, Biden named a seven-women, all-female White House press team

that will be led by Kate Bedingfield, his campaign communications director

who will serve as the White House communications director. Jen Psaki, a

longtime Democratic spokeswoman, will be his press secretary. Senior advisor

to the Biden-Harris campaign Symone Sanders will be vice-president-elect

Kamala Harris' chief spokeswoman and Harris's communications director will

be Ashley Etienne, a senior adviser to Biden's campaign who served as a

communications director to Nancy Pelosi.

What is striking about the teams is not just the gender aspect but also the

diversity in terms of race, ethnicity, and background. While Tanden will be

only the third woman to be nominated to head the Office of Management and

Budget (she would need to be confirmed by the Senate), she is the first

Indian-American, or any minority woman to be named for the position. Cecilia

Rouse, who is African American, would be the first woman of color to chair

the Council of Economic Advisers. Yellen will be the first female treasury

secretary in the country's history going back to Alexander Hamilton in 1789.

In the White House comm team, Karine Jean-Pierre and Pili Tobar, both

lesbian, are of Haitian and Guatemalan origin respectively. Women voted

57-42 for the Biden-Harris ticket.

THE REST

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TERRORISM BIGGEST CHALLENGE FACED BY REGION, SAYS INDIA AT SCO MEET

India on Monday said terrorism is the region's biggest challenge and sought

the elimination of this threat to enable it realise its true potential,

including in the economic sphere.

""We are particularly concerned over states that leverage terrorism as an

instrument of state policy. The most important challenge faced by us is

terrorism, particularly cross-border terrorism,'' said Vice-President

Venkaiah Naidu while chairing the virtual meet of the Council of Heads of

Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) on Monday.

"We are against states that use terrorism as an instrument of state

policy...We need to create conditions for stability and economic

sustainability,'' he added.

The Vice-President's observations seemed to hint at Pakistan but MEA's

Secretary (West) Vikas Swarup said at a media briefing that the SCO's

charter prohibits the raising of bilateral issues. "We do not raise

bilateral issues and expect others to do the same,'' he said.

EC READY TO ALLOW POSTAL BALLOTS FOR NRIs, AWAITS GOVT NOD

Over a year after the Bill that proposed to extend proxy voting to overseas

Indians lapsed with the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha, the Election

Commission (EC) has now approached the government to permit NRIs to cast

their votes through postal ballots.

The Commission told the Law Ministry last week that it is "technically and

administratively ready" to extend the Electronically Transmitted Postal

Ballot System (ETPBS) to NRI voters for elections next year in Assam, West

Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

According to rough estimates, there are about 1 crore Indians settled

abroad, of whom about 60 lakh could be of eligible voting age. They could

hold considerable sway in election results, especially in states such as

Punjab, Gujarat and Kerala, where a number of expats hail from.

Under ETPBS, which is currently only available to defense personnel, the

postal ballot is dispatched electronically and returned via ordinary mail.

To extend this facility to overseas voters, the government only needs to

amend the Conduct of Election Rules 1961. It doesn't require Parliament's

nod.

COVID-19: DELHI GOVT REDUCES RT-PCR TEST PRICE TO RS 800

The Arvind Kejriwal government on Monday ordered all private laboratories to

reduce the price of RT-PCR tests in the national capital to Rs 800 from Rs

2,400.

According to an order issued by the health department, private laboratories

have been asked to charge Rs 800 for testing "samples collected by

government teams and collected from collection sites by private sector labs

as requisitioned by districts and hospitals".

However, the testing of samples collected through home visit will cost Rs

1,200.

All labs and hospitals have also been asked to display the revised rates at

a prominent place within 24 hours.

INDIA'S 10-YEAR GROWTH ONE OF THE BIGGEST LAGGARDS IN ASIA, EM PEERS

After a decade of poor performance, India economy has become one of the

biggest laggards in the Asia and among EMs, with the exception of Pakistan,

Sri Lanka, and Indonesia. Between 2010 and 2020, India's per capita GDP at

current prices in dollar terms grew at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR)

of 3.1 per cent against 9.2 per cent annualised growth in China, 7.9 per

cent in Vietnam, 7.4 per cent in the East Asia & Pacific countries, and 3.3

per cent growth in major EMs, according to data from the International

Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

The data for East Asia & Pacific, excludes high income countries such as

Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Australia, and New Zealand.

In contrast, India was among the fastest growing EMs in the previous decade

with annualised per capita GDP growth of 9.5 per cent in dollar terms.

With a projected per capita GDP of around $1,900 at the end of the current

calendar year, India remains one of the poorest countries among EMs with the

exception of South Asian neighbours such as Nepal and Pakistan.

India's eastern neighbour Bangladesh topped the growth chart and seems to be

catching up with China. In the last 10 years, the country's per capita GDP

(in dollar terms) has grown at a CAGR of 9.5 per cent. Experts attribute

India's poor performance to a series of external and internal shocks. "The

decade started with the aftershocks of the 2008 global financial crisis that

hit world trade and brought down growth in most countries. It was followed

by European debt crisis and a collapse in commodity prices. Domestically,

businesses were hit by demonetisation in November 2016, followed by the

roll-out of GST and now Covid-19 lockdown," says G Chokkalingam, founder &

MD Equinomics Research & Advisory Services. According to him, all these

shocks hit India's foreign trade, investments and industrial demand, pulling

down overall economic growth.

The data also suggests that while growth declined in most countries in the

current decade compared with the previous one, the deceleration in India was

among the sharpest with the exception of commodity exporters such as

Indonesia.

THIS NOVEMBER WAS DELHI'S COLDEST IN 71 YEARS

November 2020 was Delhi's coldest in 71 years, with global weather

phenomenon such as La Nina and the absence of western disturbances, as well

as local ones such as less rain in September and the absence of cloud cover,

contributing to a mean minimum temperature of 10.2 degrees Celsius.

Typically, mean minimum temperatures in November are around 12.9 degrees.

It wasn't just November, though - Delhi also experienced its coldest October

in 58 years with the mean minimum temperature dipping to 17.2 degrees

Celsius. To find a lower October mean temperature, one will have to travel

back in time to 1962, when it was 16.9 degrees Celsius, according to IMD

data.

And it will likely get worse, with IMD's seasonal forecast on Sunday

predicting a colder winter in New Delhi, and parts of north and north-west

India. Monday was the coldest day in Delhi in November with the minimum

temperature falling to 6.9 degrees

Celsius.

7 PAKISTANI CRICKETERES IN NZ TEST POSITIVE FOR COVID

Six members of the Pakistan cricket team team had tested positive Tuesday

after landing in New Zealand and starting the mandatory 14-day isolation

period. A seventh member of the team tested positive Saturday.

The seven Pakistani cricketers who tested positive for Covid-19 are likely

to have contracted the virus somewhere between Lahore and the isolation

facility in New Zealand, said Pakistan Cricket Board Chairman Ehsan Mani.

The Pakistani cricket team had earlier been warned by the New Zealand health

ministry for breaching isolation protocols on the first day of the mandatory

quarantine period. The ministry claimed that the team had shared food and

interacted with each other without masks on.

However, Mani claimed that the details of the breach were released by the

New Zealand government "without any context". "There were a few minor

breaches immediately upon the side's arrival in New Zealand, which have been

made public without providing any context. Despite these, I don't think

there is any danger to the series as our players are strictly following the

isolation facility's protocols," said Mani.

"It was a 22-hour journey and players deserved a bit of grace period.

Nevertheless, breaches have taken place and there is no hiding behind any

excuses," he said.

Pakistan is due to play three Twenty20 Internationals and two Tests from 18

December.

WORLD TEST CHAMPIONSHIP HASN'T ACHIEVED WHAT IT INTENDED TO DO: ICC CHAIRMAN

The International Cricket Council's newly-elected chairman Greg Barclay on

Monday conceded that the ambitious World Test Championship hasn't quite

achieved what it intended to and the disruption caused by COVID-19 has only

highlighted its "shortcomings".

The World Test Championship schedule has been thrown haywire by the andemic

and the ICC has come up with a percentage allocation of points as all the

scheduled series before the 2021 final at the Lord's cannot be completed in

a short span of time.

Barclay feels that a lot of problems with the current cricketing calendar is

due to the World Test Championship which was fitted in to popularise the

format, something that didn't happen, according to him. "While it was good

in theory but has probably flopped in practice."|

In fact, Barclay dropped a hint that the inaugural WTC could well be the

last one as smaller members can't afford Test cricket championship anymore.

INDICATORS

(Indian markets were closed yesterday on account of Guru Nanak Jayanti)

Nasdaq 12,199 (-7) Dow 29,639 (-272), S&P 3,622 (-17)

US$-Rs. 73.89 GBP-Rs. 98.56, Euro-Rs. 88.40, UAE Dhm-Rs.20.11, Can$-Rs.

56.93, Aus$- Rs. 54.47

GBP 0.74 /US$, Euro 0.83 /US$, Jap.Yen 104.12 /US$, Aus$ 1.35 /US$, Sing

1.33 /US$, Bang Taka 83.17 /US$, Can$ 1.29 /US$, Mal Ring 4.06 /US$,

Pak Re 158.70 /US$, Phil Peso 48.09 /US$, Russian Rouble 76.17 /US$, NZ$

1.42 /US$, Thai Baht 30.24 /US$, Ukraine Hryvnia 28.24 /US$, Norway NOK 8.84

/US$

Bitcoin - USD 19,644

Dollar Index 91.83 Brent Crude 47.59 BDI 1,230

Gold world Spot Price USD/aoz 1,781 India (Rs. per gm 24k/22k) 4,824 / 4,724

Silver (Rs. Per KG) 64,700

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

If your happiness depends on what others do, you really have got a problem.

- Richard Bach

OFF TRACK

A teenager brings her new boyfriend home to meet her parents. They are

appalled by his haircut, his tattoos, his piercings.

Later, the girl's mom says, "Dear, he doesn't seem to be a very nice boy."

"Oh, please, Mom!" says the daughter. "If he wasn't nice, would he be doing

500 hours of community service?"