TODAY ON December 21, 2022
GK News Headlines

Taliban says women banned from universities in Afghanistan

Women are banned from private and public universities in Afghanistan with immediate effect and until further notice, a Taliban government spokesman said on December 20, 2022, the latest edict cracking down on their rights and freedoms.

No survey done to identify number of EWS beneficiaries: Centre

The Union government has not conducted any survey nor is it considering a proposal to conduct one to identify the number of beneficiaries entitled to the Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) reservation, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment told Lok Sabha on Tuesday, in response to a question from Sajda Ahmed of the All India Trinamool Congress.

SC/ST employees of PSUs being victimised in the name of caste certificate verification: Parliamentary panel

There has been an increasing number of incidents where Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe employees of Public Sector Units (PSUs) are being victimised in the name of verification of caste certificates, and are facing undue delays in the same, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes noted in a report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday.

New scanners will let passengers zip through airports without removing laptops for screening

The long queues of air travellers removing their laptops, mobile phones and chargers from their cabin baggage before screening them could soon become history in India. The aviation security regulator, the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS), is expected to issue technical norms within a month which will pave the way for airports to adopt modern equipment to screen bags without removing electronic devices.

Trainspotting: 25 from T.N. cheated in Railway job scam

Every day, for two to eight hours, they stood on the bustling platforms of New Delhi railway station and counted the arrivals and departures of trains, and the number of coaches in each train. At least 25 people from Tamil Nadu paid sums ranging from ₹2 lakh to ₹24 lakh for the right to carry out this task, believing that they were part of a “training exercise” that would lead to a coveted job in the Indian Railways.

BJP likely to extend party president J.P. Nadda’s term next month

Current BJP president J.P. Nadda will, in all likelihood, continue to be at the helm of the party going into the 2024 general elections, with a key organisational meeting scheduled to be held as early as January to endorse an extension to his current term.

Fitch retains India rating at BBB-, cites robust medium term growth outlook

Fitch Ratings on December 20, 2022 retained its rating for India at ‘BBB-‘ with a stable outlook, even as it expected a modest ‘fiscal slippage’ this year from the central government’s fiscal deficit target of 6.4% to GDP to 6.6% of GDP, due to higher food and fertiliser subsidies.

China’s crematoriums ‘packed’ as COVID-19 cases soar

Crematoriums across China are straining to deal with an influx of bodies as the country battles a wave of COVID-19 cases that authorities have said is impossible to track. Cases are soaring across China, with hospitals struggling and pharmacy shelves stripped bare in the wake of the government’s sudden decision to lift years of lockdowns, quarantines and mass testing.

Taliban free two Americans in ‘goodwill gesture’, says U.S. State Department

The Taliban have freed two Americans in detention in Afghanistan, the State Department said Tuesday, on the same day that the militant regime faced condemnation for banning women at universities.
“This, we understand, to have been a goodwill gesture on the part of the Taliban. This was not part of any swap of prisoners or detainees. There was no money that exchanged hands,” State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

Argentines dance, cry and cheer in streets as World Cup winners return

Hundreds of thousands — millions by some estimates — of ecstatic Argentines flooded onto the streets of Buenos Aires on Tuesday to cheer the country’s World Cup-winning football squad led by Lionel Messi after their plane landed in the pre-dawn hours.