-United Nations News A new law in India which expedites citizenship for certain religious minorities has been criticized by the UN human rights office for being “fundamentally discriminatory in nature.” The amendment to the Citizenship Act gives priority to Hindus, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians resident in India before 2014, but excludes Muslims, including minority sects. “Although India’s broader naturalization laws remain in place, these amendments will have a...

-The Hindu Food inflation is at a 40-month high Industrial activity contracted for the third consecutive month in October by 3.8%, driven by a fall in activity across sectors, according to official data released on Thursday. Separate data showed that retail inflation had surged to a 40-month high of 5.54% in November, driven by rising food inflation. The Index of Industrial Production (IIP) had contracted by 4.3% in September and 1.1% in...

-The Hindu Mobs attack the houses of MLAs, Ministers; BJP, AGP offices vandalised. Guwahati: Violent protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), 2019, continued across several districts in the Brahmaputra Valley on Thursday with an indefinite curfew imposed in Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Tezpur. Two persons were killed in firing by security forces in Guwahati. Incidents of police firing were reported from several areas of the State capital, including Hatigaon, Lachitnagar, Bashishta, and Lalungaon....

-The Hindu SBI reports Rs.11,932 crore NPA divergence in FY19 The Reserve Bank of India's (RBI’s) inspection report has found out that State Bank of India (SBI) under-reported Rs.11,932 crore of bad loans in FY19, which has pushed the bank to report net loss for the financial year 2018-19. The divergence in net non-performing asset (NPA) was also Rs.11,932 crore, the bank informed the exchanges. According to the RBI, provision requirement for SBI increased...

-The Hindu In the absence of scientific planning and implementation, measures like Jal Shakti Abhiyan may not be successful Following the massive water crisis across India in the summer of 2019, the Central government hurriedly launched the Jal Shakti Abhiyan (JSA), a time-bound, mission-mode water conservation campaign to be carried out in two phases, across the 255 districts having critical and over-exploited groundwater levels. This campaign, however, was not intended to be...