Quick Reads
News Dabba for 1 December 2022: Five stories for a balanced news diet
Here are the daily updates that the internet is talking about through various news websites.
Indie Journal brings you the daily updates that the internet is talking about through various news websites. Here's a glance through some of the National and International news updates, from China signaling ease in Covid policy, Gujarat going to polls for assembly elections in the first phase, to the launch of facial recognition-based entry at three Indian airports.
China signals ease in Covid policy after mass protests, BBC
BBC reports that China has signalled a shift in its Covid stance as it moves to ease some virus restrictions despite high daily case numbers. Dozens of districts in Shanghai and Guangzhou, cities that have seen rising cases, were released from lockdown measures on Thursday. The country's vice-premier also announced that the country was facing a "new situation", the report adds. It comes as China is seeing mass protests against its zero-Covid policy. Read the full report here.
Voter turnout at Gujarat elections rises to 34.65 pc at 1 pm
Gujarat started voting on December 1, 2022, in the first phase of the Assembly polls in 89 Assembly constituencies, spread across 19 districts. Live updates by the Hindu say that Gujarat recorded 34.65 percent voting till 1 pm. Voting is underway across 14,382 polling stations in the state. The BJP and the Congress are contesting in all 89 seats. The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP is contesting 88 seats. Read the full report here.
The Quint's report on Bobi, AAP's first transgender candidate for MCD elections
The Quint report focuses on the election campaign of 38-year-old Bobi Kinnar, the first transgender candidate fielded by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) for the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections. In the 2017 MCD elections, she had run as an independent candidate. The report adds that she is also a social worker who has worked to uplift people with disabilities and women. Read the full report here.
Russia’s economy labour-starved since Putin’s war call-up, The Straits Times reports
The call-up of men to fight in Ukraine has left labour so scarce in Russia that entire industries are in distress, the Straits Times reports with reference to a study by the Gaidar Institute in Moscow in November. It found that up to a third of Russian industry may face a deficit of personnel because of the draft, the most severe crunch since 1993. The report says two months after the Kremlin announced the mobilisation in late September, a record depletion of workers is fast spreading across the country. Read the full report here.
NDTV report on the launch of facial recognition-based entry at three Indian airports
India is set to launch a mechanism called Digi Yatra to achieve contactless and seamless processing of passengers at airports based on Facial Recognition Technology (FRT), NDTV reports. The project basically envisages that travellers may pass through various checkpoints at the airports through paperless and contactless processing using facial features to establish their identity. It could then be linked to the boarding pass. The report says that in the first phase, it will be launched at seven airports and for domestic flight passengers only. Read the full report here.
