LEAD

Prime Minister Modi on Thursday set the ball rolling for Delhi-NCR’s second international airport – at Jewar in Greater Noida – to be ready by October 2024 at a high-octane launch ceremony that also launched BJP’s election campaign in western UP.

While the PM, who laid the foundation stone for the Noida International Airport, lashed out at previous governments for keeping UP in darkness and deprivation, chief minister Yogi Adityanath raked up “ganna (sugarcane)”, “danga (riots)” and “Jinnah” in his speech to target Samajwadi Party and his main election rival Akhilesh Yadav.

Modi, in his speech, reminded the large turnout that the airport was envisioned first by a BJP government – when Rajnath Singh was CM – two decades back but successive governments in Delhi and Lucknow had scuttled the project. Western UP is a crucial battlefield for BJP given its run-in with farmers of the region over the three central farm laws that the PM last week agreed to repeal after a year of sit-in protests by farmers at Delhi’s borders.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved PM Modi’s announcement and relevant draft bills to repeal the three central farm laws even as the agri unions are planning a big mobilisation along the capital’s borders to mark one year of their protests against the bills on Friday that coincides with India's Constitution Day.

The Centre is expected to introduce the Farm Laws Repeal Bill, 2021 on the first day of the upcoming winter session of Parliament, beginning November 29. If Parliament functions smoothly, the process of repeal from both the Houses will be completed during the first week.

“It will be our priority to take back these three laws in the upcoming session,” Union minister Anurag Thakur said.

The decision to administer booster shots will depend on waning immunity and effectiveness of vaccine, say official sources, though India may have surplus Covid vaccines by the end of the year and several countries with high vaccination rates have already started administering them.

Most countries with mRNA vaccines have started giving booster shots. However, experts say mRNA jabs are essentially three dose vaccines.

However, going forward India may consider giving booster shots to select population who are immunocompromised or are highly vulnerable to infection.

A joint parliamentary committee has finalised the draft report on the Data Protection Bill after two years of deliberations and five extensions. The report with recommendations is now likely to be placed before the Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla.

The draft of the Data Protection Bill was referred to the parliamentary panel in December 2019. It has called for storing sensitive personal data in India, obligations of data fiduciaries to deploy safeguards, and grievance redressal mechanism.

Personal data protection (PDP) bill

The proposal for the bill came after the Supreme Court declared in 2017 privacy a fundamental right and directed the government to come up with the data protection regime.

The Centre began setting the stage for the Union Cabinet to approve on Wednesday the draft of Bills needed to repeal the three agricultural laws, the farm unions wrote an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi listing their remaining demands, especially a legal mandate for MSP, and said they would continue to protest until all issues were resolved.

“The Cabinet is likely to take up on Wednesday the withdrawal of the three farm laws for approval. The Bills for withdrawal of the laws shall then be introduced in the forthcoming Parliament session,” sources said.

Meanwhile, Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) held a press conference at the protest site at Delhi’s Singhu border, and said that farm unions would continue with various protest events as per schedule, and that a key meeting would be held on November 27.