Digest yearender for domestic stories for month of December, 2020

Dec 1: New Delhi: A naval version of the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile was successfully test fired from a stealth destroyer of the Indian Navy in the Bay of Bengal on Tuesday as part of a series of trials of the weapon, officials said. Dec 2: Chennai: C S Karnan, former judge of the Madras and Calcutta High Courts, was arrested here on Wednesday following a complaint against him for making vulgar comments against women and remarks against judges, police said.

Dec 3: Mumbai: In an unprecedented move, the Reserve Bank has temporarily barred HDFC Bank from launching new digital banking initiatives and issuing new credit card after taking a serious view of service outages at the country's largest private sector lender over the last two years. Dec 4: New Delhi: Upping the ante, farmers protesting against the Centre's new farm laws on Friday announced a Bharat bandh on December 8 and threatened to intensify their agitation and block more roads leading to the national capital if the government does not accept their demands.

Dec 5: New Delhi: Talks between the government and protesting farmers remained inconclusive on Saturday even after five rounds of discussions as union leaders stuck to their demand for the repeal of the new farm laws and went on a 'maun vrat' seeking a clear 'yes or no' reply, forcing the Centre to call for another meeting on December 9 to resolve the deadlock. Dec 6: New Delhi/Hyderabad/Mumbai: Opposition parties, including many regional outfits, on Sunday came out in strong support of the ‘Bharat Bandh’ on December 8 called by farmer unions which have been protesting on Delhi's borders for 11 days demanding the repeal of the Centre's new agri-marketing laws. Dec 7: New Delhi: The Delhi Police Monday arrested five suspected terrorists, two of whom were allegedly involved in the killing of Shaurya Chakra winner Balwinder Singh in Punjab, exposing Pakistani spy agency ISI's attempt to link Khalistani operatives with terror outfits in Kashmir, officials said.

Dec 8: New Delhi: A late-night meeting called by Home Minister Amit Shah ended in failure Tuesday as farmer leaders rejected the government's offer to amend new farm laws, saying they would settle for nothing less than the scrapping of the legislations, while many of them threatened to boycott Wednesday's scheduled talks with ministers. Dec 9: New Delhi: Eminent Hindi poet and journalist Manglesh Dabral passed away on Wednesday after suffering from COVID-19-induced complications.

Dec 10: New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the new Parliament building on Thursday and described the event as a ''milestone in India's democratic history'', asserting that if the old Parliament House gave direction to the country post-independence, the new one would be a witness to the making of an 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat'. Dec 11: New Delhi: Scores of doctors at several hospitals in Delhi and other cities across the country joined the protest call of the IMA on Friday against the Centre's move allowing post-graduate practitioners of Ayurveda to be trained to perform surgical procedures. Dec 12: New Delhi/Chandigarh: Agitating farmers picketed highway toll plazas in Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan on Saturday and claimed thousands more will soon arrive on Delhi's borders to intensify their stir against the Centre's new agri laws, even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi again asserted that these reforms will help increase the income of cultivators.

Dec 13: Guwahati: The BJP on Sunday decided to dump its alliance partner Bodo Peoples' Front (BPF) to join hands with the United Peoples' Party Liberal (UPPL) and the Gana Suraksha Party to form the next Bodoland Territorial Council after the just concluded polls threw a hung House, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal said. Dec 14: New Delhi: The AIIMS Nurses Union went on an indefinite strike from Monday over their long pending demands, including those with regard to the Sixth Central Pay Commission and against contractual appointments, even as AIIMS director appealed them to call off their agitation and return to work.

Dec 15: New Delhi: The winter session of Parliament will not be held this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Budget session will be convened in January 2021, the government has conveyed to the opposition, a move slammed by the Congress as the ''decimation of parliamentary democracy''. Dec 16: New Delhi: India dropped one spot to 131 among 189 countries in the 2020 human development index, according to a report released by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Dec 17: Sriharikota.