A day ahead of the fifth round of negotiations with the central government on the three farm laws, agitating farmers on Friday hardened their stand, threatening to hold a Bharat Bandh on December 8 and occupy toll plazas if their demands are not met by then.

Addressing a press conference, farmer leader Gurnam Singh Chaduni said if the Centre does not accept the demands in Saturday's talks, farmers will intensify their agitation against the new agriculture laws.

All the states have now opted for the special window for the goods and services tax (GST) compensation with Jharkhand also choosing that option. All the three union territories with legislatures which are part of the GST Council have already chosen the window.

The Centre has set up the window to borrow on behalf of states the shortfall arising out of the GST implementation.

The National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has approved a resolution plan for Reliance Infratel submitted by a group entity of Reliance Industries, according to a regulatory filing.

"... the resolution plan submitted by Infrastructure Projects - a division of Reliance Projects & Property Management Services Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries Limited.

Moscow began distributing the Sputnik V COVID-19 shot via 70 clinics on Saturday, marking Russia's first mass vaccination against the disease, the city's coronavirus task force said.

The task force said the Russian-made vaccine would first be made available to doctors and other medical workers, teachers and social workers because they ran the highest risk of exposure to the disease.

In what seems to be a direct fall out of remarks by Canadian Prime minister Justin Trudeau, India's External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar will not attend Canada headed Covid foreign ministers grouping meeting.

The meeting takes place next week, and ahead of that, Canada was told that India will not attend the meet.

Almost 100% of COVID-19 patients develop antibodies no matter the course of the disease, WHO's Maria Van Kerkhove said on Friday.

What we understand is 90 to 100% of people who are infected with the virus do develop an antibody response, whether you have mild infection or asymptomatic infection all the way to severe infection, Van Kerkhove, an expert on epidemiology, said at a virtual press briefing.

After the fourth round of talks between the Centre and representatives of 35 farmer groups, remained inconclusive on Thursday, the next round of meeting between both the parties is scheduled for December 5, Saturday.

Earlier on Friday, farmers at Singhu Border called for nationwide protests against the new farmer bills and announced a Bharat Bandh on December 8, after talks failed between the government and farmer representatives.

Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Friday took an indirect jibe at Pakistan stating that countries who fail to protect 'their sovereignity' end up like 'our neighbouring nation' who can't build roads or do trade on their own.

Countries who fail to protect their sovereignty become like our neighbouring nation...who can't build their roads on their own, nor walk on them, not even do trade on their own or stop someone from trading.., tweeted the Defence Minister.

Shares of Bharti Airtel rose 4 per cent to Rs 498 on the BSE on Friday as the company was the biggest gainer in terms of users in September with 3.8 million subscriber additions, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said. The telecom services provider's stock was trading at its highest level since September 18, 2020.

According to the latest Trai data, Reliance Jio added 1.5 million users while Vodafone Idea continued losing subscribers. Vodafone Idea lost 4.6 million subscribers in the month.

In a business friendly move, the Reserve Bank of India on Friday said that the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) system, used for large value transactions, will be made available round-the-clock in the next few days.

In December 2019, the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system was made available on a 24x7x365 basis.

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