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Winter session of Parliament to witness debates on demonetisation, OROP, Railway and General budget merger

The upcoming Winter Session of the Parliament would see discussions on the demonetisation issue, Jammu and Kashmir unrest the One Rank One Pension (OROP) scheme and the merger of General and Railway budget, said Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge shortly after concluding the all party meet on 14 November.

Apart from that, Kharge said, strong objection was taken by the opposition parties on the government's efforts to curb free speech in the country.

"Demonetisation which has caused adverse affects on poor people, daily wage earners, salaried people all of whom have been affected badly. So requested the government to take priority discussions on this," Kharge said.

Odisha: Prime Minister Modi to be brefied about outbreak of deadly Japanese encephalitis virus

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on 14 November visited Odisha's Malkangiri district to take stock of the situation, as more than 100 children have fallen victim to the deadly Japanese encephalitis virus.

Speaking to the ANI, Pradhan said the situation is grim in the district and assured full support to the state government.

"Situation is very grave. Both the State and the Union government have to work jointly to take care of the basic amenities of the people. Due to malnutrition and due to non vaccination of Japanese encephalitis, this grievous situation has arisen and the Government of India is cooperating with the state government," he said.

Pradhan further said that Prime Minister Modi and Union Health Minister J. P. Nadda would be apprised of the matter and precautionary steps would be taken accordingly.

Shiv Sena warns PM Modi to roll back demonetisation or be on the receiving end

The Shiv Sena has warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi to roll back the demonetisation scheme or be on the receiving end of an angered public, who are seething with fury after being massively inconvenienced by the Centre's tectonic scheme.

Speaking to the media, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut asserted that the severe crunch being faced by the people was a very disturbing sign for the government.

When told that the Prime Minister had firmly ruled out any possibility of a roll back, Raut replied saying, "then the government can face a roll back themselves. The Shiv Sena fully stands in the fight against corruption, but if there is so much anger among the masses, then something must be wrong."

Emphasising his party's stand on the matter, Raut further said that it was the common man on whom the scheme had proven to be costly, which the rich and powerful continued to languish in their palaces.

World looks up to gaze at closest 'supermoon' to Earth in seven decades

Skygazers took to high-rise buildings, tourist landmarks and beaches worldwide today to catch a glimpse of the closest "supermoon" to Earth in almost seven decades.

The unusually big and bright moon happens when the Earth's satellite rock is full at the same time as, or very near, perigee -- its closest point to our planet on its monthly ellipsis-shaped orbit.

At a distance of 356,509 kilometres (221,524 miles), this is the closest it has been to Earth since 1948, creating what NASA described as "an extra-supermoon".

WhatsApp launches video calling optimised for Indian users

Starting on Tuesday, 15 November, the most popular messaging app in India, WhatsApp, will let you make video calls ala Skype and Apple's FaceTime. Just like voice calls, video calls will depend on your network connection and you may be charged depending on that. Within hours of launching in India, video calling will be rolled out to 180 countries.

Donald Trump speaks to Russian president Vladimir Putin

President-elect Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephonic conversation on Monday, 14 November. They agreed that relations between the two nations were "unsatisfactory" and will working toward improving them.

They discussed efforts to combat terrorism, settlement for the ongoing crisis in Syria and a face-to-face meeting will happen in the near future.

Demonetisation: Six days on, death toll climbs to 25

While Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, on Sunday, that it will take 50 days for normalization of currency usage in the country, six days on the situation is grim. 25 people across the country have died so far. Here are three such instances: A 24 year old woman in north-east Delhi hanged herself to the ceiling fan with her dupatta after not being able to exchange money for three days. A 50-year old mother in Surat was unable to buy ration for her family and committed suicide. A woman in Kanpur died while counting her notes. She had 2.69 lakh worth of old notes.