A look at the top headlines of the day:

  1. Voter turnout of 50% recorded till 5.30 pm in Delhi civic elections: The Bharatiya Janata Party is hoping to extend its 15-year reign at the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, while the Aam Aadmi Party is hoping to repeat the success that it achieved in the 2020 Assembly poll in the national capital.
  2. Iran abolishes morality police after huge anti-hijab protests: The protests erupted in September as a woman died in custody of the morality police after being held for allegedly violating the rule to wear the headscarf.
  3. Patna HC reprimands police for demolishing woman’s home: Justice Sandeep Kumar asked whether authorities had begun resorting to bulldozer action in Bihar as well. In recent months, authorities have on several occasions resorted to using bulldozers to demolish the houses of persons accused of crimes. 
  4. Congress announces two-month ‘Haath Se Haath Jodo’ campaign after Bharat Jodo Yatra ends: Starting on January 26, the campaign will involve programmes at the booth, district and state-level.
  5. Centre allows sale of electoral bonds from December 5 to December 12: The sale coincides with the second phase of the Gujarat Assembly elections scheduled on Monday.
  6. Gujarat moves SC to lift High Court stay on some sections of anti-conversion law: The law was passed in April last year to stop the ‘emerging trend in which women are lured to marriage for the purpose of religious conversion’.
  7. Delhi’s Safdarjung Hospital says it suffered cyber attack in November: The statement came in the backdrop of an alleged ransonware attack on the AIIMS servers on November 23, which disrupted several patient services.
  8. Indore law college principal booked, allegedly forced to quit after ABVP protests against a book: The student body of the RSS claimed that one of the books in the college’s library had objectionable content about Hindus and Hindutva bodies.
  9. EC flags ‘urban apathy’ in Gujarat elections, appeals for larger turnout in second phase: The state recorded a voter turnout of 63.14% in the first phase of the polls. In the 2017 Assembly elections, the figure for the first phase was 66.75%.
  10. Delhi bans construction and demolition activities as air quality turns ‘severe’: The 24-hour average air quality index in the national capital stood at 407 at 4 pm on Sunday.