| Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day's biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. We hope you are staying safe. NPR-Census: Registrar General of India says it is "being finalised" The office of the Registrar General of India (RGI) has said the schedule or the questionnaire of the National Population Register (NPR) is "being finalised" and the information about the expected date of first phase of Census 2021 is "not available." The RGI response came in reply to a question filed by The Hindu under the Right to Information (RTI) Act seeking information on the expected date of the first phase of Census 2021, and an update of the NPR that was earlier scheduled to begin April 1, 2020. The exercise was postponed indefinitely until further orders on March 25 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The NPR update and the first phase of Census-House listing & Housing Census were to be conducted simultaneously from April-September. Even though the twin exercise was to be rolled out first in Meghalaya, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep and the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area on April 1, the RGI said in the RTI reply on November 17 that "the schedule of NPR is being finalised." As many as 13 States and Union Territories have opposed the update of the NPR due to its link with the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). According to the Citizenship Rules framed in 2003, the NPR is the first step towards compilation of the National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) or NRC. Some States such as West Bengal and Rajasthan have objected to additional questions to be asked in the fresh NPR such as "date and place of birth of father and mother, last place of residence and mother tongue". Army completes building extreme weather habitat for troops in eastern Ladakh As India and China continue deliberations on a proposed disengagement and de-escalation plan to end the stand-off in eastern Ladakh, the Army has completed building extreme weather habitat for thousands of additional troops to remain deployed through the harsh winter. "In order to ensure the operational efficiency of the troops deployed in winters, the Army has completed the establishment of habitat facilities for all the troops deployed in the sector. Apart from the smart camps with integrated facilities, which have been built over the years, additional state of the art habitat with integrated arrangements for electricity, water, heating facilities, health and hygiene have been recently created," an Army source said on Wednesday.  Extreme weather habitat set up by Army for troops in Eastern Ladakh. The troops in the front line were accommodated in heated tents as per tactical considerations of their deployment, the source said. The construction was completed by mid-October. Adequate civil infrastructure had also been identified to cater for any emergent requirements, the source added. The altitude in Ladakh where troops are deployed ranges from 14,000-18,000 feet and the area experiences up to 40 feet of snowfall from December onwards. Coupled with the wind chill factor, the temperatures dip down to minus 30-40 degrees, disrupting road access to the areas. The Army has deployed thousands of additional troops and equipment in eastern Ladakh and along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) since the stand-off began in early May. The Army recently procured 15,000 extreme weather clothing from the U.S. under the bilateral logistics pact, Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Understanding (LEMOA), for the additional troops deployed in Ladakh. "The order was placed in early July and the deliveries have been completed," a second source said. Last week, Army Chief Gen. Manoj Naravane said "there was no shortage whatsoever of any kind" with respect to extreme weather clothing and equipment for the troops deployed in Ladakh. The equipment normally catered to a certain number of troops at any point of time. They "had to go in for certain emergency procurements" for the additional troops due to the ongoing situation. Maharashtra agrees to treat Varavara Rao at Nanavati Hospital for 15 days After a nudge from the Bombay High Court, the Maharashtra government on Wednesday agreed to shift 81-year-old activist-poet Varavara Rao from Taloja Central jail hospital to Nanavati Hospital for 15 days for medical examination and treatment. A Division Bench of justices S.S. Shinde and Madhav Jamdar conducted a physical hearing during vacation, terming it an urgent matter. After senior advocate Indira Jaisingh, appearing for Rao, listed out the medical ailments he was suffering from and said that he needed to be treated for the same, the court insisted that Chief Public Prosecutor Deepak Thakare take instructions on the same. Thakare informed the court that State Home Minister Anil Deshmukh has agreed to shift Rao to Nanavati Hospital for 15 days as a "special case" and not as a precedent.  Varavara Rao in 2014. File While dictating the order, the court also gave permission for family members to visit Rao and directed all medical reports to be submitted in court. The matter will now be heard on December 3. The order came despite strong objections from Additional Solicitor General Anil Singh, representing the National Investigation Agency (NIA). Singh argued that government-run hospitals were well-equipped to treat Rao and if this was allowed, all prisoners would seek special treatment. He said Rao could be shifted to J.J. Hospital. However, Jaisingh interrupted and said the last time he was admitted to J.J. Hospital, he was found in a pool of urine. She added that Nanavati Hospital was the choice of the State government, as he was admitted there initially. Pfizer ends vaccine trial with 95% efficacy, to seek emergency-use authorisation Pfizer Inc said on Wednesday that final results from the late-stage trial of its Covid-19 vaccine showed it was 95% effective, and since it had the required two-months of safety data, it would apply for emergency U.S. authorisation within days. The drugmaker said efficacy of the vaccine, developed with German partner BioNTech SE, was consistent across age and ethnicity demographics, and that there were no major side effects, a sign that the immunisation could be employed broadly around the world.  An illustration picture shows vials with COVID-19 vaccine stickers attached, with the logo of U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer on November 17, 2020. Efficacy in adults over 65 years, who are at particular risk from the virus, was over 94%. The final analysis comes just one week after initial results from the trial showed the vaccine was more than 90% effective. Moderna Inc on Monday released preliminary data for its vaccine, showing similar effectiveness. ICMR warns against indiscriminate use of plasma therapy The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has warned against indiscriminate use of convalescent plasma therapy (CPT) for treating Covid-19. On Wednesday, it released its report of an open-label phase II multicentre randomised controlled trial (PLACID trial) conducted across 39 public and private hospitals on the use of CPT in management of cases with moderate infection. The report concluded that the therapy "did not lead to a reduction in progression to severe COVID or all-cause mortality in the group that received CPT as compared to the group that did not receive CPT."  A man who has recovered from COVID-19 donates his plasma at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) in Chennai. Benefits of CPT in improving the clinical outcomes, reducing severity of disease, and duration of hospitalisation and mortality in patients were dependent on the concentration of specific antibodies in convalescent plasma that could neutralise the effects of SARS-CoV-2, the ICMR said. It stated that CPT could be used with specific criteria, including that a potential donor, be it men or women who had never been pregnant, could give plasma after 14 days of symptom resolution (testing negative is not necessary). A potential recipient should be in the early stage of Covid-19 (3-7 days from the onset of symptoms, but not later than 10 days) and should show no IgG antibody against Covid-19 by appropriate test. PLACID is the world's largest pragmatic trial on CPT conducted in 464 moderately ill-confirmed affected adults in a real-world setting, wherein no benefit of use of CPT could be established, the ICMR said. CPT involves the use of plasma from people who have recovered from the infection to aid the immune response of those still fighting it. Shillong Times editor resigns from Editor's Guild in protest Editor of The Shillong Times Patricia Mukhim on Tuesday resigned from membership of the Editors Guild of India (EGI) in protest against what she described as the organisation's "complete silence" on the recent High Court ruling, which refused to quash an FIR against her and held her guilty of creating communal disharmony through a Facebook post.  Patricia Mukhim. File The veteran journalist, who is known for her principled stand on many issues, including the rights of marginalised voices across the North East, said the Guild was silent about her case, while it condemned the arrest of non-member Arnab Goswami, whose arrest was not even on grounds of journalistic pursuits. On November 10, a single judge Bench of the Meghalaya High Court found Mukhim guilty of creating communal disharmony, a crime under Section 153 of the CrPC, and refused to quash an FIR filed by the Lawsohtun Dorbar Shnong (a traditional institution). Covid watch: Numbers and Developments The number of coronavirus cases reported from India stood at 89,38,314 at the time of sending this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,31,319. In Brief: Social media giant Twitter has apologised in writing to a key parliamentary panel for wrongly showing Ladakh in China and has promised to correct the error by the month-end, the committee's chairperson Meenakshi Lekhi said on Wednesday. Last month, the Joint Committee of Parliament on Data Protection Bill had come down heavily on Twitter for showing Ladakh as part of China, saying it amounted to treason and had sought an explanation by the US-based parent of the social media platform in the form of an affidavit. T.N. Manoharan, the RBI-appointed administrator of Lakshmi Vilas Bank, on Wednesday said that depositors' money is safe and expressed confidence about completing the lender's merger with DBS Bank India within the deadline set by the regulator.On Tuesday, the RBI had appointed former non-executive chairman of Canara Bank T.N. Manoharan as the administrator of Lakshmi Vilas Bank after superseding the board of the crippled private sector lender. A moratorium has been imposed on the bank and cash withdrawals capped at ₹ 25,000 per account. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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