| 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. Farmers prepare to block Delhi-Jaipur highway, picket toll plazas More farmers are streaming towards the capital in response to the protesting unions' call to intensify the agitation on Saturday by blocking the Delhi-Jaipur highway and picketing toll plazas. Police personnel have been deployed to deal with the situation and provide alternative routes for commuters. For the last two weeks, tens of thousands of farmers have gathered at several points on Delhi's borders with Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. They are demanding a full repeal of three contentious agricultural marketing reform laws passed by Parliament in September. "More farmers have now joined the dharna sites at Singhu, Tikri, Ghazipur and Palwal," said a statement from the All India Kisan Sangharsh Coordination Committee. "Farmers from Tamil Nadu have arrived and groups of farmers from almost all states of India shall be arriving to join the Delhi protest soon," it added. In Amritsar, thousands of farmers and farm labourers under the banner of Kisan Mazdoor Sangarsh Samiti started their tractor-trolley 'march' to Delhi on Friday to ensure that the ongoing agitation doesn't lose steam. The Samiti is the only Punjab outfit which is still continuing with the 'rail roko' agitation, preventing the movement of passenger trains in Amritsar. Both carriageways of the Delhi-Agra Highway have been blocked at Palwal by farmers from Madhya Pradesh for the past week. In Uttar Pradesh, the Tikait faction of the Bharatiya Kisan Union is making plans to besiege toll barriers. "We will picket the toll plazas, so that the cess cannot be collected tomorrow. We will not block the road, but we will allow commuters to go through for free for one day," said Dharmendra Malik, spokesperson of BKU (Tikait). More than 5,000 police personnel have been deployed at several intersections and toll barriers in Haryana districts bordering Delhi. Two thousand police personnel have been deployed at five strategic points, including at the Kundli-Manesar-Palwal intersection near Panchgaon, to prevent the agitating farmers from blocking the Delhi-Jaipur Highway. The Faridabad Police have deployed 3,500 police personnel equipped with riot equipment to deal with any situation. Reserve Police Force personnel have also been deployed at five tolls in the city at the Badarpur border, Gurugram-Faridabad border, KGP toll plaza, Pali Crusher Zone and Dhoj. The police said drones would also be used to keep a watch on anti-social elements and identify them. With thousands of farmers protesting against the Centre's new agri laws staying put at Delhi borders, several routes in the national capital remained off bounds for commuters on Friday. The Delhi Traffic Police took to Twitter to inform people about road closures. West Bengal Governor sends report to Centre on law and order in the State The Centre on Friday received a report from Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on the prevailing law and order situation in West Bengal, a day after BJP president J.P. Nadda's convoy was attacked in the state, officials said. The State government, however, has not sent any report as sought by the Union Home Ministry on the "serious security lapses" during Nadda's two-day visit to West Bengal. "The Home Ministry has received a report from the West Bengal governor on the law and order situation in the state," an official said. Asked about the contents of the report, the official said that it is under examination. Dhankar, however, took to social media to voice his concerns. In a series of tweets, the Governor said that he had alerted the chief secretary and the director general of police of the possibility of the collapse of law and order during Nadda's scheduled rally but their "non responsive stance signals failure of constitutional machinery" in the state. The report from the Governor was sought after Nadda's convoy was attacked on Thursday in Diamond Harbour, the Lok Sabha constituency of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's nephew Abhishek Banerjee. Meanwhile, a defiant West Bengal government on Friday decided not to send the state's chief secretary and police chief to New Delhi in compliance with a summons from the Union Home Ministry. West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay and Director General of Police (DGP) Virendra have been called by the Home Ministry, and were expected to explain the law and order situation in West Bengal, an official said. However, Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay wrote to Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla saying he has been directed to request to "dispense with the presence of the state officials" in the meeting convened on December 14, an obvious indication that he was just obeying the state government's order. The top bureaucrat of the state said that as requested by the Union Home Secretary on December 10, the state government had indeed made elaborate arrangements for security coverage of the protectees on Thursday. "The incidents regarding Z-category protectees are already being examined at our end. The West Bengal Police had provided a bulletproof car and a pilot to Shri J.P. Nadda, which was in addition to the escort (vehicle by State, personnel by CRPF) and PSOs (CRPF) he is entitled as a Z- category protectee," he wrote. China's rise has attracted a great deal of attention: Gen. Rawat In the midst of conflicts in the last three decades, the global financial crisis and the mushrooming of many multilateral organisations, China's rise has been one of the most defining moments of the 21st century, said Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) Gen. Bipin Rawat on Friday. He also said that the Covid-19 pandemic had turned from a global health crisis to an economic crisis with global ramifications. "In recent years, China's economic and military rise, coupled with competition to increase influence in the region, has attracted a great deal of attention. At present, there are over 120 warships of extra-regional forces deployed in the Indian Ocean Region (IOR) in support of various missions. For now, by and large, the region has remained peaceful, albeit under contestation," Gen. Rawat said, talking of the developments in the Indo-Pacific at the Global Security Summit.  Army Chief Bipin Rawat. File On the post-Covid situation, Gen. Rawat said the world was entering a new geopolitical phase likely to be based on nationalism, protectionism, and strategic realignments. "We are, and we will, continue to witness the rise of nationalism, economic patriotism, shift towards buying local brands, the need to take back supply chains, and the shifting of strategic industries within the country's boundaries even at the expense of increased production costs," he said. AstraZeneca to use part of Sputnik V vaccine in its own trials Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca's Russian branch said on Friday it would use part of Russia's homemade Sputnik V vaccine in further clinical trials. "Today we announce a clinical trial programme to assess safety and immunogenicity of a combination of AZD1222, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, and Sputnik V, developed by Russian Gamaleya Research institute," AstraZeneca said in a statement published on its website in English and Russian. The pharmaceutical company said that adults over the age of 18 will be enrolled in the trials. Both the AZD1222 and Sputnik V jabs use human adenovirus vectors. Russia's Direct Investment Fund, which funded the development of Sputnik V, said in a statement on Friday that on November 23, it offered AstraZeneca the option "to use one of the two vectors of the Sputnik V vaccine in additional clinical trials of its own vaccine". Those trials are expected to start before the end of this year.  Vials with a sticker reading "COVID-19/Coronavirus vaccine/Injection only" is seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo in this illustration photo. File "Combinations of different Covid-19 vaccines may be an important step in generating wider protection through a stronger immune response and better accessibility," AstraZeneca said in its statement. Delhi HC stays CIC order directing IAF to provide info on PM's foreign visits The Delhi High Court on Friday stayed a Central Information Commission (CIC) direction to the Indian Air Force (IAF) to provide an RTI activist information regarding each foreign visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh undertaken on IAF aircraft. Justice Navin Chawla also sought a response from the RTI activist, Commodore (retired) Lokesh K. Batra, who had requested certified copies of Special Flight Returns Part-I and Part-II relating to foreign visits of Modi and Singh undertaken on IAF aircraft from April 1, 2013 onwards. The IAF had moved the High Court challenging the July 8, 2020, order of the CIC, saying that the information sought was "extremely sensitive in nature" as it related to details of the Prime Minister's security apparatus. "The information so sought includes details related to the entire entourage, names of Special Protection Group (SPG) personnel accompanying the Prime Minister of India on foreign tours for his personal safety, and the same, if disclosed, can potentially affect the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security, strategic, scientific or economic interests of the State," the IAF said.  An RTI activist has sought information regarding each foreign visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh undertaken on IAF aircraft. (File photo for representation) Justice Chawla noted that the details sought were sought of not only passengers, including the SPG personnel, but also officials of the government accompanying the Prime Minister. "Why should that be disclosed? At best, you [Mr. Batra] will get the numbers," he remarked. Covid Watch: Numbers and Developments The number of coronavirus cases reported from India stood at 98,20,999 at the time of writing this newsletter, with the death toll at 1,42,577. In Brief: As per estimates from the National Statistical Office, India's Index of Industrial Production (IIP) rose 3.6% in October, compared to the 0.5% growth in September, on the back of a 11.2% surge in electricity generation and a 3.5% uptick in manufacturing, Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. | 
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