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New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) Rajya Sabha on Sunday passed two contentious farm bills, which have triggered protests by farmers at several places, amid uproar by opposition members.

The two bills -- Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 -- were passed by Lok Sabha on Thursday.

The House also rejected demand of several opposition parties to send the two bills to a Rajya Sabha Select Committee for greater scrutiny.

New Delhi, Sep 19 (PTI) The Finance Ministry on Saturday informed the Lok Sabha that no decision has been taken to discontinue the printing of Rs 2,000 denomination currency notes.

In a written reply, Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur said printing of bank notes of particular denomination is decided by the government in consultation with the RBI to maintain desired denomination mix for facilitating transactional demand of public.

During the year 2019-20 and 2020-21, no indent was placed with the presses for printing of Rs 2,000 denomination notes.

New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar on Sunday said minimum price or MSP based procurement of agriculture crops from farmers will continue and is not related to the farm bills that seek to give cultivators freedom to market their produce.

Days after their passage in the Lok Sabha, Tomar introduced the Farmer's Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, 2020, and the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement of Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill, 2020 in the Rajya Sabha.

New Delhi, Sep 20 (PTI) National convener of AAP and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday appealed to all non-BJP parties to vote against three agriculture-related bills in the Rajya Sabha, saying farmers in the country wished so.

Earlier, Kejriwal had said his party will vote against the three bills and termed them "anti-farmer".

New Delhi, Sep 19 (PTI) Lok Sabha on Saturday passed a bill to further amend the Companies Act and decriminalise various compoundable offences as well as promote ease of doing business in the country.

The Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2020 seeks to decriminalise various penal provisions, permit direct overseas listing of Indian corporates and introduce a new chapter related to producer organisations in the legislation.

Chandigarh, Sep 20 (PTI) Farmers in Haryana began their protest against the agriculture-related farm bills on Sunday amid elaborate security arrangements which have been made to ensure that the event passes off smoothly.

The Bharatiya Kisan Union's Haryana unit, supported by some other farmer outfits, is holding a statewide protest against the Centre's farm bills during which protesters will block roads for three hours from 12 pm to 3 pm.

The farmers are also joined by the 'arhitiyas' or commission agents during their protest.

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump said Saturday he’s given his “blessing” to a proposed deal that would see the popular video-sharing app TikTok partner with Oracle and Walmart and form a U.S. company.

19 Sep 2020; AA: French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday called on Turkey to reopen a "responsible dialogue" on the Eastern Mediterranean.

"In Ajaccio, we sent a clear message to Turkey: let's reopen a responsible dialogue, in good faith, without naivety. This call is now also that of the European Parliament. It seems to have been heard. Let's move on," Macron said in a tweet in Turkish.

New Delhi, Sep 19 (PTI) The farm bills brought by the government undermine the food security system, the Congress claimed on Saturday and urged opposition parties to collectively oppose the bills so that they do not become law in their present form.

Congress leader and former Union finance minister P Chidambaram said that the Congress's 2019 poll manifesto was based on foundational principles of minimum support price (MSP), public procurement and public distribution system (PDS) to ensure food security.

19 Sep 2020; MEMO: Zambia wants to sign a free trade deal with Turkey, according to the ambassador of the southern African country, while also inviting Turkish businessmen and the private sector for investment in Zambia, Anadolu Agency reported.

According to the report, Zambia’s Ambassador to Turkey Joseph Chilengi recalled that a number of trade agreements between the two countries went into effect recently.