# Election Commission

• In a major step towards making elections more inclusive, the election Commission on Thursday proposed introduction of remote voting for domestic migrants, using a multi constituency Electronic voting machine that will retain all security features of the EVMs currently in use.
• Domestic migrants face disenfranchisement due to their inability to travel back to the polling stations where they are registered as voters – as required by current laws – on account of factors like work, education and marriage.
• Remote voting is a fundamental reboot for an inclusive and participative democracy said chief election commissioner Rajiv kumar.
• The working of the remote voting machine will be demonstrated to representatives of all recognised parties on January 16.

# Draft solar policy

• Delhi government on Thursday approved the draft of its ambitious solar policy 2022 that revises the installed capacity to 6000 MW from 2000 MW by 2025, a jump of three times from 2022.
• The new policy targets to increase the share of solar energy in Delhi’s annual electricity demand from 9% to 25% in three years, the highest in India.
• The draft policy would be in the public domain for 30 days for comments from stakeholders.

# Israel

• Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn into office on Thursday, taking the helm of the most right wing and religiously conservative government in Israel’s history and voting to implement policies that could cause domestic and regional turmoil and alienate the country’s closest allies.
• Netanyahu took oath after parliament passed a vote of confidence in his new government.
• His return marks sixth term in office, continuing his more than decade long dominance over Israeli politics.

# Trade deals

• Announcing the operationalisation of the India Australia trade agreement on Thursday commerce minister Piyush goyal said that the government expects two trade agreements to be concluded in 2023.
• Goyal said that talks are currently on with Canada, the UK and the EU.