Elections to three Rajya Sabha seats from Delhi, and one each from Uttar Pradesh and Sikkim will be held today. The Aam Aadmi Party has nominated senior leader Sanjay Singh, chartered accountant ND Gupta and businessman Sushil Gupta. Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri is BJP's candidate from Uttar Pradesh. Sitting Rajya Sabha MP from Sikkim Hishey Lachungpa of SDF, whose term expires next month, will seek re-election.

Trials for the e-way bill under the Goods and Services Tax will start today. Traders can start using the e-way bill on a voluntary basis from today. It will be made compulsory from February 1. Under GST, movement of goods costing over ₹50,000 beyond 10 km requires prior registration and generation of an e-way bill through the GST Network to track inter- and intra-State movement.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will attend a function to mark the start of work for the Rajasthan Refinery at Pachpadra in Barmer district. He is also expected to address a public meeting. The estimated cost of the project, a joint venture of HPCL and Rajasthan government, is over Rs 43,000 crore.

The bidding for round 1 under Hydrocarbon Exploration License Policy will start today. Last year, the government had liberalised the regime for oil and gas exploration by announcing the Open Acreage Licensing process that allows companies to carve their own areas for hydrocarbon hunting. The new policy had opened up 2.8 million sq.km. of sedimentary basins for exploration and eventual production.

Foreign ministers from around 20 nations will gather in Vancouver to discuss how to curb North Korea's nuclear ambitions through diplomatic and financial pressure. The Vancouver meeting, co-hosted by Canada and the United States, comes amid signs that tensions on the peninsula have eased, at least temporarily. North and South Korea held talks for the first time in two years last week and Pyongyang says it will send athletes across the border to the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

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