Top five news stories to watch out for December 9, 2019

Karnataka By-poll results:   Counting for the Karnataka Bypolls that took place on December 5 are to be declared on December 9. While it is said that BJP may sail through. The state saw 68 per cent turn-out in Karnataka Assembly bypolls. The by-polls were held to fill the 15 assembly constituency vacancies caused by the disqualification of 17 rebel Congress and JD(S) MLAs, whose revolt led to the collapse of the HD Kumaraswamy-led the coalition government in July and paved the way for BJP to come to power. The Karnataka Assembly has the current strength of 208 after the disqualifications, BJP has 105 MLAs (including an independent), the Congress 66 and the JD(S) 34. 

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is likely to be introduced in Lok Sabha on December 9  and will be taken up for discussion and passage the next day. The bill, which seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan if they faced religious persecution there, will be tabled in the Rajya Sabha after being dealt with by the Lower House of Parliament. The CAB was passed last year by the 16th Lok Sabha on January 8. However, it was not tabled in the Rajya Sabha and later lapsed. 

Maharashtra Cabinet portfolio allocation is likely:  The expansion of the council of ministers will be done after the winter session of the state legislature. Sharad Pawar stressed the need for allocation of portfolios to the ministers who were sworn in with Thackeray on November 28 at the earliest. A meeting the previous week was attended by Shiv Sena leaders like Eknath Shinde, Sanjay Raut and, Subhash Desai along with NCP’s Ajit Pawar and Jayant Patil. 

NSE to introduce interest rate trading options:  The National Stock Exchange last month announced that it will introduce trading in interest rate   options based on government securities from December 9. The move is aimed at providing an efficient tool for managing interest rate risk and exposure through hedging. Earlier BSE launched trading in interest rate options based on government securities in August this year.

Vivo V17 launch:  Vivo is likely to launch its new smartphone Vivo V17 on December 9 in India. The phone is expected to feature a 6.38-inch Full HD display, powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 665 processor along with 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage and a 32 Megapixel selfie camera.