Geetanjali Krishna looks at how one organisation's unique idea is helping marginalised communities to gain legal access.
Outlay for infra is also expected to see a significant increase in view of the government's Rs 111-trillion investment plan under the national infrastructure pipeline to develop social and economic infrastructure over five years.
'The government is doing away with crucial laws such as the Forest Conservation Act and the Environment Protection Act which had helped safeguard our forests.' 'The President has to show that she will stand in favour of tribal rights.'
As the second wave of the pandemic ebbs and the daily caseload falls, the struggles of the urban poor have come into focus. Many have suffered income and job losses after two successive waves. The second wave, in particular, has seen the poor being hit hard on account of lack of medical and financial help. For the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies this has meant that an important segment is under severe distress.
As if wanting to be an antidote to the coronavirus pandemic, the Indian stock market adorned carnival robes in 2021 with a tsunami of liquidity unleashed by global central banks coupled with supportive domestic policies and the world's largest vaccination drive sparking off a world-beating rally on Dalal Street, despite bouts of uneasiness over fizzy valuations. While the wider economy shuttled between recovery and relapse, dictated by multiple mutations of the virus, equity market benchmarks appeared headed in just one direction -- skywards. The dizzying upward journey has added a whopping Rs 72 lakh crore during 2021 to investors' wealth, measured as the cumulative value of all listed shares in the country, taking it to nearly Rs 260 lakh crore.
'The RSS ideology has been borrowed from fascism and is not borne out of Hinduism.' 'They want India to have one historical identity whereas India is a land full of divergence which goes in every direction.'
'India would not like to see Pakistani domination and tutelage of Afghanistan against Indian security and economic interests.'
Here's the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to a joint session of the United States Congress, delivered on Thursday.
Shankar Prajapati, a 57-year-old potter in Dharavi, has given up hope of getting a bigger house for his family. He lives cheek by jowl in a hutment measuring 200 square (sq.) feet (ft) in the nondescript shanty town. "We have surrendered to our fate. We cannot wait forever for better accommodation. "Perhaps we are not meant to dream big," despairs Prajapati. Raju Korde, president, Dharavi Redevelopment Committee, and a local resident, agrees with Prajapati.
India needs to consider whether the Donald Trump administration can actually deliver, observes former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
'Education is disconnected from social reality and does not even attempt to solve the real problems of our country,' observe Peehu Pardeshi and Sandeep Pandey.
The CoWIN portal will be made available in Hindi and 14 regional languages by next week, while 17 more laboratories will be added to the INSACOG network to monitor the variants of COVID-19, the health ministry said on Monday.
70-plus years after Independence, 'Hindu India, metamorphosised as 'Hindutva India', is proving the British right -- and for all the wrong reasons. Mohan Bhagwat should have answers for the why of it, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Delhi is a year-round health hazard that visitors shun like the plague, says Sunil Sethi.
The fund allocated for pulses buffer is more than 40% of entire farm ministry's 2016-17 budget.
'If Asia does become a Chinese dominated space, it will not only be because India failed to get its economic act together but also because it did not stand up for its democratic credentials,' warns Shyam Saran, the former foreign secretary.
Besides opening up the possibility of a policy that allows vintage cars retrofitted with electric batteries to ply on roads, this also gives a clue to how cars older than 15 years that are banned can be valued again by a similar conversion to EVs, says Ritwik Sharma.
The controversy over Human Resources and Development Minister Smriti Irani's educational qualifications has taken a new turn with her assertion that she also has a degree from the prestigious Yale University in the United States
Analysts caution a non-BJP government is not an impossible scenario. In case of a Modi-led coalition, they advise investors to focus on discretionary consumption, select private banks and financials, RIL, housing, and IT.
Inviting private sector in Indian Railways is a good idea.
The best of India's brains are instead busy solving the world's problems (I deliberately exaggerate a bit to drive home the point), as our policies incentivise them to do so.
'There is a deep stigma or taboo attached to COVID-19 in rural areas.' 'People don't want to test because they fear social exclusion.' 'Even those who test positive may not reveal and not follow the quarantine protocol.'
Bad management, an exhausted government vigilance mechanism, delay in roping in private players, relaxing norms, and over-dependence on antigen tests may be the reason behind the surge, reports Shine Jacob.
Twitter has 'withheld' 50 tweets related to a communally sensitive video clip of an elderly Muslim man in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh on the microblogging platform, according to sources.
It would involve constructing over 125,000 kilometres of roads and would form part of the third phase of the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana.
India has an unprecedented opportunity to develop solar industry because like China, it offers scale which is critical to reducing costs and to stimulate innovation, says Shyam Saran.
The government is expected to dole out some populist policies, especially for the rural / farm sector while presenting the interim budget, given that the country is heading towards general elections over the next few months.
'Under Section 79 of the IT Act, Facebook is mandated to exercise care. Once you have a duty, you do not have the right to silence; you need to show compliance.'
The lockdown should have been used to drum into Indians' head the reasons for social distancing and the necessity for it, and the costs of not applying it in our daily lives and it should have been used to set up the systems that would manage large numbers of infected, observes Mihir S Sharma.
PowerGrid was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying over 4 per cent, followed by NTPC, UltraTech Cement, Tech Mahindra, Reliance Industries and IndusInd Bank.
'This offers us many opportunities to meet people in different ways, and we will do this with full respect to India.'
In a statement issued on Thursday, the Lakshadweep Research Collective said it along with 60 other signatories from the scientific community have written to President Ram Nath Kovind seeking his intervention to withdraw the "incautious draft" Lakshadweep Development Authority Regulation of 2021.
The possibility of harassment by cops and fear of the unknown have forced a large number of truck drivers to abandon vehicles at the transport centres and flee home. Transport of goods remains badly hit as confusion remains among various stakeholders and road transport becomes the victim of disconnect between policy makers and local authorities.
In an apparent attempt at assuaging his feelings in the wake of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi's denunciation of the government, Congress Chief Sonia Gandhi on Sunday praised Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, saying schemes launched under his leadership have helped millions of people from the marginalised sections.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has increased its gold purchases, as part of its foreign exchange (forex) reserves. In the first half (H1) of calendar year 2021 (CY21), the addition of gold to India's forex reserves has been the highest - on a half-yearly basis -at 29 tonnes. Now, the RBI's gold holding - as a proportion of its forex reserves - has for the first time crossed 700 tonnes.
For Duflo and Banerjee, an important part of their work has been ensuring that the agency of the "beneficiaries" -- usually, in developing countries like India, poorer individuals -- is put at the centre of any policy design. This is a crucial way in which experimental results are often better than large scale data-based inference, says Mihir S Sharma.
In his address at an extraordinary video conference of the G-20 leaders, Modi also urged the grouping to come out with a concrete action plan to fight the pandemic and said human beings rather than economic targets should be put at the centre of its vision for global prosperity and cooperation.
States are now gearing up to implement the scheme, integrating it with their own public health insurance plans and tying up the loose ends.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a Rs 76,000 crore policy boost for semiconductor and display manufacturing ecosystem in the country in an bid to position India as a global hub for hi-tech production. Announcing the decision of the Cabinet, IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw observed that electronics plays an important role in everyday life, and semiconductor chips forms a crucial part of electronics. Outlining the details of the scheme, he said the Rs 76,000 crore programme has been approved for the development of semiconductors and display manufacturing ecosystem.
We have our own problems for sure and they are not trivial, but for now, our economy is in not too bad a shape, our politics is as personality-driven and authoritarian as that of most countries in the world. We must make the best of what we have and not be excessively unhappy looking at the grass on the other side of the septic tank which may not be greener after all!, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
