Stalin owes his victory this time, like in 2019, to the hate-campaign of the local Hindutva forces, which kept haranguing him, and even his dead father, notes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Whether the third wave will ravage us depends on the pace of vaccinations, careful and calibrated opening up of establishments, and a strategy to contain the spread in specific states or pockets.
'India needs offensive and defensive security measures to protect itself.'
Nilekani is the president of NCAER's governing body, while Rohini Nilekani is the Founder-Chairperson of Arghyam, a foundation that supports initiatives around the country for safe and sustainable water and sanitation.
Work on a 2,800 MW nuclear power plant in Haryana will be kickstarted on January 13 when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh lays the foundation stone for it. The plant in Fatehabad district will have four units, each of 700 MWs, at the cost of Rs 22,000 crore.
The problem, say experts, is not so much the use of plastic as the lack of effort to recycle and reuse it.
'We have often heard the mythical argument that patents block access to life-saving drugs, but only 5% of medicines from multinational companies are under patent protection in India.' 'Where these patented products are beyond the reach of Indian patients, the companies have programmes to facilitate access to their drugs, for free or for a fraction of the price,' points out Ranjana Smetacek, former director general, Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India.
While household toilets are only one part of the large challenge for the government, having liquid and solid waste management facilities, along with water delivery across the entire country, is a trickier one.
The secretary defence production wants to make India (currently the largest importer of weaponry) one of the world's top five defence manufacturers and a global leader in artificial intelligence and cyberspace.
It is our only chance of avoiding a repeat of our catastrophic second wave, asserts Naushad Forbes.
Higher education policy may be at the core of the Tamil Nadu assembly polls next May, with a potential to break the ties between the ruling AIADMK in the state and the BJP counterpart at the national level, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
A sum insured of Rs 3 lakh to Rs 5 lakh may have been sufficient seven-eight years ago but would be inadequate today, especially for people living in metros, points out Sanjay Kumar Singh.
'The protests have forced the government to announce that the NRC is not an immediate priority.' 'Even if they are trying to pursue this policy in a different guise, through the NPR, the fact that they have been forced to pause and backtrack at least temporarily shows the positive impact of the protests.' 'Moreover, various state governments have opposed the NPR which cannot be carried out without their cooperation. That is also a success of the protests.' 'The state governments would not have taken this stance against the central government if their hand had not been forced by the popular mood.'
The recoveries surged to 15,35,743 with a record 54,859 more people recuperating in the past 24 hours, taking the recovery rate to 69.33 per cent. The case fatality rate has dropped to about 2 per cent, the govt said.
Prime Minister Modi felt there were too many silos with no arrangement to take a comprehensive view on national security. The PM has entrusted NSA Ajit Doval to evolve a comprehensive roadmap and get it implemented, reveals Nitin Gokhale, Editor-in-Chief, Strategic News International.
The exponential number of downloads can be attributed to a call by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, asking people to have the app on their mobiles, combined with the government's push for downloading of the app through other channels, reports Neha Alawadhi.
A 15 per cent corporate tax rate for services companies in SEZs, setting up a fund for deep-tech startups and establishing clusters to demonstrate design-to-manufacturing capabilities of tech firms were some of the key demands made by the IT sector at the pre-Budget consultation on Monday. The participants shared their views and suggestions regarding Big Data, incentives for encouraging setting up of data centres, fiscal incentives for data localisation, incentives for pushing digital penetration in rural areas, and corporate guarantee to startups for competing with other nations.
The researchers, including those from the Centre for DNA Fingerprinting and Diagnostics (CDFD) in Hyderabad, advise testing asymptomatic primary and secondary contacts followed by surveillance.
New Union minister L Murugan's declaration of Kongu Nadu as his native place, instead of Tamil Nadu, may be part of a grand BJP strategy to create new states out of existing ones, particularly those that have anti-BJP governments, mulls N Sathiya Moorthy.
'If the leadership goes back to Rahul Gandhi, then there will be a perception problem about the drama about his exit a year-and-a-half ago.'
Interest rate on Public Provident Fund scheme was cut to 8.1%.
Moody's Investors Service on Friday said India's economy is expected to contract for the first time in more than four decades saying economic damage owing to the coronavirus-induced lockdown will be significant with lower consumption and sluggish business activity. Even before the coronavirus outbreak, Indian economy already was growing at its slowest pace in six years and with the stimulus measures announced by the government falling short of expectations, the disruptions are likely to be greater. "We now expect India's growth to register a real GDP contraction for the fiscal year ending in March 2021 (fiscal 2020-21), from our earlier projection of zero growth," it said in a research note.
The National Technical Research Organisation, the ambitious project to protect India's cyber space, is all set to roll out in May. However, experts are sceptical on how the government will maintain a balance between cyber security and civil liberties, reports Vicky Nanjappa.
Where Ms Chawla seems to have erred is that she has not been able to build the desired credibility required to champion the cause she took to court.
India's IPR framework and enforcement were comparable to those in developed countries
In a letter to the Uttar Pradesh chief minister, the Congress general secretary said that the situation is getting serious and the battle against the pandemic cannot be fought just by publicity and managing news.
The report, Perspectives on Global Development 2010 -- Shifting Wealth, is the centerpiece of a Global Policy Dialogue co-hosted by the OECD Development Center and Global Development Network -- a platform for economic research institutes from developing countries.
Unless we control the coronavirus, we are going to struggle to get our economy and country back on track. The spectre of the virus haunts recovery, warns Naushad Forbes.
Nine years after the 9/11 attacks, the United States faces the threat of more home grown terror assaults, including prospects of suicide bombings and assassinations of top leaders, apart from Mumbai-style strikes, a leading research group in Washington has warned.
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari had a secret meeting with a group of senior Taliban operatives in April last year during which he expressed the Pakistan government's "support for their mission", a researcher studying developments in Afghanistan has alleged.
'The Indian government wakes up after the fact when it can do nothing, or rather lacks the will to prosecute military actions to reverse these adverse PLA-driven developments.'
Experts say a large part of the expenditure in April was spent on heads such as creating infrastructure for testing capacity and procuring testing kits, among other things.
'The Swedish government would consider who will live, who will not die, in rationing coronavirus healthcare!' 'This means the 'biological age' would supersede the patient's chronological age as a potential guideline,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar
'I am committed to my country if there is respect for democracy and human rights. If not possible then I will prefer to stay in India or any other western country'
Cabinet note being readied, on basis of study, to ensure against foodgrain shortage; might require buffer of up to 50% more.
'The vaccine policy should be such that all people should get the vaccine free.'
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday presented the Budget for 2021-22 in the Lok Sabha that is expected to provide relief to the pandemic-hit common man as well as focus more on driving economic recovery through higher spending on healthcare, infrastructure and defence amid rising tensions with neighbours, As India emerges from the COVID-19 crisis, the ninth Budget under the Modi government, including an interim one, is widely expected to focus on boosting spending on job creation and rural development, generous allocations for development schemes, putting more money in the hands of the average taxpayer and easing rules to attract foreign investments.
Of the 1,000 surveyed by IIM-A, only five were aware about the government-sponsored gold schemes
The average rate of COVID-19 vaccination in the country has been 10.8 million per week. At that rate, it will take India till December 2024 to complete two billion doses.
The country is still in the ascending limb of the epidemic, said Prof D Prabhakaran.
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