India's main inflation measure, the Consumer Price Index (CPI), is set for another major update, even though it has been in its current form for only about 15 years.
As the year draws to a close, Rediff's Senior Contributor Roshmila Bhattacharya takes a look at the hits and misses, the highs and lows, the newsmakers and the dealbreakers in alphabetical order.
United States President Donald Trump on Friday announced that his administration will impose a 100 per cent tariff on branded and patented pharmaceutical products beginning October 1, 2025, unless the manufacturing companies are building production facilities in the US.
The bench said, given the pressing nature of the crisis, particularly in cities like Kota, Jaipur, Sikar, Vishakhapatnam, Hyderabad, and Delhi, where students migrate in large numbers, immediate interim safeguards are the call of the day.
One flyer read: 'More Indians in 5 years, than Greeks and Italians in 100', adding, 'This isn't a slight cultural change, it's a replacement plain and simple'.
The data compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau showed that the crime rate in 2023 stood at 39.9 per one-lakh child population, in comparison to 36.6 in 2022.
The average Indian worker must labour for an extraordinary 160 full working days to afford Apple's latest iPhone 17 Pro.
35,493 brides were killed in India between 2017 and 2022 -- averaging nearly 20 deaths a day -- over dowry demands, sometimes occurring even years after the wedding.
US President-elect Donald Trump has nominated Indian-American scientist Jay Bhattacharya to lead the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the country's top health research and funding institutions. Bhattacharya, a professor of Health Policy at Stanford University, is known for his research on the health and well-being of vulnerable populations. Trump also nominated Jim O'Neill as the deputy secretary of Health and Human Services to work alongside Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
There are challenges galore before him, and it is not going to be easy. In the next four years, he has to conjure a system that changes the optics about him and the BJP both nationally and internationally so that he can ride back on his own, claim the top slot, and not have to lean on a coalition, asserts Ramesh Menon as Modi 3.0 completes a year in power.
A new report, "India Justice Report 2025", highlights the stark gender disparity in India's police force, with less than 1,000 women holding senior positions like Director-Generals and Superintendents of Police. Despite growing awareness about the need for gender diversity in law enforcement, not a single state or Union Territory has met its target for women's representation in the police force. The report also emphasizes the significant challenges faced by the justice system as a whole, including infrastructural deficiencies, overcrowding in prisons, and inadequate staffing levels. The report calls for systemic reforms to address these issues and ensure a more equitable and accessible justice system for all.
The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) on Friday said it has advanced the release of macroeconomic data Gross Domestic Product (GDP) estimates by about 90 mins to 4 pm. As per the current practice, the press releases of GDP are scheduled at 5.30 pm on the specified release dates, a MoSPI statement said.
With the two members quitting, the NSC now has only two members -- Chief Statistician Pravin Srivastava and NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant.
'Don't get stressed if you are not able to do your work.' 'If you feel you do not have the skill or capacity to do some work, accept it.'
According to the report, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, and Madhya Pradesh are identified as the states with the highest number of student suicides, together accounting for one-third of the national total.
2023 was the worst for the tiger population, recording the highest number of mortalities in a decade with 178 tigers dying.
China's population growth has been slowing since 2016 as the high cost of raising children, a greater pursuit of individualism and a diversified lifestyle dampen enthusiasm to start a family.
Every nine minutes a married man commits suicide in India due to alleged misuse of section 498a of IPC against them, taking the toll to around a whopping 64,000 every year, says a report.
Overall, China's economy expanded at a rate of 11.1 percent on year-on-year basis during the first half of 2010.
While the gangrape in Delhi is the most recent incident that outraged the nation, there have been several other crimes that drew attention to the plight of women in our country. Rediff.com lists a few cases.
Nearly 150 to 200 women are killed every year in India after being tagged as 'witches', a Dehra Dun based non-governmental organisation has said, citing National Crime Bureau's statistics. Jharkhand tops the list with 50-60 witchcraft-related murders every year followed by Andhra Pradesh, where the number is approximately 30, Haryana recorded 25-30 cases and Orissa 24-28 such murders, Rural Litigation and Entitlement Kendra Chairman Avdhash Kaushal claimed.
China's population in 2022 -- 1.4118 billion -- fell by 850,000 from 2021, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said.
'We have also been incredibly clear to Hizbollah and any other malign actors that they should not use this opportunity to widen this conflict. And when we're talking about a humanitarian pause, what we are talking about is conditions that simultaneously ensure that Hamas is not in a position in which it can regroup, restrengthen itself'
The population is important and so is the talent, he said about China, the world's second-largest economy after the United States.
According to the list of business uploaded on the apex court website, the plea of opposition parties would be heard on April 5 by a three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud.
Exports have been a drag on the economy for some time as shipments have declined on weak external demand.
The Supreme Court has dismissed a PIL seeking declaration of all animals as legal entities having rights like any living person.
China on Thursday announced that it would radically reform its gross domestic product calculation methodology and statistics release, to make it at par with international standards.
The first-quarter growth exceeded market estimates of 7.3 per cent, China's National Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday.
The Gini coefficient, which reflects the wealth gap between rich and poor, was at 0.474 level for China in 2012 -- well above the warning levels, a report has said.
During the visit, the Prime Ministers will attend a community event in Sydney to celebrate Australia's dynamic and diverse Indian diaspora, "a core part of our multicultural community", the Australian government said in a statement.
China's demographic problem due to ageing population is showing up as the labour force for first time has decreased by 3.45 million last year, prompting officials to appeal to the new leadership to devise "appropriate and scientific" population policy.
China's economy grew by 8.1 per cent in 2021 to about $18 trillion despite challenges, including epidemic resurgences and a complicated external environment, the government said on Monday. According to the official figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), China's economy grew by four per cent in the fourth quarter of last year, slowing from the 4.9 per cent growth in the third quarter, rounding off the full year's growth rate to 8.1 per cent in 2021. The GDP increase is also above the six per cent target set by the government for the year.
China's real estate investment rose 20.2 per cent in the first quarter from the same period a year earlier.
The Chinese economy grew by stunning 10.7 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2009, which may see it replacing Japan as the second largest economy in the world.
As China faces a scenario of negative population growth, the government has started to force its citizens to marry early and have at least three children each.
Over 23 million people were brought above the poverty line in China last year as about 100 million people from rural areas moved to cities for work.
China's economy will maintain its rapid growth next year though the government may face greater difficulties in macro-economic control, a top official of the National Bureau of Statistics said.
The Chinese economy grew at its slowest pace in 13 years posting 7.8 per cent year-on-year growth in 2012 amid external jitters and domestic woes.
China grew by 9.7 per cent in the first quarter of this calendar year while inflation sped to its 32-month high of 5.4 per cent, according to the data released by National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
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