The Supreme Court of India has directed changes in digital know your customer (KYC) guidelines for persons with disability and acid attack survivors, citing the right to digital access as an intrinsic component of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. The court found that existing KYC procedures, which require visual tasks such as head movements and facial positioning, pose significant challenges for these groups, preventing them from accessing essential services like bank accounts and welfare schemes. The court emphasized the importance of bridging the digital divide and ensuring universal accessibility to digital services for all citizens.
Looking under the hood, I see India on the terrible, but commonplace, road to prosperity failure, warns Rathin Roy.
Telecom services providers have urged the Ministry of Finance to suspend the universal service obligation (USOF) till the existing corpus is exhausted. In their Budget recommendations, they have also pressed for an exemption from the service tax on "assignment of right to use natural resources" and the slashing of Customs duty on telecom equipment to zero. The Cellular Operators Association of India (Coai), which represents private sector telecom operators Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea, called for abolishment of USOF levy.
The Meghalaya government in partnership with startup TechEagle has unveiled Asia's first drone delivery hub and network which is aimed at providing universal access to healthcare for the people in the state, a release said on Tuesday. The project is aimed at delivering vital supplies like drugs, diagnostic samples, vaccines, blood and blood components quickly and safely to different regions of the state using a dedicated drone delivery network, it said. On Monday, the first official drone flight took off from Jengjal Sub Divisional Hospital, which will act as the hub, and delivered medicines to Padeldoba primary health centre in less than 30 minutes, which would otherwise have taken 2.5 hours by road, TechEagle said in the release.
'You need to have enough funds to maintain the primacy of public transport and it should not suffer because of lack of funds.'
The BRICS nations on Friday underlined the need for using local currencies in international trade and financial transactions besides committing themselves to supporting rule-based open and transparent global trade. A joint statement issued at the end of the meeting of the BRICS Ministers of Foreign Affairs and International Relations, also pressed for a robust Global Financial Safety Net with a quota-based and adequately resourced International Monetary Fund (IMF) at its centre. It further said the process of IMF governance reform under the 16th General Review of Quotas, including a new quota formula as a guide, should be completed by December 15, 2023.
We have the workforce, now we need to ensure that we take full advantage of game-changing technologies and geopolitical openings, suggests Jayant Sinha, chairman, Parliament's Standing Committee on Finance.
Economist Jayati Ghosh noted that the word 'freebies' indicates the class position of those who use it.
Out of Rs 86200.65 crore, Rs 83,000 crore have been allocated to the department of health and family welfare while Rs 3200 crore have been allocated to the department of health research.
'In India, a deadly wave of infection with the Delta variant stole 240,000 lives between April and June and disrupted economic recovery. Similar episodes could take place in the near term,' said the report.
The next quarter-century could mark India's rise as a nation to be more whole-heartedly admired if it addresses its institutional and policy failures, and focuses on reducing its inequalities and addressing its iniquities, asserts T N Ninan.
In the Rome Declaration, the G20 leaders thanked healthcare and frontline workers, international organisations and scientists for their relentless efforts to cope with the deadly COVID-19 pandemic.
In the midst of third wave of COVID-19, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has come up with an impactful Budget which is balanced, fiscally prudent and growth-oriented, the USA India Chamber of Commerce has said. President of the Boston-based USA India Chamber of Commerce (USAIC) Karun Rishi, however, said it is a matter of concern that the budget lacks tangible measures to increase revenue generation. "Opting to keep the fiscal deficit at 6.9 per cent and increase capital expenditure by 35 per cent is a masterstroke. "The annual budget estimates the effective capital expenditure of Rs 10.68 lakh crore in 2022-23, making up about 4.1 per cent of the GDP," he said. "A phenomenal increase in the government's capital expenditure is likely to facilitate the expenditures on infrastructure and create jobs.
Beijing OLympics will be remembered for the extremes of its anti-COVID-19 measures
IPO-bound mobility platform Ola, said it has successfully raised $500 million via a Term Loan B (TLB) from marquee international institutional investors. This term loan has no impact on the valuation of Bhavish Aggarwal-led Ola. The Bengaluru-based firm recently raised $139 million. This is part of a $1 billion funding round for which the company is in talks with investors, increasing its valuation to about $7.5 billion, according to the sources.
'Forcing the development of an indigenous vaccine as a cure for COVID-19, bypassing all health & safety norms, to be announced by PM Modi on Independence Day is fraught with horrendous human costs'
India has entered a 'demographic sweet spot' with half of its population being under the age of 29. This 'demographic dividend' is likely to last for 2-3 decades and provides the government a unique opportunity to harness the vast potential of India's youth, points out Raj Kishore Mishra, the former civil servant turned development professional.
As per the latest finance ministry data, the total balance in over 36.06 crore Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) accounts was at Rs 1,00,495.94 crore as on July 3.
Having access to high-speed internet reduces sleep duration.
The mission - unveiled by Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad -- will enable strengthening of technological infrastructure for education, health, entrepreneurship and development.
The two states account for 24% of total accounts opened under financial inclusion scheme.
According to the funding projections indicated in the 12th Plan document, allocations for essential medicines would be doubled.
'At least one specially designed fully accessible railway car should be added to every train'.
Following is the chronology of the events in the 2G spectrum allocation scam in which the prime accused and former Telecom Minister A Raja was on Tuesday granted bail:
Following is the chronology of events in the 2G scam.
Bharti Global is planning to put up more satellites and has set a stiff deadline to launch commercial Internet services by October in the UK, Alaska, northern Russia and northern Europe.
Kartik Sawhney, 21, and Neha Swain, 28 from India are among 60 others who won the Queen's Young Leaders Award 2016.
The policy also aims to provide training to physicians and paramedical staff for treating psychiatric patients.
This month, Google, the Internet Goliath completed its 13 years of existence. Widely recognised as a search engine there is more to Google, feels Get Ahead reader Indresh Kumar.
The National Advisory Council, chaired by Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, met for the second time on Thursday after its recent revival and unanimously endorsed the idea of universal access to the public distribution system (PDS) in rural areas.
The Universal Service Obligation fund was set up in April 2002 and a statutory status was given to it.
A bitter battle between the finance ministry and the Department of Telecommunications over their jurisdiction might force the latter to withdraw its decision to waive licence fees for fixed-line service operators in rural areas.
The changes, which will come into force on May 20 next year, will bring an end to the use of physical objects to define measurement units.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Thursday came out with a notification under which a UASL (Universal Access Service Licence) holder will have a lock-in period of three years or till the fulfilment of rollout obligations, whichever is earlier, before promoters can sell their equity stake.
The Cellular Operators Association of India has suggested that the government, in allocating telecom licence, consider applicants with experience and impose a five-year lock-in period under which promoters cannot sell their equity.
In a major development, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has cleared applications of nine telecom aspirants and is close to issuing them Letters of Intent. This will be followed by issuance of universal access service licences and allocation of spectrum.
India's rural employment guarantee programme MNREGA has been ranked as the world's largest public works programme, providing social security net to almost 15 per cent of the country's population, the World Bank has said.
'All parties and the government acknowledge that there we are in trouble and there is more trouble ahead,' observes Aakar Patel.
Aditya Birla Telecom Ltd (ABTL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Idea Cellular, will offload 20 per cent to Providence Equity Partners, a US buyout firm, for Rs 2,560 crore. This takes Providence's total investment in Idea Cellular to $1.04 billion, which is the largest private equity investment in an Indian telecom service provider. The deal values ABTL at Rs 12,800 crore.
Jaitley said the government proposes to establish a National Testing Agency as an autonomous and self-sustained premier testing organisation to conduct all entrance examinations for higher education institutions.
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