In Focus by The Hindu

When it comes to taxes, there is one definitive trend in all countries: the wealthiest entities, be it billionaires, or multinational corporations, enjoy the lowest effective rates of taxation. And this is in a context where governments around the world are cutting down on welfare programmes because they ostensibly can’t afford the resources to sustain them. To reduce inequality, fair and effectiv...

The Israel-Palestine conflict has turned into a giant humanitarian crisis over the past week, with thousands of civilians, including women children being killed. Many of them were killed when hospitals were bombed. The UN Security Council’s attempt to pass a resolution calling for a humanitarian pause in the bombing campaign by Israel was blocked by the US and its allies. International public opin...

The Supreme Court, in a judgement this week refused to give legal recognition to same sex marriages. The court had heard a series of petitions asking for same-sex marriage to be allowed under the Special Marriage Act of 1954 which provides a civil form of marriage for couples who cannot marry under their personal, religious laws. The question before the Court was this: is there a right to marry un...

The Dussehra festivities are here, and so are Dussehra processions. In Mysore, like every year, this time too, the elephant Abhimanyu will carry the 750-kg Golden Howdah and lead the procession. Abhimanyu is 59 years old and this could be one of the last times he performs his annual duty. While people love temple elephants and pachyderms like Abhimanyu are an integral part of religious rituals, it...

It has taken the country over 25 years to pass the Bill, after it was first introduced in the Lok Sabha in 1996, by the then Deve Gowda-led United Front government. At that time, it was heatedly opposed, and subsequently, despite being reintroduced several times, the Bill was not passed, until this year. In 1993 however, then prime minister P.V. Narasimha Rao brought in Bills which reserved one th...

Earlier this month, the Bihar government published the ‘Bihar Caste-based Survey 2022’. The survey data showed that extremely backward classes (EBCs) and other backward classes (OBCs) together made up nearly 63% of the 13-crore population, making them the largest caste group in the State. The Congress has made a demand for a caste survey a core element of its poll campaign in the forthcoming assem...

More than 3,000 people -- Israelis and Palestinians -- have been killed following a surprise attack on southern Israel by the militant Palestinian group Hamas. The military operation, named ‘Toofan Al-Aqsa’ by Hamas, has brought back into the spotlight the most critical element of sustainable peace in West Asia – Israel’s military occupation of Palestinian territories. Israel has declared war on H...

Diplomatic relations between India and Canada have never been this strained. The current spat between the two countries began when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in Parliament that there were credible allegations of the Indian government’s involvement in the murder of Khalistani separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar. Now India, in the latest salvo, has asked Canada to remove 41...

The proposed Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita or BNS, may soon replace the Indian Penal Code or IPC, a piece of legislation that has dealt with crimes and their punishments since 1860. One of the clauses under the BNS, clause 69, has recently sparked off a debate. Clause 69 says that if a man promises to marry a woman, but does not actually intend to marry her, and still has consensual sex with her, this w...

Think of Himachal Pradesh, and you’ll most likely think of apples growing there. Soon though, this apple-growing State may legalise a new crop: cannabis. Last month, a five-member panel constituted by the government submitted a report that said the legalisation of cannabis would be a game-changer for the state, enabling it to generate revenue and create employment.  Himachal Pradesh is not the fir...

The net financial savings of households in India has fallen to a five-decade low of just 5.1% of the GDP in FY 2023. It was 7.2% in FY 2022. This is a worrying development, because a high savings rate has traditionally correlated with a healthy growth rate. Data released by the RBI also shows that at the same time that household savings have fallen, financial liabilities of households have risen s...

International cricket’s biggest event is starting tomorrow in Ahmedabad. The 2023 ICC Cricket World Cup will go on till November 19, featuring 48 matches spread across ten cities. Ten teams will vie for the coveted trophy. While defending champions England will be strong contenders, India, as the host nation, will be under tremendous pressure to bring home the Cup. How do the teams stack up? How e...

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education has flagged its concerns over a key element of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 – the multiple exit and entry system for students in higher education. The Committee’s report, titled “Implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP), 2020 in Higher Education,” says that a policy of multiple entry/exit for undergraduate students may not...

The government introduced a new Bill in the Rajya Sabha in August – the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners (Appointment, Conditions of Service and Term of Office) Bill, 2023. It repeals the Election Commission (Conditions of Service of Election Commissioners and Transaction of Business) Act, 1991. This Bill was initially listed for discussion in the special session of Par...

Overnight- ties between India and Canada, already quite tense, took a turn for the worse- within days of returning from Delhi where he attended the G20 summit, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau made a startling announcement in parliament.  In this episode of Worldview, we look at the diplomatic war that has broken out between India and Canada, as Canadian PM Justin Trudeau accused the Indian...

A new study from Nutrition Advocacy for Public Interest (NAPI), titled The Junk Push: Rising UItra Processed Food Consumption In India: Policy, Politics and Reality, paints a grim picture of misleading marketing, rising consumption of Ultra Processed Foods (UPFs) in India, and the role of UPFs in triggering an epidemic non-communicable diseases such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension, among oth...

Recently, Telugu Desam Party (TDP) national president N. Chandrababu Naidu was arrested by the Crime Investigation Department for his alleged complicity in the ₹371-crore A.P. Skill Development Corporation ‘scam’, which reportedly took place during his term as Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister between 2014 and 2019. The TDP termed the arrest a “political vendetta” against Mr. Naidu by the Jagan Mohan...

In this bonus episode, Suhasini Haider looks at all that the G20 Summit in India was able to achieve- the big wins, the spotlight, the shade and the seven big takeaways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Nipah virus is back in the news. For the fourth time in five years, Kerala is battling an outbreak of Nipah. The virus, first documented in Malaysia in 1998, is zoonotic, which means it is transmitted to people from animals, in this case the animals are believed to be the fruit bats of the Pteropus species. As of September 15, six people have tested positive for Nipah virus, and two have died....

The RBI has issued a new circular on how banks should go about resetting interest rates on floating rate loans. Interest rates have been rising throughout this year, and customers haven’t been too happy with the way banks impose changes on their loans. But the new RBI guidelines promise to increase transparency and clarity. For one, borrowers will now be given the option to shift from a floating t...

The G20 Summit under India’s presidency last week announced the launch of the India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor. It aims to enhance connectivity and trade throughout this corridor, connecting India to Saudi Arabia and then onto Europe.  The other signatories to this proposal are the UAE, France, the EU, the US and Germany. In some quarters, this is also seen as a sort of a challenge to Ch...

After two weeks of high octane tennis, the US Open has produced two new champions in men’s and women’s singles. Novak Djokovic has claimed a record 24th Grand Slam. And Coco Gauff has finally fulfilled her promise with a victory over the new world number 1, Aryna Sabalenka. Some of the match-ups were intriguing, and so were their outcomes – Medvedev versus Alcaraz, for instance, and also Karolina...

How do we understand how an infection affects the human body? And how do we go about the process of finding safe and effective drugs and vaccines for the many diseases that abound? One way scientists do this is through Controlled Human Infection Studies or CHIS, also known as human challenge studies. This involves deliberately exposing a volunteer to a disease-causing germ, in a controlled environ...

The Union government has set up a committee headed by President Ramnath Kovind to look at various aspects of implementing the ‘one nation, one election’ plan. The broad idea is to synchronise the timing of Lok Sabha and State Assembly elections across all States. The proposal for simultaneous elections has raised many concerns. Foremost among them is the impact it will have on federalism. Then the...

President Xi Jinping will not be attending the G-20 summit in Delhi. Instead, Premier Li Qiang with lead the Chinese delegation. This is the first time that Xi will be missing the G-20 summit, and China has offered no explanation for why he won’t be attending. So, what is the significance of Xi skipping such a high profile international event that will also see the likes of US President Joe Biden...