India’s love-hate relationship with Free Speech
By News Desk| Published: 16th February 2021 1:07 pm IST Disha Ravi (photo-Twitter)
Amir Ullah Khan and Netheena Mathews
The continuing clampdown on journalists, activists and comedians critical of the government stands in glaring contradiction to the protection it offers to those like Republic TV’s Arnab Goswami. At least six senior journalists are facing charges for reporting allegations that Delhi police shot a protesting farmer to his death during the violence that erupted on Republic Day. Of the 154 cases of journalists being arrested, interrogated or detained recorded since 2010, 67 of them were in 2020 alone.
India’s rank slipped by two to 142 among 180 countries and territories in the World Press Freedom index in 2020, when compared to the previous year. The country witnessed the highest number of internet shutdowns in the world in 2020. As many as 83 such shutdowns were reported in 2020. The longest
Fall in India’s Covid-19 case count: Is it sustainable, and why complacency is risky
Experts warn that the coronavirus’ behaviour is not something that can be predicted, as evident from the UK, Brazil and South Africa, where new and highly transmissible variants of the virus have led to a massive spike in cases. Complacence and vaccine hesitancy are a matter of concern February 11, 2021 / 07:41 AM IST
Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Medical College in Jaipur, the main public health institution leading Rajasthan’s efforts to combat Covid-19, is seeing 25-30 Covid admissions these days, a drop of almost 10 times from the peak.
The Union budget 2021 – Flattering to deceive
By News Desk| Published: 9th February 2021 6:43 pm IST New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman holds a folder case containing the Union Budget 2021-22 as she poses for a group photograph with MoS Finance Anurag Thakur and other members of finance ministry, at North Block in New Delhi, Monday, Feb. 1, 2021. (PTI Photo/Kamal Singh)
Amir Ullah Khan
The Union budget is an Annual Financial Statement where the government of the day is expected to inform the Parliament of what it would spend its money on during the next year. This must be done diligently and responsibly, as with any financial matter of any scale. The country’s budget is huge, we will spend nearly 35 lakh crores next year and therefore it is expected that the FM would make clear announcements on what she plans for the country next year. Based on her outlays, we can then see where the focus of growth and development would be. It is important for all of us
Budget 2021: V-shaped recovery exaggerated, opine economists
The panelists opined that while philosophy behind the budget is academically correct, the execution will remain a major challenge.
By Sruthi Vibhavari| Published: 4th February 2021 2:32 pm IST The panel discussion was held at MCR HRD institute in Hyderabad.
Hyderabad: Expressing mixed feelings about the union budget for the fiscal year 2021-22 presented on February 1, academicians and professionals opined that while philosophy behind the budget is academically correct, the execution will remain a major challenge.
In a panel discussion held by the Marri Chenna Reddy Institute of Human Resource Devlopment (MCR HRD) on the union budget, Dr. J. Manohar Rao, former Economics professor at University of Hyderabad welcomed the impressive outlays on infrastructure saying that this would boost private sector investments and thereby create more jobs in the economy.