In December 1992, Parliament passed the 73rd and 74th constitutional amendments, which instituted panchayats and municipalities, respectively. These amendments mandated that State governments constitute panchayats (at the village, block and district levels) and municipalities (in the form of municipal corporations, municipal councils and nagar panchayats) in every region. They sought …

The Union government’s proposed measures for regulating online gaming in a draft amendment to the Information Technology (Intermediary Liability and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 leave several questions unanswered. Some of these proposed measures, such as the establishment of a self-regulatory body, collection of know-your-customer (KYC) information from players, …

Recent macro-economic data, including the official Index of Eight Core Industries for November and S&P Global’s survey-based Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing and services sectors for December, offer mixed signals on the underlying momentum in the economy. The government’s provisional data show that output across the core industries, …

A bird survey conducted at the Silent Valley National Park in Kerala in the last week of December identified 141 species, of which 17 were new. So far, 175 species of birds have been spotted in Silent Valley. The survey held on December 27, 28 and 29 marked the 30th …

Talacauvery in Kodagu district of Karnataka, which is the source of the Cauvery river, has emerged as South India’s Hanle, as astronomers have been hosting “star parties” there for some time now. Hanle, located in Ladakh, and known for its pristine skies and minimal light pollution, is also India’s first …

Poondi reservoir, which is a major storage point for the city’s drinking water, is filled to the brim with copious inflow of Krishna water and run-off from catchment areas. Water is now being diverted to fill the three other reservoirs that feed Chennai’s needs. Chennai’s daily water supply at the …

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the National Green Hydrogen Mission with an initial outlay of ₹19,744 crore, in a move aimed at making the country a global hub to produce, utilise and export green hydrogen and its derivatives. The government expects that the initiative will help abate nearly 50 …

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has released draft amendments in relation to online gaming. The idea is to ensure that online games are in conformity with Indian laws and to safeguard users against potential harm. The Minister of State at MeitY Rajeev Chandrasekhar stated that the draft …

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) ended 2022 by passing a resolution that asked the body’s highest court, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) , to render its opinion on the legal consequences of Israel’s prolonged occupation of Palestinian land. The resolution was passed with 87 member countries voting favourably, …

India aims to cut spending on food and fertilizer subsidies to ₹3.7 trillion in the fiscal year from April, a 26% cut from this year, two government officials said, to rein in a fiscal deficit that ballooned during the COVID-19 pandemic. Food and fertilizer subsidies alone account for about one-eighth …

The Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the Centre what would happen to the small and traditional fishermen in the State of Tamil Nadu if “affluent” purse seine fishermen on mechanised boats are allowed to operate beyond the 12 nautical mile territorial waters and end up catching hundreds of tonnes of …

A Prime Minister or a Chief Minister in a country where there is a multi-party system cannot afford to crack the whip every time a Minister makes a statement which may either be in bad taste or disparaging, the Supreme Court said in a Constitution Bench judgment on Tuesday. “The …

The Supreme Court on Monday observed that all religious conversions cannot be presumed by a State to be illegal while agreeing to hear a Madhya Pradesh government appeal against a High Court decision freezing a mandatory provision requiring a person who desires to convert to another faith to give 60 …

The India-China skirmish on the Arunachal Pradesh border has brought the Chinese threat on the front burner again. This has made External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar accept that to counter this threat, “…we have a deployment of the Indian Army… that we have never had.” The threat had never decreased, …

Soon, a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India will deliver its verdict on the validity of Tamil Nadu’s law permitting the practice of jallikattu in the State. Usually held during the Pongal season, jallikattu is a sport where men compete against each other to hold on to the …

It is an oft-repeated judicial view that courts must defer to the elected government’s judgment in matters of economic and social policy. Their interventions are usually limited to instances where executive decisions are palpably arbitrary or patently illegal. In this backdrop, it is no surprise that four of the five …

An invertebrate survey undertaken in the Thiruvananthapuram Wildlife Division has reaffirmed the relevance of the region as a biodiversity hotspot. The four-day exercise to survey the invertebrates of Neyyar and Peppara wildlife sanctuaries and the Agasthyavanam Biological Park with emphasis on arachnids was jointly conducted by the Forest Department and …

The second phase of the Sari Festival “VIRAASAT”- Celebrating 75 handwoven Saris of India will begin from 3rd to 17th January 2023 at Handloom Haat, Janpath, New Delhi. The Ministry of Textiles is organizing the festival, the timing of which are 11AM to 8 PM. The second phase, having 90 participants from different parts …

The National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM) and the Central Council for Research in Ayurvedic Sciences (CCRAS), the two prominent institutions under the Ministry of Ayush, Government of India for regulating medical education and conducting scientific research respectively, have launched ‘SMART’ (Scope for Mainstreaming Ayurveda Research in Teaching …

Assam remerged four districts with the ones they were carved out of four days after the Election Commission of India (ECI) notified the initiation of the delimitation of Assembly and Parliamentary constituencies in the State on December 27, 2022. Many welcomed the ECI decision but questioned the use of the …