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India’s foreign trade data for the first eight months of 2022-23 have been significantly revised, with the import bill being scaled up or down by at least two billion dollars in each of those months, in comparison to the preliminary estimates issued by the Union Commerce Ministry. The total merchandise …

On January 20, foodtech delivery platform Swiggy announced that it was laying off 380 employees due to challenging macroeconomic conditions. In this article dated September 30, 2021, Sowmiya Ashok explains how the Indian public need to be more informed about the plight of gig workers, taking a leaf out of …

India’s financial sector is highly exposed to the risks of the economy transitioning from being largely dependent on fossil fuel to clean energy, says a study in the Global Environmental Change journal, published last week. An analysis of individual loans and bonds found that 60% of the lending to the mining sector …

The All-India Consumer Price Index Number for Agricultural Labourers (Base: 1986-87=100) for the month of December, 2022 remained stationary at 1167 (One thousand one hundred and sixty seven) points and for Rural Labourers increased by 1 point to stand at 1179 (One thousand one hundred and seventy nine) points. The …

The first ever joint exercise between the special forces of the Indian Army and the Egyptian Army named “Exercise Cyclone-I” is in progress at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan since 14 January 2023. The exercise aims to bolster defence co-operation between the two nations and focus on sharing professional skills and interoperability …

Nano fertilizers produced by IFFCO and dairy products from Amul will be among the first few products that are expected to be exported by the first-ever National Export Cooperative Society that was approved by the Union Cabinet on January 11. The society’s registration will be complete in the next few …

Tucked away in the nondescript town of Naduvattam in the Nilgiris is a wonderfully preserved monument whose story encapsulates the complex history of the picturesque hill district. The injudiciously named “ancient sub-jail” that lies off the national highway was used to intern Chinese prisoners captured by the British during the …

Snaking its way up the steep Coonoor slopes, the engineering marvel that is the more than 125-year-old Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) line has become one of the primary drivers of tourism in the picturesque hill district of Udhagamandalam. One of the oldest mountain railway lines in India and among the …

In line with this year’s WEF theme, “Cooperation in a Fragmented World”, India has reiterated its position as a resilient economy with a strong leadership providing stable policy to the global investors at the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos. India’s focus areas at WEF this year are investment opportunities, …

The Resiliency & Sustainability Summit: Vision 2047 brought together experts from all over India and deliberated upon the key aspects of present and futuristic disaster risks and climate contexts as well as their changing scenarios. “Regional disparity is a central challenge for reducing disaster risk & particularly climate-related disasters in …

The 21st Edition of the Bilateral Naval Exercise between India and France – Exercise Varuna commenced on the Western Seaboard today, 16 Jan 23. While the bilateral exercise between the two navies were initiated in 1993, it was christened as ‘VARUNA’ in 2001 and has become a hallmark of India – …

Ecologically sensitive zones (ESZ) are intended to safeguard ‘protected areas’ — national parks and wildlife sanctuaries — by transitioning from an area of lower protection to an area of higher protection. However, the creation of these zones has provoked protests in Kerala and some other regions, in a precursor to …

It is now clear that all warnings in the Mishra Committee report almost 50 years back went unheeded in the race to develop Joshimath by successive governments since 2001. It was clearly pointed out that Joshimath township is situated on debris of earlier landslides and would slip someday. But development …

Global overturning circulation—the equatorward transport of cold, deep waters and the poleward transport of warm, near-surface waters— controls ocean heat distribution and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels, thus playing a critical role in global climate. It is thought that tectonic changes might have led to the formation of two separate water …

The Union Cabinet’s recent decision to earmark ₹2,600 crore for providing banks with an incentive to promote digital payments has focused attention on India’s welcome push to broaden and deepen alternatives to the most widely accepted method of payment worldwide, cash. The Reserve Bank of India’s ‘Payments Vision 2025’ document …

The National Aquifer Mapping and Management programme, which is aimed at delineating aquifer and water availability, is set to be completed in a year, G. Asok Kumar, Director-General, National Mission for Clean Ganga, Union Ministry of Jal Shakti, said in Chennai on Monday. Kumar inaugurated a three-day conference on ‘Water …

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) has completed the process of recruitment of 400 tribal youth from Sukma, Bijapur and Dantewada, the districts worst affected by left-wing extremism in Chhattisgarh. The recruits will join the basic CRPF training in March, a senior government official said. To encourage recruitment from these …

In George Orwell’s Animal Farm, ‘Squealer, the small fat pig’ was a brilliant orator who always spoke to the hard-working animals about a ‘readjustment of rations’, but ‘never as a “reduction”’. The Government’s latest announcement on free foodgrains is a case of similar doublespeak. The Cabinet has announced that under the …

The last month of 2022 capped a year dominated by high inflation headlines on a seemingly amiable note. The average price rise faced by consumers during December slipped to its lowest since November 2021 at 5.7%. Data released on Monday show that wholesale inflation also fell to a 22-month-nadir of …

The recent attempt to unsuccessfully translocate and rehabilitate a “problem elephant”, as described by the State Forest Department, has highlighted the need for better cooperation among Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka while releasing elephants in the tri-junction area of the Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR). The elephant in question, Pandalur Makhna-2 …