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The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave the Centre three months to constitute an Inter-State River Water Disputes Tribunal to resolve the dispute between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka over constructions in Pennaiyar river. Tamil Nadu had filed an original suit in 2018 against Karnataka’s work on check dams and diversions’ structures …

S.-China relations have witnessed an unprecedented downturn in 2022. Nancy Pelosi’s historic visit to Taiwan in August has deeply upset bilateral ties. The imposition of heavy restrictions on China’s semiconductor industry by the U.S. in October has fanned the flames of rivalry further. Amid this escalation, the U.S. President Joe …

India will be the first country to auction spectrum for satellite communication (SatCom), and it should be designed to attract investments in the sector, telecom regulator TRAI chairman P.D. Vaghela said on Tuesday. Speaking at a Broadband India Forum summit on SatCom, Mr. Vaghela said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of …

With just 55 to 60 District Disability Rehabilitation Centres (DDRC) made functional so far out of the targeted 269 in designated districts, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Social Justice and Empowerment has said that it feels the Union government is “somewhat casual” in its approach to complete this task. It …

There is growing evidence to suggest that the most conspicuous trend in the manufacturing sector in India has been a shift of manufacturing activity and employment from bigger cities to smaller towns and rural areas. This ‘urban-rural manufacturing shift’ has often been interpreted as a mixed bag, as it has …

Over 15 years after the Forest Rights Act (FRA), 2006 came into effect, 13 tribal settlements from Pilloor and Palamalai forest areas in Coimbatore district were recently accorded Community Forest Rights (CFR) after the forest areas they dwell and collect minor produces from for generations were mapped using GPS-based land …

A CONSERVATION BILL THAT ENDANGERS FOREST RIGHTS The expeditious passage of the Wild Life (Protection) Amendment Bill, 2021 in the Rajya Sabha this winter session — this followed its passing in the Lok Sabha during the monsoon session — needs comment. The Wildlife Protection Act (WPA), 1972 has safeguarded numerous …

Recent comments by the Vice-President, Jagdeep Dhankar, and the Law Minister, Kiren Rijiju, can be read as a concerted attack on the collegium system, the Supreme Court of India, and even the basic structure doctrine (conveniently forgetting that it is this doctrine that has kept the Indian Constitution intact). Clearly, …

After a seemingly interminable 10-month streak of Indian consumers facing runaway price rise of over 6%, retail inflation appeared to have relented a bit in November to 5.88%. This may only be slightly below the 6% upper tolerance threshold for the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), but constitutes some relief. …

The Kerala Assembly on Tuesday passed two University Law (Amendment) Bills to replace the Governor as the Chancellor of 14 State universities. The legislations, subject to the Governor’s assent, will enable the State government to appoint academicians or “persons of eminence” in various fields of knowledge as Chancellors in all …

With the State government issuing an order banning six hazardous pesticides for a period of 60 days to curb access to means of suicide, Health Minister Ma. Subramanian on Tuesday said the Department of Agriculture would seek a permanent ban on the pesticides from the Union government. The Minister said …

There is a time for everything under the sun. And the time for organisations to file the annual report on Prevention of Sexual Harassment (PoSH) is upon them. In fact, the time is in its last embers. The best practice is to file the report by the end of the …

Ministry of Tribal Affairs has revamped the existing Scheme of ‘Special Central Assistance to Tribal Sub-Scheme (SCA to TSS) with nomenclature ‘Pradhan Mantri Adi Adarsh Gram Yojna (PMAAGY)’, for implementation during 2021-22 to 2025-26, which aims at transforming villages with significant tribal population into model village (Adarsh Gram)covering about population …

The Government has formulated four Labour Codes, namely, the Code on Wages, 2019, the Industrial Relations Code, 2020, the Code on Social Security, 2020 and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020 and published these Codes in the Official Gazette for general information. As a step towards implementation …

Many stretches of rivers in the country are polluted due to discharge of untreated and partially treated domestic sewage from cities/towns and industrial effluents in their respective catchments, problems in operation and maintenance of sewage and industrial effluent treatment plants, lack of dilution and other non-point sources of pollution. Rapid …

The Minister state that the CBDC pilot launched by the RBI in retail segment has components based on blockchain technology. Giving more information on the CBDC, the Minister stated that the RBI has launched pilots of CBDC in both Wholesale and Retail segments. The pilot in wholesale segment, known as …

Government has announced a Centrally Sponsored Scheme namely, “New India Literacy Programme” (NILP) for implementation during five years from 2022-23 to 2026-27. The programme aims to cover a target of 5.00 crore learners during the five years under Foundational Literacy and Numeracy component. The programme has five objectives: Foundational Literacy …

To achieve Aatmanirbharta and realise the goal of ‘Make in India’, Government of India has established two Defence Industrial Corridors (DICs) in the country, one in Uttar Pradesh and other in Tamil Nadu. 06 (six) nodes viz. Agra, Aligarh, Chitrakoot, Jhansi, Kanpur and Lucknow have been identified for developing Uttar …

For conservation and development of art, culture and crafts across the country, the Ministry of Culture, Government of India has set up seven Zonal Cultural Centres (ZCCs) with headquarters at Patiala, Nagpur, Udaipur, Prayagraj, Kolkata, Dimapur and Thanjavur. These ZCCs organize various cultural activities and programmes on regular basis in …

A team of Auditors from International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) conducted an audit of Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) from 09.11.2022 to 16.11.2022. During the closing briefing, the ICAO team informed DGCA that the Effective Implementation of India has increased to 85.49% from the previous 69.95%. The draft report …