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EIU DEMOCRACY INDEX

Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister has issued a working paper by Sanjeev Sanyal Member EAC-PM and Akanksha Arora . The Paper analyses three perception-based indices: Freedom in the World Index, V-DEM indices, and EIU Democracy Index . The  EAC-PM tweeted the following thread which finds serious problems with …

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CLIMATE CHANGE PERFORMANCE INDEX (CCPI, 2023)

India has been ranked amongst top 5 countries in the world, and the best among the G20 countries, based on its Climate Change performance. India jumps 2 spots higher, and is now ranked 8th as per Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI, 2023) published by German Watch, New Climate Institute and Climate …

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INDO-PACIFIC REGIONAL DIALOGUE 2022

The IPRD is an apex level international annual conference of Indian Navy, and is principal manifestation of Navy’s engagement at the strategic-level. The National Maritime Foundation (NMF) is Navy’s knowledge partner and chief organizer of each edition of the event. The IPRD seeks to foster exchange of ideas and promote …

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INDIA-AUSTRALIA ECONOMIC COOPERATION AND TRADE AGREEMENT

Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal said that duties on 100 percent tariff lines would be eliminated by Australia under the landmark India-Australia Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (Ind-Aus ECTA). He was addressing a press conference on the ECTA …

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PENSIONS FOR WOMEN IAF OFFICERS

Background: In an order on November 16, the Supreme Court asked the Indian Air Force (IAF) to consider the grant of pensionary benefits to 32 Short Service Commission (SSC) women officers, who fought for 12 long years to be reinstated and granted permanent commission. This is the latest in a …

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RBI’S CONCERNS ON SLOW DEPOSIT GROWTH

Background: The Governor, Deputy Governor and a few other senior officials of apex banking regulator, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), met MD and CEOs of public and certain private sector banks on November 16. Acknowledging the role played by private commercial banks in supporting economic growth during the pandemic …

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EUROPE TO BE HIT HARDEST IN GLOBAL SLOWDOWN, SAYS OECD

The global economy should avoid a recession next year but the worst energy crisis since the 1970s will trigger a sharp slowdown, with Europe hit hardest, the OECD said, adding that fighting inflation should be policymakers’ top priority. National outlooks vary widely, with the U.K.’s economy set to lag major …

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FOOD SECURITY COOPERATION BY INDIA AND UAE

India and the UAE are going ahead with food security cooperation under the I2U2, a new West Asian quadrilateral that includes Israel and the U.S. UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar discussed the cooperation under this initiative on Tuesday. “On food …

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LAG OF SKILL TRAINING OF MGNREGS WORKERS

Facing less than a lukewarm response to project Unnati, which aims to reduce dependence on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) by imparting skill training to its beneficiaries, the Union Rural Development Ministry wants to link performances of the States under the project with its labour budget …

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DRAFT DATA PROTECTION BILL

A new draft of the much-awaited data protection Bill, the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill (DPDP Bill) 2022, is now open for public comments. The Government had previously withdrawn an earlier draft by averring that it would come up with a “comprehensive legal framework” on data privacy and Internet regulation, …

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THE ‘INDIA POLE’ IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS

The ongoing war in Ukraine on the one hand and the confrontation between Russia (India’s traditional partner) and the United States and the West (also India’s partners) on the other have increased the frequency/regularity of this question. When great powers seek India’s support during geopolitical contestations, such as the one …

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POWER REQUIREMENT OF STATES

Tamil Nadu’s power requirement is expected to touch 1,86,106 million units in 2031-32, from 1,09,914 million units in 2021-22, according to the 20thElectric Power Survey of India report from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) that functions under the Union Ministry of Power. The CEA conducts the survey of the country …

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CHIEF ELECTION COMMISSIONERS OF INDIA

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the government pays mere “lip-service” to the independence of the Election Commissioners and this is evident from the way the tenures of Chief Election Commissioners (CECs) have “slid” down from over eight years in the 1950s to just about a few hundred days after …

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‘LOOK EAST POLICY’ INTO ‘ACT EAST POLICY’

Raksha Mantri Shri Rajnath Singh stated that Government-accelerated Development Initiatives in North East have transformed ‘Look East policy’ into ‘Act East Policy’, leading to all round developments in the Northeast region, enabling all the states to improve trade with South East Asian Nations. He was addressing the two-day conclave on the theme …

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PM KISAN

PM KISAN Scheme is a Central Sector Scheme to supplement financial needs of land holding farmers.  Financial benefit of Rs. 6000 per year is transferred into the bank accounts of farmer families through direct benefit transfer.  Certain categories of higher economic status are excluded from the scheme. This ambitious scheme, …

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GLOBAL PARTNERSHIP ON AI (GPAI)

Close on the heels of assuming the presidency of G20, a league of world’s largest economies, India will take over the chair of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), an international initiative to support responsible and human-centric development and use of Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI has been Catalyzing the …

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ELECTORAL BONDS AND POLITICAL FUNDING

In 2014, the Delhi High Court held that both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were guilty of illegally accepting donations from two companies registered in India but whose controlling shareholder was Vedanta, a foreign company. The court held that this was in contravention of the Foreign Contribution …

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NEW DATA PROTECTION BILL

Background: The latest draft of the data protection law — the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, 2022 (DPDP Bill, 2022) — has now been made open for public comments. This article deals with various themes within the Bill including data localisation requirements, whether children are considered as data principals, the …

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STANDARD FOR E-COMMERCE REVIEWS

The Centre is bringing out a standard for publishing product reviews on e-commerce platforms from Friday. To start with, the standard will be voluntary, but could become mandatory later after observing compliance with the standard by such platforms. The framework for the standard was prepared by the Bureau of Indian …

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