Supreme Court Judgement on Char Dham Mahamarg Vikas Pariyojana
On December 14, 2021, a Supreme Court division bench comprising Justices D.Y. Chandrachud, Surya Kant, and Vikram Nath permitted the application filed by the defence ministry seeking the modification of the September 8, 2020 order that stipulated the road width under...
Rich Countries Responsible for Climate Change
In the Climate Summit held in Glasgow, Scotland in October-November, 2021, there was a debate on how the world’s wealthiest nations were disproportionately responsible for climate change and therefore they should compensate poorer nations for the damages caused by...
Media Spectrum 1-15 December 2021
Media Spectrum 1-15 December 2021
El Salvador to have World’s First Bitcoin City
In September 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to adopt bitcoin as a legal tender. After that, on November 20, 2021, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador announced his plans to build the world’s first ‘Bitcoin City’ in El Salvador. Nayib Bukele...
Portable Robot to Clean Septic Tanks
Despite prohibitory orders and bans on manual scavenging in sewers and septic tanks, there have been many deaths due to this practice. As per the statement of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in the last five years till December 31, 2020, 340 deaths...
Madras High Court Strikes down Vanniyar Reservation Law
In November 2021, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court quashed the special internal reservation sanctioned to Vanniyar community. The law was enacted in February 2021 by the then All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) led government. It provided 10.5...
‘Unprecedented’ Speed of Global Warming—Study
A University of Arizona-led effort conducted a research to reconstruct Earth’s climate since the last ice age, which was about 24,000 years ago. The study highlighted the main drivers of climate change and underlined how the human-caused global warming over the last...
Karnataka announced the day of Onake Obavva Jayanti
The Karnataka State Government has announced that Onake Obavva Jayanti would be celebrated on November 11 every year. The Kannada and Culture Department had earlier proposed celebrating the birth anniversary of Onake Obavva, who died in Chitradurga Fort while fighting...
Matosinhos Manifesto
The Matosinhos Manifesto, a manifesto on the use of space in Europe, was approved by the European Space Agency (ESA) on November 19, 2021. The council of ministers of ESA unanimously adopted the resolution at the intermediate ministerial meeting (IMM) held in...
GST Rationalisation
Goods and Services Tax (GST): A Brief Background The 101st Amendment to the Constitution of India introduced a nationwide GST, the biggest indirect tax reform in the country, on July 1, 2017. It is a destination-based consumption tax, i.e., it would accrue to the...
Global Methane Pledge
On September 17, 2021, President Joe Biden of the US and the President of the European Commission, Von der Leyen, announced a joint agreement titled the ‘Global Methane Pledge’ at the Major Economies Forum (MEF) meet. The pledge is essentially an agreement to reduce...
Government Plans to Set up All India Judicial Service
The union government is preparing to set up an All India Judicial Service (AIJS), in the lines of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS), for central recruitment officers of the lower judiciary. The proposal for AIJS has, however,...
The Big Bank
During her keynote address at the 74th annual general meeting of the Indian Banks' Association (IBA), Nirmala Sitharaman, the union finance and corporate affairs minister, said that India needed four or five more banks of the size of the State Bank of India (SBI) in...
GST and Petroleum Products
On November 3, 2021, the central government announced a Rs 5 per litre cut in excise duty on petrol and a Rs 10 per litre cut in excise duty on diesel. (The last time the government cut excise duties was in October 2018 when crude oil prices peaked at US$ 84 per...
Need for States to Step up Capital Expenditure
The expenditure incurred by the government is classified under capital expenditure and revenue expenditure. Capital expenditure (capex) is the money spent by the government towards the creation or acquisition of physical or financial assets or to reduce financial...
PM GatiShakti–National Master Plan for Multi-Modal Connectivity
Infrastructure creation in India had suffered for decades on account of a number of issues. There was lack of coordination between different departments of government while planning and executing projects in a comprehensive manner; for example, no sooner was a road...
The Crisis around Coal
Coal: The Black Diamond “Coal is king and paramount Lord of industry is an old saying in the industrial world.” Industrial greatness has been built on coal by many countries. In India, coal is the most important indigenous energy resource and has industrial...
Bad Bank
Bad Loans: A Brief History Loans are assets for a bank. An asset becomes non-performing when it ceases to generate income for the bank. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) defines a non-performing asset (NPA) as a credit facility in respect of which the interest and/or...
Indian Space Association Launched
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 11, 2021 virtually launched the Indian Space Association (ISpA). The ISpA is an industry association of space and satellite companies, with the aim to boost the central government's efforts in commercial space exploration and...
Cryptocurrency and The Future of Money
Evolution of Money Money, as we know of it today, is the result of a long-drawn process. At the beginning, there was no money. The barter system formed the backbone of the economy. This system involved the exchange of one set of commodities for other commodities...