News: CCI has launched a probe against Google, following allegations by the country’s digital news publishers. Read – CCI’s Google probe In the recent years, many countries such as Australia and France have tried to correct the balance between the big tech companies and traditional journalism industry. What is the case in India? In India, the complaint has… Continue reading Trust deficit: On tech platforms and news publishers
Category: 9 PM Daily Articles
Cutting corporate debt
News: Indian companies are deleveraging i.e. that is there is reduction in their borrowed debt. This trend is likely to continue, specially in the present pandemic situation. What are the indicators of deleveraging by Indian companies? The debt-to-equity ratio of listed firms dropped to a six-year low of 0.59 in 2020-21, compared to 0.73 in… Continue reading Cutting corporate debt
Establishing India’s Apple
News: U.S. tech company Apple has reached the $3 trillion-mark in market capitalisation. This now makes it wealthier than most countries. How can India advance towards creating such companies? This will require India to establish ecosystems that are innovation driven. Following are some key steps to achieve this: 1) Sustained public funding to build world-class… Continue reading Establishing India’s Apple
Watch out for an official central bank digital rupee on its way in
News: The likelihood of launching a central bank digital currency (CBDC) in India is a credible possibility. What are the challenges to introducing CDBC in India? India has at least 500 million people with no access to a smartphone (Statistica reports the use of 845 million phones in 2021). Large numbers have neither an Aadhaar… Continue reading Watch out for an official central bank digital rupee on its way in
Re-skilling and upskilling with digital interventions
News: In a world where technology advances with every passing day, employees need to keep updating their domain knowledge to keep their work performance up to the mark. The responsibility to help them reshape their skills thus falls on the shoulders of every organization. Why it is imperative to re-skill and upskill employees? Here are… Continue reading Re-skilling and upskilling with digital interventions
A quest for social consensus against hate speech
News: Supreme Court of India has recently agreed to hear petitions that were asking for legal action to be taken against the organisers of, and speakers at, the ‘Haridwar Dharm Sansad’, held in Uttarakhand. Contents1 What happened in the above-mentioned event? 2 Why some petitioners have sought the intervention of apex court in the case? 3… Continue reading A quest for social consensus against hate speech
Act now, recast the selection process of ECs
News: Recently, several instances have cast some doubt on the independence and the impartiality of the Election Commission of India (ECI). For instance: The meeting of the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) and his Election Commissioner attending an informal meeting with the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Contents1 Why these instances have called the impartiality… Continue reading Act now, recast the selection process of ECs
How the Seventh Schedule affects delivery of public goods
News: There is a significant need to reform the 7th Schedule to deliver more powers to local bodies. The 7th Schedule should also incorporate a local body list apart from the Union list, Central list & the concurrent list. Why Seventh Schedule need to be reformed? Obsolete: The principles of 7th schedule were taken from… Continue reading How the Seventh Schedule affects delivery of public goods
Reaping India’s demographic dividend
News: India is in the middle of a demographic transition. This is evident from its declining fertility rate which currently is 2.0, median age of 29 years, and a falling dependency ratio (expected to decrease from 65% to 54% in the coming decade). This provides a window of opportunity towards faster economic growth. … Continue reading Reaping India’s demographic dividend
Origins of the species – On human evolution
News: The understanding of the Human evolution has evolved much more compared to early 20th century due to contributions of Leaky family. The article highlights the contributions made by British-Kenyan Leaky family to the understanding of origins of Homo sapiens. Until about the middle of the 20th century, it was a common belief that Homo sapiens evolved around 50,000-60,000… Continue reading Origins of the species – On human evolution
