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
Category: 9 PM Daily Articles
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
How real is the GST boost?
News: The government is delighted over the steady improvement in the collection of goods and services tax (GST) in recent months GST collections have crossed the Rs 1-trillion mark for each of the last six months beginning July 2021. The buoyancy in GST collections provides the much-needed revenue cushion to government finances and for preparing… Continue reading How real is the GST boost?
The pros and cons of big data used as economic signals
News: Big data is being used for various types of analysis like economic growth. However, there are certain pros and cons linked to this type of analysis. Google recently released some anonymized data for India, based on mobile phone locations of the users. As per the data, People are spending more time at home, rather than at work places or… Continue reading The pros and cons of big data used as economic signals
Extending GST compensation as a reform catalyst
News: The agreement to pay compensation for the loss of revenue was for a period of five years, which will come to an end by June 2022. However, the states are demanding to continue it for another five years. Because, it was hoped that the tax structure would stabilise in the first five years, however,… Continue reading Extending GST compensation as a reform catalyst
Tackling India’s unemployment wave
News: Unemployment in India has undeniably reached a critical stage. What are the available data that suggests India has undeniably reached a critical stage? Unemployment rate: India’s unemployment rate has been increasing. It increased to 7.91 percent in December 2021 from 6.3 percent in 2018-2019. It is very critical as 10 million young Indians are… Continue reading Tackling India’s unemployment wave
Treating the planet well can aid progress
News: The 2020 Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), titled “The Next Frontier – Human Development and the Anthropocene” proposed a planetary pressure-adjusted Human Development Index (HDI). This adjustment has been worked out by factoring in per capita carbon dioxide (CO2) emission (production) and per capita material footprint. The purpose is to… Continue reading Treating the planet well can aid progress
Managing biomedical waste
News: Since the outbreak of Covid pandemic, there has been rise in the Safe handling and elimination of biomedical waste. Read here: 23 states at additional Covid risk due to Biomedical waste Contents1 What are the challenges associated with biomedical waste?2 What are the government initiatives to handle biomedical waste?3 What are the challenges associated with the… Continue reading Managing biomedical waste
