Category: 9 PM Daily Articles

News: How different cars are taxed in India? GST is levied at 28%, the top slab, with an add-on cess of 1% on small cars(less than 4m length) and 17-22% extra on those longer than 4 meters. While the exhaust-free Electric Vehicles attract a GST rate of just 5%. What is the rationale behind such… Continue reading Time to rethink Indian levies on motor vehicles

News: Joint Committee of Parliament (JCP)  on the Personal Data Protection (PDP) Bill, 2019 has submitted its report in the Parliament. Also Read:  The draft personal data protection bill, 2018 What are the key recommendations? Inclusion of non-personal data: It proposed to include non-personal data along with personal data and also that Data Protection Authority (DPA)… Continue reading JPC retains exemption clause, adopts personal data Bill

News: Covid pandemic highlighted the urgency of addressing the issues related to manual scavengers. Sanitation work in India is tied to caste-based occupational roles. It is majorly performed by people from scheduled caste and schedule Tribes. What is the status of manual scavenging in India? Presently, the government does not directly employ manual scavengers, but the… Continue reading Sanitation workers’ safety and welfare must be urgently addressed

News: Recently, a congressional delegation (CODEL) led by U.S. Senator John Cornyn visited Indo-Pacific Command countries which also included India in its list. It interacted with the Prime Minister, External Affairs Minister, and representatives of the Dalai Lama in India. Both sides are committed to “increasing convergence of strategic interests” between India and the U.S. and… Continue reading Dynamism in India US ties

News: Launching of e-Shram portal, a database of unorganized workers, is a welcome and long-overdue step towards creating a social security structure for this part of the labor force. The absence of credible data on the migrant workforce, during the economic distress induced by COVID-19, resulted in problems in extending policy support for this section.… Continue reading Database of unorganised workers is a welcome step towards creating a robust social security architecture

News: USA recently convinced UAE to stop China from secretly constructing a military facility at an Abu Dhabi port. China’s growing interest in acquiring foreign military bases has been reported for more than a decade. Beijing opened its first foreign military base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa in 2017. It is said to… Continue reading Why China is acquiring foreign military bases

News: United States Trade Representative is in India to further the agenda of the US-India Trade Policy Forum to be held after the four-year interregnum. While the bilateral relationship has shown considerable progress in the past years, the economic agenda has always been a stumbling block. In other cases like, US-China or US-EU relationship, there… Continue reading Better co-ordination

News: Recently, army and police forces conducted an operation in Srinagar which led to the killing of three civilians along with a Pakistani militant has raised questions of the overuse of their powers. What was the issue all about? Army and police personals in the disturbed areas have the special power under Armed Forces (Special Powers)… Continue reading In Hyderpora, leadership of security forces must ensure that personnel follow court’s directions, in letter and spirit

News: Union Minister of Housing and Urban Affairs has released the results of Swachh Survekshan 2021. What are the key takeaways of the Swachh Survekshan 2021 awards? Read here: President of India Graces Swachh Amrit Mahotsav and Presents Swachh Survekshan Awards 2021 Ganga Towns: Varanasi has been awarded the cleanest town award along the banks… Continue reading Shifting the pile: On inequity and Swachh citiest