CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) recently released the India State of Forest Report in which it reported that the growth of India’s forest cover has slowed to an eight-year low in 2021, with just 0.22 per cent increase over 2019.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as one technology of particular importance because of its role as an accelerator, its versatility, and its wide applicability.

Recently, India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal and the U.K.’s International Trade Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan announced their shared ambition to finish negotiations on a comprehensive and balanced FTA by the end of 2022.

The announcement of a 30 percent tax on income from cryptos and other virtual assets is welcomed by the experts but also raises a number of concerns on its impact on the industry.

Recently, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has directed the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Arunachal Pradesh government to submit an action taken report against the racial profiling and relocation of people belonging to the Chakma and Hajong communities.

Allocating ample money towards productive infrastructure investments holds the key to achieving immense economic potential as a nation, creation of gainful jobs, particularly for our underemployed youth and women.

The Supreme Court has once again addressed the ‘merit versus reservation’ debate, a misleading binary that has engaged public and judicial discourse for years and noted that “reservation is not at odds with merit” in open competitive examinations.

The annual Economic Survey (2021-2022) of the Department of Economic Affairs said that demand for work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme has dropped from the peak of the first lockdown, but is still higher than pre-COVID levels.

The rates of growth and changes in the structural composition of output and the workforce are the two important indicators of structural transformation in any economy. India has experienced fairly consistent changes in the rates of growth but the trend in employment has not revealed any consistent or clear pattern.

The Preamble to the Constitution declares that India is a ‘Republic’ which shows that India has a form of government in which "supreme power is held by the people and their elected representatives" and the country is considered a "public matter", not the private concern or property of the rulers.