Stay on bail should only be granted in rare cases: SC

The Supreme Court said an inclination seen among higher courts to stall bail creates a real and present danger to the rights of personal liberty and due process.

A Bench of Justices A.S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan said the propensity to stay reasoned bail orders passed by trial courts was "shocking". 

"Stay on bail should not be granted except in very rare and exceptional cases. Stay of a bail order should be given only if there is apparent perversity or if provisions of law mandating the satisfaction of certain special conditions were not satisfied or if the person is a terrorist," Justice Oka said, adding that high courts cannot pass them mechanically.

June food inflation quickens to 9.4%; retail price gains rebound to 5.1%

Costlier vegetables, cereals and fruits spurred the rise in food prices paid by Indian consumers to a six-month high of 9.4% in June, escalating the headline retail inflation pace to a four-month high of 5.08% in June, from a raised 4.8% in May. Rural inflation spiked to 5.66% from 5.3% a month ago.

Urban consumers faced a price rise of 4.4% compared with 4.2% in May. Urban India faced a higher food inflation of 9.55% while it was 9.2% for their rural peers. 

Centralised recruitment for tribal residential schools leads to language, and cultural barriers

The recent centralisation of recruitment for tribal residential schools across the country, which introduced Hindi competency as a mandatory requirement, has resulted in a flood of requests for transfers.

The large numbers of staff recruited from the Hindi-speaking States are protesting postings to the Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) located in southern States, where the language, food and culture are unfamiliar to them. 

Prachanda loses trust vote in Nepal; Oli set to lead new govt.

Nepal Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' lost his vote of confidence, leading to the fall of his one-and-a-half-year-old government.

Prachanda, 69, had sought a vote of confidence after his coalition partner, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist), on July 3 withdrew its support to the government. 

After the voting, Speaker Devraj Ghimire announced that of the 258 parliamentarians present, 63 voted in the Prime Minister's favour while 194 voted against. One lawmaker abstained. In the 275-member Parliament, 138 votes are needed to prove the majority. 

Kaziranga's women forest guards ensure a safe passage for flood-hit animals by patrolling highway

Least number of animals have been run over by vehicles in the first year of the deployment of women forest guards for patrolling a highway adjoining the Kaziranga National Park and Tiger Reserve.

The 1,307.49 sq. km tiger reserve, considered the world's safest address for the one-horned rhino, recorded the highest level of flood - 87.47 metres in a decade on July 1 this year. 

The flood this year killed 174 animals, two of which died after speeding vehicles hit them on National Highway 715.

The highway stretches for about 60 km along the southern edge of Kaziranga National Park. During floods, the animals flee to the hills of the Karbi Anglong district on the other side of the park. 

Speed guns and cameras are installed at some of the nine animal corridors on this highway where vehicles are not allowed to move at speeds beyond 40 km per hour.

A wobbly walk

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Moscow visit was billed as his first "stand-alone" visit during this tenure, with officials laying stress on the purely "bilateral" framework. 

However, while the visit had strong bilateral components, its impact has been felt globally, with un- precedented criticism from Kyiv and Washington on its timing and optics. 

On the bilateral front, the visit, his first to Russia since 2019, and the first "annual" summit in three years, resulted in several outcomes. 

There was a reaffirmation of India-Russia ties as well as Mr. Modi's obvious personal rapport with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

The PDS impact on household expenditure

The Public Distribution System (PDS) is an important social security programme in India. Its objective is to ensure food security. 

As per PDS, up to 75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population are eligible for subsidised food grains under the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013. 

If the cost of consuming food grains from the PDS is subsidised, this then frees up resources for a household to spend on other items such as vegetables, milk, pulses, egg, fish, meat and other nutrient and protein-rich food items. 

It is an empirical question whether households indeed diversify their food consumption. 

With the release of data from the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES):2022-23, there will be renewed interest in the above line of inquiry, i.e., the impact of consumption of free food items from the PDS on expenditure on items other than foodgrains. 

Doval and Sullivan hold talks amid strain in ties over Russia

Amid a strain over Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Moscow, National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval spoke to his American counterpart Jake Sullivan, when they agreed to "work closely" to further advance bilateral ties. 

The conversation followed days of statements by the U.S. administration, expressing concerns about India's ties with Russia and the Modi-Putin meeting, as well as conversations between U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell and Foreign Secretary Vinay Kwatra as well as U.S. State Department officials and India's acting Ambassador in Washington.

U.S. Ambassador to India Eric Garcetti had warned that the U.S. should not be "taken for granted", while Mr. Sullivan said in a television interview that India was placing a "bad bet" on Russia. 

Net tax receipts up 19.5%, corporate tax share at 36.6%

Growth in India's net direct tax collections slowed slightly to 19.54% by July 11, relative to a 21% rise recorded by June 17, with revenues hitting ₹5.74 lakh crore, the Income Tax department said 

Personal income tax (PIT) receipts constituted 60.2% of the net collections at 3.46 lakh crore, rising 21.4% year-on-year, while corporate taxes yielded 36.6% of net revenues at ₹2.1 lakh crore, reflecting a 12.5% growth.

With stock market trading volumes rising, receipts from the Securities Transaction Tax (STT) soared to 16,634 crore, 2.3 times the receipts at the same time last year. Combined with STT receipts, net PIT collections were up 24.1%, almost twice the growth recorded in net corporate taxes. 

Centre amends rules to broaden the administrative role of J&K L-G

The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) widened the ambit of the administrative role of the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir by amending the Transaction of Business Rules. 

The amendment gives the L-G more say in matters pertaining to police, public order, and All India Service (AIS) which require prior concurrence of the Finance Department and also their transfers and postings.

Any proposal regarding the appointment of Advocate-General, Law Officers and proposals regarding the grant or refusal of prosecution sanction or filing of an appeal shall be placed before the L-G first. 

Centre declares June 25 as 'Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas'

The Union government has decided to observe June 25 the day Emergency was imposed in 1975 - as Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas, Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced. 

"This day will commemorate the massive contributions of all those who endured the inhuman pains of the 1975 Emergency," Mr. Shah posted on X.

The Gazette notification on the decision does not provide any English translation for the name of the day, simply using the Hindi words in Roman script. A literal English translation, however, would be 'Constitution Assassination Day'. 

New species of dogfish shark discovered in Kerala harbour

Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India have discovered a new species of deep-water dogfish shark, Squalus hima, from the Sakthikulangara fishing harbour in Kerala. 

Squalus is a genus of dogfish sharks in the family Squalidae, commonly known as spurdogs, and are characterised by smooth dorsal fin spines. 

India shows good progress on SDGS: NITI Aayog report

NITI Aayog on Friday released its fourth evaluation report of India's progress on the 16 sustainable development goals (SDGs) adopted in 2015 by all United Nations member countries, giving India a score of 71 out of 100, as compared to 57 in 2018.

"SDGS are directly linked to people's welfare, well-being and quality of life," B.V.R. Subrahmanyam, NITI Aayog's CEO, said.

'India-U.S. tech partnership will grow to hundreds of millions of dollars'

India and the United States are expected to dramatically ramp up funding and resources to hundreds of millions of dollars for a bilateral agreement around critical and emerging technologies in the coming years, a top U.S. official said after a June meeting between key political and industry leaders where there was a focus on reducing tech regulations, simplifying government processes between the two nations, and responsible development of artificial intelligence (AI).

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and his U.S. counterpart, Jake Sullivan, chaired the second meeting of the bilateral Initiative on Critical and Emerging Technologies (iCET) at the end of June in Delhi with a focus on areas including AI, quantum computing, semiconductors, and wireless telecommunication, which have collectively been given a few million dollars of funding for research and scaling technologies so far.

The initiative was launched in January 2023 to strengthen the U.S.-India strategic partnership and drive technology and defence cooperation and was announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden. 

GST system reforms panel rejigged

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council has reconstituted a ministerial group tasked with identifying possible sources of revenue evasion, improving coordination between central and State GST authorities, and reviewing the IT systems in place for implementing the indirect tax.

These changes have been effected to bring in new ministers from the States of Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, and Chhattisgarh where new governments have been installed in recent months, as well as to replace the re-presentative from Haryana. 

The reconstitution of this key GST panel comes soon after the Council reformulated the ministerial group tasked with recommending a rationalisation of the GST rate structure and its tax rates. 

Philippines will ‘stand our ground' in South China Sea dispute: official

The Philippines will "stand our ground" in a dispute with Beijing over the South China Sea, a top security official said. 

Tensions over the strategic waterway, a key passage for sea-borne trade, have soared in the past 18 months following a series of escalating confrontations between Philippine and Chinese ships.

Philippines will ‘stand our ground' in South China Sea dispute: official

The Philippines will "stand our ground" in a dispute with Beijing over the South China Sea, a top security official said. 

Tensions over the strategic waterway, a key passage for sea-borne trade, have soared in the past 18 months following a series of escalating confrontations between Philippine and Chinese ships.