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Here's the news for today summarised for you. Our goal is to provide you with a powerful and simple summary of the issue at hand. You can use this to get a gist of the event and extract notes from the articles for further reading. The purpose is to provide you with a great summary and help you navigate through the news super efficiently for your exam
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Contents:
- IMF cuts India’s growth forecast to 6.8% this year
- Three lakh and counting: RTI pleas pile up at information commissions across India
- Sunder Nagri murder: give us justice, keep communal politics aside, say victim’s kin
- The Ashoka Vijaya Dashami controversy
- What are the allegations against Google by the NBDA?
1. IMF cuts India’s growth forecast to 6.8% this year
Summary:
The International Monetary Fund has released its World Economic Outlook for the next year, and it predicts a slowdown in growth for the world as a whole. This is due to the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, tightening monetary conditions globally, the highest inflation in decades, and lingering effects of the pandemic. India is projected to grow at 6.8% in the current fiscal year, following 8.7% growth in fiscal year that ended March 31. However, this growth rate has been revised downward by 0.6 percentage points relative to the IMF's June forecast, due to a weaker output in the second quarter and subdued external demand. The IMF expects inflation in India to return to the inflation tolerance-band in fiscal year 2023-24, and additional monetary tightening is necessary to ensure that this happens. For the world as a whole, growth will slow down from 6.0% in 2021 to 3.2% in 2022 and 2.7% in 2023
IMF QUICK STATS
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is an organization of 189 countries + Kosovo, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world.
| Formation | 27 December 1945 |
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Managing Director
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Kristalina Georgieva |
|---|---|
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First Deputy Managing Director
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Gita Gopinath |
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Chief Economist
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Pierre-Olivier Gourincha |
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Main organ
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Board of Governors |
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Parent organization
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 United Nations |
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Headquartered
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Washington DC |
2. Three lakh and counting: RTI pleas pile up at information commissions across India
Summary:
-The RTI Act was passed in India in 2004, but the transparency regime remains a mirage, with nearly 3.15 lakh complaints and appeals pending with 26 information commissions.
-The backlog of appeals or complaints is increasing in commissions every year.
-The highest number of pending cases is in Maharashtra at 99,722, followed by Uttar Pradesh at 44,482, Karnataka at 30,358, the Central Information Commission at 26,724 and Bihar at 21,346.
-Two information commissions—Jharkhand and Tripura—out of 29 across the country have been completely defunct for 29 months and 15 months respectively.
-Several information commissions, including the Central Information Commission, are working at reduced capacity with less than the stipulated number of members being in office.
-Under RTI law, information commissions are the final appellate authority and are mandated to safeguard and facilitate people’s right to information.
-The commissions did not impose penalties in 95% of the cases where penalties were potentially imposable.
3. Sunder Nagri murder: give us justice, keep communal politics aside, say victim’s kin
Summary:
The article discusses the murder of 19-year-old Manish Sharma, which occurred on October 1st, 2020. The police have arrested six people in connection to the murder, ruling out any communal angle to the crime. However, at an event organised by the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) on Sunday, calls for "total boycot" of people from a community were allegedly made. Many residents, including the family of the victim, object to the "communal colour" being given to the murder. Several others are anxious about the threat to the law and order in the area, given how a similar sequence of events unfolded in Shiv Vihar in February 2020, which led to communal riots in which 53 were killed.
4. The Ashoka Vijaya Dashami controversy
Summary:
Every year on October 14, Dussehra is also celebrated as Ashoka Vijaya Dashami to commemorate Buddhist Conversion day. On October 14, 1956, B. R. Ambedkar along with more than half a million followers had embraced Buddhism in Nagpur, Maharashtra.
This year, a Minister in the Aam Aadmi government in Delhi, Rajendra Pal Gautam, participated in the event in his personal capacity. Along with the thousands of people assembled, he recited the 22 vows, which is part of the ritual. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) objected to Mr. Gautam’s presence at the event and his recitation of the vows. He was accused of spreading anti-Hindu sentiments. The BJP sought the resignation of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and following the uproar, Mr. Gautam resigned on October 9.
Modern history has admired Ambedkar as a revolutionary social reformer. His writings on social questions ofer deep intellectual and critical inquiry about the problems of an exploitative Hindu caste order. He wanted to end the inhuman practice of untouchability. His academic work is wellknown for the scrutiny of Hindu philosophical texts. Though several nationalist leaders, including Gandhi, disagreed with Ambedkar, they accepted him as a committed leader who wanted to liberate socially marginalised communities from the stranglehold of caste. Ambedkar opted for Buddhism for its rational and progressive values that challenge some of the fundamental beliefs of Hinduism. The 22 vows he delivered during the conversion ceremony initiated a radical escape for the convert from Hindu caste and cultural folds. The vows are divided into three major sections. In the frst part, it pledges to refuse to worship the Hindu pantheon or to follow Hindu religious dogmas (vows no. 1, 2, 3, 5 and 21 ). Second, it challenges the authority of the Brahmin priest (vows no. 4, 6, 8 and 19). The rest promises to follow Buddhist principles.
5. What are the allegations against Google by the NBDA?
Summary:
The article is discussing a complaint that has been made against Google by the News Broadcasters and Digital Association. They allege that Google has not paid news publishers for their contributions to Google's various platforms, and have engaged in practices to bolster its monopoly in the space.
Google is a search engine company that owns many platforms that people use to find information or consume news. The company is being accused of not compensating news publishers enough for their contribution to Google's platforms and of engaging in practices to bolster its monopoly in the space. This means that Google is allegedly not paying news publishers enough money for the news content that they provide, and is instead keeping most of the money for itself. This complaint is similar to others that have been filed against Google in the past. If the Competition Commission of India finds that Google is guilty of these practices, it could impose a fine on the company and order it to change its business practices.
Access the entire Hindu e-paper here
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