-Newsclick.in The central government has raked in over Rs18 lakh crore from excise duties compared to Rs14 lakh crore from taxes by all state governments over the past eight years. Yet again, the government has tried to obfuscate the exorbitant petrol/diesel prices by blaming state governments. This time, it was the Prime Minister himself who blamed some Opposition-ruled states for not reducing taxes like the Value Added Tax (VAT) after the central...

-Leaflet.in Informal migrant workers in Metropolitan cities of India have faced multiple forms of vulnerabilities in the last two years of the pandemic. Linkages across schemes for such workers are absolutely critical to creating a social security net that protects them from falling into similar cycles of poverty and destitution during macro and micro economic distresses. ON the occasion of International Labour Day, or ‘May Day’, we explore the dimensions of vulnerabilities...

-ThePrint.in While govt says subsidies have been availed on 9,558 e-rickshaws to date, data compiled by road ministry portal Vahan 4.0 has shown dip in registration of e-rickshaws since 2019. New Delhi: While electric rickshaws, or e-rickshaws, can be spotted on the streets of Delhi any given time of day, their more primitive predecessors, the three-wheeler cycle rickshaws continue to remain a prominent mode of transport, straining to keep up with the...

-Down to Earth The city's inadequate drainage system results in frequent flooding, it says Kolkata in West Bengal has something to cheer about: Its much-criticised public transport system got an elaborate mention in the third instalment of the sixth assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). The most significant report on the global climate crisis referred to the city’s public transport network as an “illustrative case study” to showcase integrated...

-The Telegraph The report stated that the Indian subcontinent was the most polluted region of the world during 2021 Kolkata was the second most polluted Metro city in India and 60th most polluted city in the world in 2021. The city’s annual PM (particulate matter) 2.5 level, the most toxic ultrafine particulate, was nearly 12 times above the limit set by the World Health Organization, says a recently released international report on air...