-The Hindu It is critical that the Supreme Court immediately adjudicates on the electoral bonds scheme The Election Commission of India has announced dates for elections to five Legislative Assemblies. It is a matter of grave concern that the petition challenging the electoral bonds scheme, which deals with the vexed issue of election funding, continues to languish in the Supreme Court. The delay in adjudicating on the case filed in September 2017...

-Firstpost.com Most experts agree that Centre has fixed current price of COVID-19 vaccine at Rs 250 only after factoring in the reduced expenses of the two companies, large volume of orders they are to get, affordability of the masses and the major hurdle of vaccine hesitancy it faces The COVID-19 vaccination drive is in full swing. The Centre had recently announced that both COVISHIELD and COVAXIN will be administered free of cost...

-Livemint.com * Demand in rural markets has outstripped sales growth in urban markets over the last several quarters. * Companies are betting on consumers in rural India switching from unbranded, loose products to branded ones. Top FMCG makers are back to chasing growth in India's villages and are ramping up their reach in those markets. To be sure, companies are betting on large swathes of consumers in rural India switching from unbranded, loose products...

-The Indian Express These rules come even as a Joint Parliamentary Committee is in the final stages of discussion of a privacy Bill that covers aspects such as the role of social media intermediaries and the reach of Big Tech companies, and the privacy accorded to the users on such platforms. The notification of the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021, the Government’s first move to regulate...

-The Indian Express Apar Gupta writes: The substance of many of the requirements were never put to public consultation or deliberation by experts. This is particularly the case for the regulations for online news portals and video streaming platforms. In the polarised environment that we now inhabit, there are few public agreements. One of these rare instances is an agreement that social media is broken. For many commentators, this is an area...