-The New Indian Express Based on the recommendation of the GST Council, the Centre has issued notifications bringing essential commodities including rice and maize under 5% GST slab from July 18. MADURAI: The decision of the Union government to levy 5% Goods and Services Tax (GST) on packaged food may increase the price of rice by a minimum of Rs 3 to Rs 5 per kg from Monday, Tamil Nadu rice mills...

-The Telegraph The Telegraph reports on a riverine community’s determination to save its environs Once upon a time, when my forefathers were looking for land to settle down, they found this barren sandbar and decided to make it a habitable place,” says Nani Roy, 42, a resident of Manachar. Char is the Bengali word for sandbar. Manachar is the sandbar that extends from Durgapur Barrage to Panagarh in Burdwan district. About three...

-Newsclick.in With wheat stocks at a 14-year low and procurement at a 20-year low, how is the ration system going to deliver this staple to crores of people? At the end of June this year, government procurement of wheat was about 188 lakh tonnes, dramatically down by 57% from last year’s 433 lakh tonnes, as per official figures. This is the lowest procurement amount in the last two decades. It was back...

-Newsclick.in The relatively new and fragile start-up ecosystem is not a solution to the larger problem of pauperisation of the working population of the country. In May 2022, a report in the magazine, The Economist, claimed that “a novel confluence of forces stands to transform India’s economy over the next decade, improving the lives of 1.4 billion people and changing the balance of power in Asia. Technological leaps, the energy transition, and...

-ThePrint.in Govt should consider enacting a bail Act, SC said Monday. Countries including US, UK, Australia & New Zealand have comprehensive laws that govern rules of granting and refusing bail. New Delhi: The Supreme Court Monday proposed the introduction of a comprehensive bail law in India to deal with the rising pendency of bail applications, and discussed how such laws are in force in other jurisdictions including the UK and the US. A...