-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 Hindu No decision taken yet on which banks will be privatised, Finance Minister says. Fresh from presenting a Budget that represents a clean break from past policies, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was in Chennai last weekend to hear feedback from industrialists and common citizens. “This is a Budget that was put through the wringer to ensure that every number was credible and achievable and did not reflect over-ambition,” she said,...

-The Hindu Court, in Jan. 2020, asked Centre to file reply to plea, which contended that RTI Amendment Act of 2019 and its Rules cripple CIC’s objectivity, independence. The Supreme Court on Monday criticised the Union government for having not filed a reply for over a year to a petition by Parliamentarian Jairam Ramesh challenging the amendments made to the Right to Information Act. The court, in January 2020, asked the Centre to...

-The Hindu Software, questionnaires launched. The lack of data on workers, which was evident during the COVID-19-induced lockdown in 2020, would be addressed by the five all-India labour surveys being conducted by the Labour Bureau, Labour and Employment Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar said on Thursday. Speaking at the launch of the software and questionnaires for the surveys, Mr. Gangwar said the replies given in the Lok Sabha were akin to “running away from...

School meals ensure nutrition for millions of vulnerable children across the world. Almost 370 million children worldwide are covered by school feeding programmes. While 100 million school children benefitted from the noon meal scheme in India prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, countries like Brazil (48 million), China (44 million), South Africa (9 million) and Nigeria (9 million) too run similar programmes for school children. However, an estimated 39 billion in-school...