-NetworkIdeas.org The NDA government has decided to further tighten its regulation of e-commerce, taking on in particular foreign giants like Amazon and Flipkart-Walmart, with implications for domestic organized retail majors like Reliance. The Department of Consumer Affairs in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution has called for comments on an amended version of the Consumer Protection (E-Commerce) Rules, 2020, which it posted on its website in late June...

The rise in COVID-19 daily new cases and daily new deaths compelled many state governments to impose local level lockdowns during April-May 2021. As of 20th April, 2021, partial lockdowns were noticed in 10 states across the country and complete lockdown was imposed in Delhi. As of 8th May, 2021, nearly the entire country was under complete lockdown as a result of either partial lockdowns and night curfews or complete...

-Scroll.in A drop in household savings has caused concern about economic recovery in the country. On Wednesday, the Reserve Bank of India released data on household savings for the third quarter of 2020-’21. This covered the October-December 2020 period, which means the data captured the aftermath of first Covid-19 wave in India and the economic disruptions that containment measures such as lockdowns caused. The numbers are disappointing with a sharp dip in the...

-The Hindu The inflows during 2020-21 have not been in sync with the Government’s priorities for economic recovery In an otherwise gloomy economic scenario, one area of cheer for the Government has been the numbers on inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI). In a recent press release, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry announced that “India has attracted highest ever total FDI inflow of U.S.$81.72 billion during the financial year 2020-21 and...

-Financial Express If patents continue to determine global access to vaccines and drugs, then fighting Covid-19 will remain a distant dream for most countries Vaccines are badly required by the world, as are drugs like Remdesivir and Tocilizumab, and medical equipment like ventilators and oxygen concentrators. A large number of countries, particularly low- and middle-income ones, are struggling to access vaccines, drugs and equipment. There cannot be a more important occasion than the...