KEY TRENDS   • Oxfam India's 2023 India Supplement report on poverty and inequality in India reveals that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Following the pandemic in 2019, the bottom 50 per cent of the population have continued to see their wealth chipped away. By 2020, their income share was estimated to have fallen to only 13 per cent of the national income and have less than 3...

-PTI/ The Hindu Justice Nagarathna dissents from majority judgment, says DeMo of high-value currency notes was ‘vitiated and unlawful’ New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the legality of the Centre’s 2016 decision to ban Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 currency notes, saying the decision-making process was neither flawed nor hasty and that it was “not relevant” whether the stated objectives were achieved or not. In a big win for the Narendra...

-Hindustan Times The petitioners had questioned whether the Government carried out any study linking demonetisation as an effective tool to achieve the objectives of curbing Black money, terror financing or fake currency. Hardships caused due to demonetisation cannot be the basis for faulting the Government’s 2016 notification to ban currency notes of ₹500 and ₹1000, the Centre told the Supreme Court, adding that the cutoff date December 30 fixed by the Centre...

-PTI/ NDTV.com The Centre said judicial review of an economic policy may be restricted to where the court may only determine if there is a rational nexus with the object sought to be achieved through the means. New Delhi: Fake currency, terror financing and Black money are three evils and are like 'Jarasandha' (an antagonist in Mahabharat) and should be cut into pieces, the Centre told the Supreme Court on Monday while...

-The Telegraph Decision was kept closely guarded to root out the menace of Black money, money laundering, tax evasion and other illegal activities: Modi government The Centre on Wednesday defended the 2016 demonetisation policy, saying “the withdrawal of the legal tender character of a significant portion of total currency value was a well-considered decision” taken after extensive consultations with the RBI. The decision was kept closely guarded to root out the menace of...