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...

The draft bill allows insurance companies the freedom to sell different financial products Mint The government is likely to introduce the Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill 2022 in the monsoon session of Parliament to bring deep reforms in the insurance sector, including a provision for composite insurance licence and flexibility in entry barriers, two people aware of the development said. According to them, stakeholder consultation on the draft bill is expected to be...

-The Hindu The WTO Panel reports are a pointer to the U.S. — the once undisputed trade hegemon — turning away from free trade and moving toward growing protectionism In a significant development in international trade law, four separate World Trade Organization (WTO) Panel reports have ruled that the tariffs of 25% and 10% on steel and aluminium, respectively, that the United States (U.S.) had imposed during the presidency of Donald Trump...

-Hindustan Times The Centre and the top court have exchanged several sharp comments on the collegium system. The Supreme Court on Thursday yet again pulled up the Centre over delays in judges' appointments as it stressed that the government must follow the collegium system, which is the law of the land. The court asked Attorney General R Venkataramani to advise Union Ministers to exercise control over their public criticism of the collegium...

-Moneycontrol.com A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court was hearing a batch of 58 petitions that challenged the Union Government’s decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes six years ago. Junking allegations of any procedural lapses by the Centre during the demonetisation in November 2016, the Reserve Bank of India told the Supreme Court on December 5 that the central bank itself had recommended the Government of India...