At the centre of the issue is the US goods trade deficit with China – $295.4 billion in 2024. President Donald Trump, in his 2016 election campaign, said China was “raping” the US. It needs to be noted that while China, Mexico, and Canada had massive trade surpluses with the US, the latter imposed tariffs on almost all countries.
India’s developmental journey over the past decade has brought into sharp focus the need for better coordination between central and state schemes. While numerous programs are launched at national and state levels, their actual impact ultimately depends on district administration and local governance. It was in recognition of this reality that the Ministry of Rural Development constituted the District Development Coordination and Monitoring Committee (DISHA) in June 2016 to ensure better coordination and effective implementation of central government schemes at the district level. They replaced the earlier District Vigilance and Monitoring Committee. The core purpose of DISHA is to bridge the institutional and administrative gaps that often emerge as flagship schemes travel from conception to implementation.
The RBI’s latest monetary policy and regulatory pronouncements are a strange mixture of caution and recklessness. The policy appreciates that with inflation depressed, not only because of well-behaved food prices but also because of deficient demand that has sent fast-moving consumer goods companies into depression, real interest rates in the economy are high.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ordered the government to set up a committee to evolve measures to help home buyers who find that the properties they have invested in are stuck in stalled construction, even as their builders go into insolvency.
The Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) is India’s flagship credit-linked subsidy scheme for promoting micro-enterprises in the non-farm sector.
The urgent need for climate transition has increased the profile of deep-sea mining (DSM) as a possible source of the metals necessary for a transition to renewables. The need for cobalt, nickel, manganese, copper and rare earth elements, necessary for batteries, wind turbines, and electric vehicles, is growing as more governments commit to carbon neutrality by mid-century.
Millions of adolescents across the globe suffer silently from uncorrected refractive errors (URE) such as myopia, hyperopia, and astigmatism. Despite being easily treated with corrective lenses, these vision problems remain one of the leading, yet under-addressed, public health challenges for young people. The ripple effects extend far beyond blurry sight, impacting education, psychosocial well-being, and future opportunities especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).