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Demonetisation has forced such a currency crunch on the nation that the Indian Army has been deployed to help out with printing new currency notes. Our exclusive story gives you the latest developments, involving 400 soldiers helping out the process of currency regeneration in two security printing presses.
Women are paid 33% less than men in hourly wages in India, one of the largest such gender gaps in the world, new data from the International Labour Organisation shows. But that's not all. wage inequality in India goes beyond the gender dimension alone. The lowest-paid half of the country receives 17.1% of all wages paid out, while the top 10% get 42.7% of all wages. Only South Africa is more unequal.
What's the easiest job in the world? Churning conspiracy theories! It doesn't require hard labour but one must give credit to the towering imagination required to pull off these stunts. Sample the latest brouhaha over the naming of Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan's baby son, Taimur.
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These 9 ideas were initially ridiculed as crazy, but eventually accepted as pure genius. From the theory of continental drift to the invention of FM radio, and from the discovery of dark matter to stomach ulcer-causing bacteria, here are stories of researchers and inventors who put their reputations – and sometimes their lives – on the line to advance humanity and science.
New inconveniences have been added to the public's list of woes since demonetisation, with banks now refusing to accept deposits exceeding ₹5,000. The latest development comes in the wake of the Reserve Bank of India's updated circular that deposits above ₹5,000 in old ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes would be credited to bank accounts "only after questioning the tenderer, on record, in the presence of at least two officials of the bank as to why this could not be deposited earlier and receiving a satisfactory explanation".
The Class X board exam is set to become compulsory for all Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) students from 2018, The Telegraph reports, with the board's governing body taking the decision that now has to be approved by the government.
A powerful blast in Mexico's biggest fireworks market has left at least 29 people dead and around 70 wounded. The conflagration, in the suburb of Tultepec, set off a quickfire series of multicoloured blasts and a vast cloud of smoke yesterday that hung over Mexico City. The market was packed at the time with customers buying pyrotechnics for traditional end-of-year festivities.
The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Chandrababu Naidu, who was among the first to welcome the Centre's decision to demonetise high-value currency, did a turnaround on Tuesday, saying it was "not what we wished for" and pointed out that there was no solution in sight even after 40 days. Naidu heads the 13-member central committee set up to look into the demonetisation issue, and his Telugu Desam Party (TDP) is an ally of the NDA.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has received the highest amount in donations among the seven national parties in the country in 2015-16. The amount received by the party, a staggering ₹76 crore from 613 donors, is made up of many donations from unknown sources. The Bahujan Samaj Party declared it did not receive any donations above ₹20,000 during 2015-16.
Over ₹3,185 crore of undisclosed income has been detected by the income tax department, while ₹86 crore worth new notes have been seized as part of its country-wide operations against black money hoarders since the demonetisation of two high value currencies by the government. The findings are based on 677 searches carried out since November 8.
The delay in the rolling out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) due to demonetisation and lack of consensus on the "dual control" issue could be a blessing in disguise, says Pratik Jain in the Hindustan Times. "It might be worthwhile for the government to ... study the 'after-effects' of demonetisation and take necessary measures over the next few months, including in the upcoming budget scheduled for February 1, 2017," he adds.
Omkar Goswami writes in The Indian Express about the long-term repercussions of Cyrus Mistry's exit from Tata Sons. The churn created by his unceremonious sacking by the board of directors has muddied the waters of the company. While Mistry's resignation may remove certain immediate inconveniences for the company, it will not settle questions of corporate governance once and for all.
An editorial in Mint looks at the echo chamber of conspiracies created by the proliferation of social media in view of recent incidents of misinformation and misreporting. If in an earlier time, "the problem was the lack of fact-based objective news disseminated by official sources," it has now morphed into "an overabundance of news and sources that makes it difficult to ascertain reliability".
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