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India Rejecting BRICS Currency, Aims To Promote US Dollar  https://watcher.guru/news/india-rejecting-brics-currency-wants-to-promote-us-dollar Vinod Dsouza January 3, 2025

BRICS member India remains skeptical of a common BRICS currency citing risks of alienating global trade ties with the US. Leading import and export businesses in India and those stationed in the US want to keep the US dollar intact. Indian businesses are now cautious in embracing a common currency as it risks disrupting the normal flow of commerce.

Russia & Belarus Settle Trade Worth $37 Billion in Local Currencies
 https://watcher.guru/news/brics-2-countries-settle-37-billion-trade-in-local-currencies  https://watcher.guru/news/brics-worry-trump-will-add-100-tariffs-on-semiconductor-supplies

BRICS Worry Trump To Impose 100% Tariffs on Semiconductor Supplies

Labour Minister’s employment numbers do not tell the whole story  https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/editorials/labour-ministers-employment-numbers-do-not-tell-the-whole-story-9761615/

look at the employment rate or WPR the percentage of people employed as a proportion of the total population. WPR.. was 62.2 per cent in 2004-05, the first full year under UPA rule. Since then, despite unprecedented rates of GDP growth, it fell to 55.9 per cent in 2009-10 and 54.7 per cent in 2011-12. The WPR continued to fall well into the first four years of the decade under the NDA to hit a low of 46.8 per cent in 2017-18. It is from this low level that the WPR started its steady upward climb and by the end of 2023-24 (July to June year), rose to 58.2 per cent. In other words, the dip and recovery in employment rate does not follow the neat political divide.

Most notably, perhaps, the recent improvement in India’s labour statistics hides the poor quality of the new jobs being created in the economy. ..the fact that most of the new jobs are in the low-paying “self-employment” category — especially as “unpaid helpers in household enterprises” — actually suggests deepening economic distress.

Right to information is being transformed into right to deny information before our very eyes https://theleaflet.in/information-and-transparency/right-to-information-is-being-transformed-into-right-to-deny-information-before-our-very-eyes The Girish Ramchandra judgment < https://indiankanoon.org/doc/160205361/ > gives a licence to refuse most information at will to public information officers, first appellate authorities, information commissioners and courts. Realising that it may be difficult for public information officers and other appellate authorities to decide on what constitutes privacy, the Parliament gave a simple test in the proviso that information that would not be denied to the Parliament or legislature would not be denied to any person.

It did not conclude whether the information was with respect to public activity, or whether it was an invasion of privacy. Further, it did not even quote the all-important proviso about denying the information to the Parliament. It was as if the court did not read the complete provision!

It can even be used to deny information for which the RTI Act mandates suo moto disclosure under Section 4.
The nation must realise that the curbs on freedom of speech, the right to publish and the right to information are interlinked and must be treated with equal importance, writes Shailesh Gandhi.

in the ADR PUCL judgment, the Supreme Court had ordered that citizens have a right to know about the assets of those who want to become public servants (stand for elections) the Girish Deshpande judgment ruled that citizens had no right to know about the assets of a public servant!