Sensex 80,000: Doubles in 5 yrs, took 12 to climb from 20,000 to 40,000

A month after the Lok Sabha election results were declared, the BSE's 30-share Sensex crossed the 80,000 mark for the first time during intraday trades. 

The index took nearly seven months or 139 sessions to add 10,000 points, after it surpassed the 70,000 level on December 11, 2023, as a host of factors like expectations of continuity in government policies, higher economic growth forecast and heavy domestic fund buying boosted the bullish fervour.

Manipur seeks 5,000 PMAY units, enhanced allocation for security

Ahead of the presentation of the Union Budget, the Manipur government has approached the Centre with a wishlist that includes demand for additional funds over and above the 10% usually earmarked from gross budgetary support for North-East states, financial support for 5,000 units of housing for violence-affected victims as a special project under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY), and enhanced allocation for security-related expenditure, which has increased significantly in the wake of the ethnic violence.

Air pollution behind 7% of deaths in 10 cities: Lancet study

About 11.5 PER cent of deaths in Delhi every year, roughly 12,000 deaths, can be attributed to air pollution, the highest for any city in the country, a first-of-its-kind multi-city study in India, published in the Lancet, has revealed.

Across 10 cities -Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Shimla and Varanasi - more than 33,000 deaths could be attributed to air pollution every year on an average, the study said. 

Shimla has the lowest mortality burden among these cities, with only 59 deaths every year, about 3.7 per cent of its total, that could be attributed to pollution. 

Together, about 7.2 per cent of all deaths in these cities, amounting to about 33,000 deaths every year, could be said to be caused by air pollution every year, the study said.

Large gap to bridge in quantum capabilities: Report

India may have done the right thing by launching a ₹6,000 crore National Quantum Mission to develop some of the most sought-after technologies for the future, but it would have to overcome a significantly large gap that currently exists between its capabilities and those of other leading countries in these areas like the United States and China, a new assessment of India's potential in quantum technologies has revealed. 

The assessment by Itihaasa, a non-profit that studies the evolution of technology and business domains in the country, shows that India was just one among 17 countries to have a dedicated government programme to back research in quantum technologies, and one of the 12 to have committed separate investments for the purpose. 

But several countries were much ahead of India, not just in terms of committed funding for research and development but also in their current capabilities.

Jaishankar meets Lavrov, raises issue of - Indian nationals fighting for Russian Army

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar met his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Kazakhstan capital Astana on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit and strongly raised the issue of Indian nationals fighting for the Russian Army in the war zone while pressing for their safe return.

Jaishankar is attending the SCO's annual summit in place of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The meeting comes ahead of Modi's likely visit to Russia for the annual bilateral summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The visit, which is yet to be officially announced, is expected to take place on July 8-9.

After the meeting with Lavrov, Jaishankar tweeted, "Good to meet Russian FM Sergey Lavrov in Astana today. Wide-ranging conversation on our bilateral partnership and contemporary issues. Noted the progress in many areas since our last meeting in December 2023."

Govt forms 8 Cabinet committees; security, appointments panels remain unchanged

The Union Government constituted eight Cabinet committees, with the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) getting three new faces and the two most powerful panels the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) and Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) - remaining unchanged.

Home Minister Amit Shah is the sole Cabinet member to feature on all these panels.

The eight Cabinet Committees are the CCEA, ACC, CCS, Cabinet Committee on Accommodation, Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs, Cabinet Committee on Investment and Growth, and Cabinet Committee on Skill, Employment and Livelihood.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads six committees but is not part of two - Cabinet Committee on Accommodation and Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs.

An unexpected bounty

Governments spend on capex for two reasons: To stimulate growth and to meet the needs of the economy. Let's address the second criterion first. 

Infrastructure in India is definitely a problem that needs to be solved. But not all at once. 

Since the pandemic, the government's capex spending has been growing at an average annual rate of 30 per cent. 

It is not obvious that this pace needs to be increased, or even sustained. On the contrary, recent developments demonstrate that the speed of construction has serious downsides.

Rights of the new worker

The government of Karnataka released the Karnataka Platform Based Gig Workers (Social Security and Welfare) Bill, 2024 inviting public suggestions. 

If passed, this would make Karnataka the second Indian state, after Rajasthan, with legislation for gig workers. 

This draft bill has the potential to extend to gig workers key rights that the Rajasthan Platform-Based Gig Workers (registration and Welfare) Act, 2023 failed to provide.

We want to be part of planetary defence mission, study asteroid: ISRO Chairman

ISRO is keen on participating in a planetary defence mission in space and study the asteroid Apophis when it comes close to the Earth, ISRO Chairman S Somanath said in Bengaluru.

"When Apophis comes in 2029, we should be able to go and meet this asteroid when it is very close to Earth. It is a onetime opportunity and India should be part of such efforts. It is yet to be decided in what way we should participate," Somanath said.

Maharashtra Zika cases:

Centre asks states to be vigilant, focus on testing pregnant women, foetus

With eight cases of the mosquito-borne Zika infection being reported from Maharashtra, the Centre's Director-General of Health Services asked states to focus on screening pregnant women for the virus and monitor the growth of their foetuses.

While most people infected with Zika experience no symptoms or mild symptoms - such as fever, rash, headache, and joint and muscle pain - in pregnant women, it can lead to microcephaly in the foetus. 

Microcephaly is a condition where a baby's head is smaller than expected because their brain does not develop fully. There has been no case of microcephaly since 2016 in the country.

India may start procuring AI GPUs in next two-three months: IT minister

The centre will roll out the Rs 10,000 crore India Al Mission in the next two to three months under which it will help procure computing power for the domestic industry run artificial intelligence (AI) systems, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. 

"We will procure 10,000 or more graphics processing units (GPUs) under a public-private partnership so that the efficiencies of the industry can be harnessed for a bigger cause. 

We will also have an Al innovation centre, high quality data sets which can add more value to the efforts of startups, and an application development initiative where apps relevant to our socioeconomic problems can be developed. 

We will have a huge focus on skill development," Vaishnaw said at the inaugural session of the Global India Al Summit 2024.

In 'integrated partnership' of global AI group with OECD, some trade-offs for India

During the sixth ministerial council meeting of the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI), representatives of the grouping announced an "integrated partnership" with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to bring "OECD members and GPAI countries on equal footing, under the GPAI brand" - but to arrive at this consensus, some trade-offs had to be made behind the scenes. 

The GPAI, since its inception in 2020, was supported by a secretariat hosted by the OECD. 

This paper has learnt that the initial conversation was that the GPAI would work under the OECD's Working Party on Artificial Intelligence Governance (AIGO). 

However, countries like India and Japan are understood to have pushed back on it, with concerns that the efforts they have made at making GPAI a relevant multi stakeholder organisation might get diluted if it were to work under the OECD. 

What Labour's win could mean for India-UK FTA

New Delhi and London have been negotiating a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) for more than two years to boost trade between the two nations. 

The agreement could result in a mutual tariff relaxation on a range of goods such as cars, clothes, alcoholic beverages, and medical instruments.