Innholdsfortegnelse for 10 January 2022 i India Today

A raucous democracy soon to be the world’s most populous country is never short of either news or personalities. A combination of politicians, sportspersons, movie stars and businesspersons and roller coaster-like events make the expression ‘may you live in interesting times’ seem like it was coined for India. This makes it so difficult for us here at india today to choose our Newsmaker of the Year—a person or phenomenon that shaped the year’s significant events. The past two years, in particular, have certainly been not only interesting but unprecedented in this century. Our Newsmaker in 2020 was the Coronavirus—a microscopic creature that brought the world to a screeching halt, causing the most significant disruption since the Second World War. The second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic this year caused mayhem,…

TWO-DOSE VACCINES WON’T PREVENT INFECTION 91% of the total Omicron cases in India were fully vaccinated, 3% had taken booster shots abroad; 2% of the patients were partially vaccinated. TWO DOSES MIGHT NOT HELP PREVENT DEATH An Imperial College study showed that after two doses of Covishield (taken by roughly 88% of Indians who have been vaccinated so far), protection against severe disease caused by Omicron was 20% and protection against death 30%. HOW A BOOSTER HELPS According to the study, protection against severe disease after a booster shot goes up to 80% and against death to 88%. Globally, 19.4% people in the US have taken a booster shot, 36% in Germany, 40% in the UK, and 11% in Brazil.…

DIVESTMENT › Barring a few strategic sectors, public sector undertakings (PSUs) in all other sectors are to be divested › Only four PSUs will remain in operation in these strategic sectors › Air India was divested to the Tata Group › Monetising of assets: NationalMonetisationPipelineNMP) announced, aiming to raise Rs 6 lakh crore NMPprojectsincludeRs1.6 lakh crore worth of roadways, Rs 1.5 lakh crore in railways, Rs 45,000 crore in power transmission and Rs 39,832 crore in power generation PRODUCTION › A production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme was extended to several sectors, including medical devices, large scale electronics manufacturing and semiconductors TAXATION › Corporate tax cut implemented. New manufacturers can avail a 15 per cent tax rate › ‘Vivad se Vishwas’ to reduce litigation in the direct tax payments › E-filing portal…

₹20,000 CRORE A gross rough estimate of expenditure of all the planned development/redevelopment works. All projects are planned in a phased and sequential manner till 2026 ₹229.75 CRORE Fee being paid to Bimal Patel’s HCP Design to plan the redevelopment of Lutyens’ Delhi, including new Parliament building and the government offices 15 ACRES Plot size of proposed new prime minister’s residence near South Block 900 MPs can be seated in the revamped triangular Parliament building, according to the HCP plan…

If there was a turning point in the farmers’ agitation, it happened on January 28, 2021. Images of Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) leader Rakesh Tikait bursting into tears at a media briefing after spending the whole day in Delhi Police custody shocked the nation. The agitation, which was almost on the verge of petering out over the violence by some rogue elements at Red Fort on Republic Day, became a tidal force again, and 52-year-old Tikait was now the voice of millions of India’s farmers. That set in motion a series of events that finally led to November 19 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi not only backed down and announced the repeal of the three contentious farm laws but also apologised to the farmers, saying the government had failed to…

› GREAT EXPECTATIONS Having accomplished his dream to win an Olympic gold, next up for Chopra is entering the 90-metre club. Only 20 athletes have gone past the distance › ROLE MODEL Czech javelin thrower Jan Železný. “He isn’t as popular as he should be but he was one of the most consistent,” says Chopra › RISING STAR Chopra has received cash awards worth at least Rs 17 crore, sizeable money for an athlete who doesn’t have a chunky annual salary like national team cricketers do › 12 The number of brands Chopra endorses…

The year 2021 was meant to mark the revival of cinemas, but it was only in November that the theatrical business of Hindi cinema began to bounce back and one man was at the centre of it all—Akshay Kumar. The actor was the first to take a leap of faith and had BellBottom release in cinemas in August. It was a plucky move, given that cinemas in Maharashtra were still shut and theatres in many states were operating at 50 per cent occupancy. The film managed Rs 32 crore, a lowly mark for a Kumar film, but for the actor the effort was more meaningful. Tamil actor Vijay had done so earlier in January with the release of Master which collected a massive Rs 162.5 crore, the majority of its…

While the past two years have certainly been…memorable, they have not, by and large, been commemorated by any historically significant construction activity—with the exception of a clutch of projects close to the prime minister’s heart. The Ram Mandir at Ayodhya, of course. The Kashi Vishwanath temple corridor, recently inaugurated to considerable televised fanfare. And the Central Vista redevelopment—a vast construction site in the heart of the capital that controversially burst into activity while the city was in lockdown and the nearby Parliament in suspension. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi has missed no photo-op to underline his role in bulldozing these projects onto the national landscape, this has also turned the spotlight on Bimal Patel, the Ahmedabad-based architect responsible for designing the latter two projects. Patel’s association with high profile mega-projects…

Volume XLVII Number 2; For the week January 4-10, 2022, published on every Friday Total number of pages 78 (including cover pages)…