(1) Thailand is third in Asia to enact same-sex marriage Hundreds of LGBTQ+ couples in Thailand made their wedded status legal on Thursday (January 23, 2025), the first day a law took effect granting them the same rights as heterosexual couples. The enactment of the Marriage Equality Act makes Thailand the first country in Southeast … Read more
One in three consumers in India is eyeing electric vehicles (EVs) for their next purchase, says the ‘Think Mobility’ report by Google and BCG. Women are emerging as key decision-makers in the EV market. While EV-related challenges persist, innovations and localised manufacturing could pave the way for greater adoption, says the report. The report highlights … Read more
Migrants seeking asylum from Mexico, India and Ecuador waiting to be apprehended by U.S. Customs and Border Patrol officers after crossing over a section of border wall into the U.S. in Arizona | Photo Credit: Brandon Bell United States President Donald Trump introduced sweeping changes immediately after being sworn in, which could have a lasting … Read more
Village women work under MGNREGA scheme at Jagannath Prasad village in Odisha | Photo Credit: PTI The share of the Union Budget allocated for the social sector has declined rapidly in recent years. Data show that the outlays to most schemes under the rural development, education, health, and social welfare heads have either declined or … Read more
Image for representation purpose only. | Photo Credit: KRISHNAN VV Reliance Jio leads the wireless subscriber market in 12 of India’s 22 telecom circles, while Airtel dominates nine. This leaves Vodafone Idea as the leader in just one circle — Kerala. In the north-eastern and Jammu and Kashmir circles, Airtel leads the market, with around … Read more
New Delhi: Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Nirmala Sitharaman chairs the eighth pre-budget consultation in New Delhi, on Jan. 6, 2025. With Budget FY2025-26 scheduled to be presented on February 1, here is a look at some of the recently launched schemes, older schemes with significantly reduced funding, schemes under the Production Linked … Read more
The Deepseek logo is seen in this illustration taken on January 29, 2025. | Photo Credit: Reuters China-based startup DeepSeek’s latest AI models, primarily the DeepSeek-R1 reasoning model, has caused a stir in the world of Large Language Models (LLMs) which has been dominated by giants like OpenAI. Apart from being on par with OpenAI’s … Read more
Under India’s EV mission, the country aims to incentivise electric vehicles as an alternative to fossil fuels in transportation Schemes promoting electric mobility (e mobility) in India have got a renewed push in the Union Budget 2025-26 with a funding increase of over 20% compared to last year. Collective allocation for such schemes has risen … Read more
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters as he signs executive orders in the White House on Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington. | Photo Credit: AP U.S. President Trump assumed office on January 20, 2025 and as of February 10, he has signed 61 executive orders, which is more than those signed by any recent … Read more
For income taxpayers, the ‘nil tax’ slab was increased to Rs 12 lakh in the Union Budget 2025. Despite announcing that no income tax needs to be paid up to an income of Rs 12 lakh under the new regime, the government is still expecting the share of income tax in gross tax collections to … Read more