February 18, 2021
After Rihanna and Greta Thunberg, India’s protesting farmers have now found support from over 70 activist organisations in the US.
On Feb. 16, a host of human rights, civil activists, and women support groups, took out a full-page advertisement in The New York Times to show solidarity with India’s protesting farmers.
“We farmers, activists, and citizens of the world stand in solidarity with farmers in India protesting to protect their livelihood,” the ad said. “You have ignited one of the largest protests in human history. From the fields of Punjab to the villages of Kerala, to the streets of New Delhi, your voices echo around the world. Now, we raise our voices in solidarity,” it added.
February 15, 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic has set off a golden era for India’s ed-tech startups. But if current trends are anything go by, this party won’t last forever.
In March 2020, when the Covid-19 outbreak started in India, the country’s largest ed-tech platform Byju’s saw six million new students join its courses. The following month, another 7.5 million came on board. Byju’s rival Vedantu, which hosts live online classes for school kids, clocked 75 million hours of content consumption in 2020 with 6.3 million students across the K-12 category and competitive exams prep accessing its material.
The strong momentum helped several startups in the sector attract fresh investments, raising a total of $2.22 billion(Rs220 crore) in 2020. While Youtube channel-turned-startup Unacademy became a unicorn, the momentum also led many new entrepreneurs to jump on the ed-tech bandwagon. Of the 92 ed-tech startups that received funding in 2020, at least 61 were seed-level firms.
February 8, 2021
The Narendra Modi government, which kept a hawk-eye on spending over the past seven years, has said that the fiscal deficit for 2020-21 will stand at 9.5%. This would be the highest at least since India liberalised its economy in 1991.
For context, the fiscal deficit for 2019-20 was 4.6% of India’s gross domestic product (GDP).
On the face of it, a high fiscal deficit the difference between the government’s revenues and expenditure is alarming. It increases government borrowings and sends it into an interest repayment cycle, which only further increases spending in the future.
Governments in the past have taken the route of austerity to keep the fiscal deficit in check. This has been a common economic strategy, its biggest champions being former US president Ronald Reagan and former UK prime minister Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s.