Central Government

A bench headed by Justice A.M. Khanwilkar upheld the 2020 amendments made to the FCRA Act, 2010. The detailed judgment in the case will be uploaded on the top court website later in the day. The Centre had told the Supreme Court that there exists no fundamental right to receive unbridled foreign contributions without any regulation, while defending the amendments made in 2020 to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act.

The study 'Fulfilling the promise of One Nation One Ration Card' carried out by Dalberg, a leading social impact advisory group and supported by Omidyar Network India, an investment firm focused on social impact, said 48 per cent of all beneficiaries were fully aware of portability and 31 per cent were partially aware, while at least 20 per cent of households who wanted portability were unaware.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the One Rank-One Pension (OROP) scheme is a policy decision and the court finds no constitutional infirmity in the principle as defined by the communication issued by the government on November 7, 2015. A bench headed by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud said: "We find no constitutional infirmity in the OROP principle as defined by the communication dated 7 November 2015."

The Union Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) has removed the restriction on the number of flights and seats between India and Ukraine evidently to facilitate the return of students and professionals stranded in the eastern European nation due to the ongoing geo-strategic tensions with Russia. Thus, any number of flights as well as charter flights can operate between the two countries.

This is in supercession of the earlier circular according to which the 50 per cent office attendance rule had been extended till February 15. But, after obtaining inputs from the relevant quarters and review of the situation, a fresh Office Memorandum has been issued by the Department of Personnel & Training (DoPT) informing that all the employees at all levels, without any exemption, will report to office from Monday.

Responding to a question by Samajwadi Party Member Sukhram Yadav in the Rajya Sabha, the Minister said that the details of the proposed committee will be divulged once the government gets the Election Commission's approval. "As the Model Code of Conduct is in place in many states across the country ahead of the 2022 Assembly elections, the government has not announced the details of the committee," Chaudhary said.

At the outset, Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner Jacob Puliyel, a former member of the National Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, contended before a bench headed by Justice L. Nageswara Rao and comprising Justice B.R. Gavai, that people are losing their jobs due to vaccine mandates issued by several state governments. Opposing this argument, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, submitted that nobody is losing jobs due to non-vaccination.

Addressing a press conference in Panaji, Chavan also said that there was systematic media blackout of Congress leaders. "The country is run like a dictatorship. Common people, media persons and opposition are being watched through Pegasus... We have been demanding a discussion on Pegasus. Has it been allowed? The matter is pending in the Supreme Court. Modi has (also) not been willing to speak about the Chinese build-up near Ladakh," Chavan said.

There were also nearly 5,000 legal demands to remove Twitter accounts from India in the reporting period, the company's latest transparency report has revealed. Global government preservation requests decreased by 4 per cent, while accounts specified increased by 24 per cent during this reporting period. The US (57 per cent) and India (25 per cent) together accounted for 82 per cent of all global preservation requests.

"We have identified 142 districts that are otherwise progressive, developed but lacking in one or two parametres such as malnutrition or education. We now need to work collectively to improve the situation just as we have done for aspirational districts," Modi said and added, "This is a new challenge for all of us. For the Central government, for the state governments, for the district administration everyone. We have to collectively work to achieve this."