After electoral bond ban, funding through trust route up: EC data

After the Supreme Court scrapped the electoral bond scheme in February last year, donations to political parties through electoral trusts increased significantly, with the highest contributions going to the BJP, show reports released by the Election Commission (EC) for the previous financial year. Nearly three-fourths of the donations to the Prudent Electoral Trust, which has received the highest contribution, were made after the Supreme Court's decision. Out of 1,075.7 crore donated to the trust, ₹797.1 crore was received after the court's ruling. The contribution to Prudent Electoral Trust also increased almost three-fold compared to the previous year-₹1,075.7 crore in the last financial year compared to 363.16 crore the year before, according to the report. The highest donation through the trust went to the BJP 723.8 crore. This was followed by the Congress with 156.35 crore, Bharat Rashtra Samithi with 85 crore, and YSR Congress with 272.5 crore.

TRIUMPH & TRAGEDY

Four years ago, Joe Biden was hailed as the saviour of the Democratic Party from the unprecedented political and economic shockwaves generated by Donald Trump's presidency (2017-21). Trump's first term in the White House culminated in the January 6 riots by his political supporters protesting against the alleged unfairness of the 2020 polls that elected Biden as president. As a long-standing figure of the Washington establishment, who had served for decades in the US Senate and as Vice President of President Barack Obama (2009-17), Biden was expected to heal the political divisions within America, revitalise US democracy, and restore Washington's global image as a responsible great power.

A HIGHER BAR

In just over three months, the Supreme Court has reiterated for the second time the need for investigative agencies to show restraint when invoking the charge of abetment of suicide. This week, a bench of Justices Abhay Soka and KV Viswanathan said that Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code is invoked "casually." Section 306 of the IPC and now, 108 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, carries either a jail term of up to 10 years or a fine or both. It is a non-bailable offence where the police can arrest without a warrant. The abetment law involving suicide has been strengthened to protect women, reversing the burden of proof against the husband for the first seven years of marriage. While this change was arguably needed for tackling a societal ill like dowry death, the law has all too often lent itself to misuse.

JOIN THE EDUCATION DOTS

A sudden expansion in any organisation often leads to dilution in the quality of its products, ushering in a serious loss of institutional credibility. In academic circles, it has been witnessed in reputed universities, well-established schools, and also the systems managing large numbers of institutions.

Recently, the UGC has floated a draft regulation suggesting an amended framework to recruit vice-chancellors. The quality of higher education institutions, including their leadership, is a direct product of the quality of elementary education. One of ten cites the example of Japan, the most destroyed nation in World War II. The visionary leadership entrusted with the task of reconstruction decided to prioritise the primary education and the curriculum.

The welfare India needs

It may be worth recalling that the MSP system was introduced by the Centre with the setting up of the Agricultural Prices Commission (APC) in January 1965. It was meant to focus primarily on wheat and rice as India was hugely short of basic staples. India was importing 10 million tonnes (MT) of wheat in the mid-1960s under PL 480 from the US against rupee payments. It did not have enough foreign exchange to buy food from the global markets. The Food Corporation of India has mountains of rice stocks that are almost three times the buffer stock norms. The basket of crops under MSP has expanded over time. MSPs were always supposed to be indicative prices, and the government would come to procure only if there was a serious crisis. The legacy of open-ended procurement of wheat and rice in some states has continued till day. It has created an imbalance in the production basket.

A restricted upward mobility

Is the Indian economy going through a cyclical slowdown or is it returning to the pre-pandemic growth trajectory? Some have viewed the sharp deceleration in growth in the second quarter as a "temporary blip". But the pick-up there- after isn't robust. GST collections have, for instance, moderated further - from 8.9 per cent in the second quarter to 8.3 per cent in the third quarter. The high growth rates seen in the after- math of the pandemic were driven in large part by the surge in services exports, specifically, the boom in Global Capability Centres (GCC). However, this growth structure is biased in favour of the highly skilled who account for a very small section of the labour force. Pathways for upward mobility are thus more accessible to the highly skilled, limiting the expansion of the cohort with greater discretionary spending capacity.

Securities Transaction Tax collection jumps 75% despite market volatility

Despite the volatility in the stock market, the Securities Transaction Tax(STT) collection has shot up by over 75 per cent to Rs 44,538 crore as of January 12, 2025 as against Rs 25,415 crore raised in the same period in 2024. The rise in collections comes despite a hike in STT on futures & options (F&O) of securities that was levied in a bid to curb speculative market activity in the F&O segment. The Budget 2024-25, presented by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on July 23, had proposed to double the STT on F&Oof securities, effective October 1, 2024. However, STT collection has been on the rise since July and the rise continued even when the stock market rose sharply and then encountered a major correction between July and December 2024.

Davos turns into fortress with 5,000 army personnel, air traffic restrictions, drones

This highest town in Europe has become synonymous with an annual gathering of the most powerful people in the world and that requires some heavy-duty security cover. Nearly 5,000 Swiss army personnel, including those equipped with the latest gadgets like drones and Al-powered tools, have taken over this small skiing resort town to ensure the safety of its high- profile visitors for the next week and to ensure the successful completion of a rare annual confluence of biggest names in the world from business to government to civil society to art and culture and a lot of others. Swiss Parliament has approved the deployment of a maximum of 5,000 soldiers on these civil affairs support operations from 2025 until 2027.

Abetment to suicide: Why SC advised caution in using the provision

The Supreme Court last Thursday highlighted the need to sensitise investigation agencies and courts in abetment of suicide cases under Section 306 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (IPC). The term "abetment" is defined under Section 107 of the IPC, which is the same as Section 45 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (BNS). To prove abetment of suicide, one has to effectively show that the accused directly instigated or aided the deceased to die by suicide. The punishment for abetment of suicide provided under Section 306 IPC (Section 108 BNS) can be up to 10 years imprisonment along with a fine. According to the National Crime Records Bureau's annual Crime in India report, the conviction rate in such cases was 17.5% in 2022 (latest available data).

WHAT IS THE SVAMITVA SCHEME, WHO BENEFITS FROM IT AND HOW

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said once property cards under the Centre's SVAMITVA scheme have been distributed in all the villages of the country, it could unlock economic activity worth over Rs 100 lakh crore. The acronym SVAMITVA stands for Survey of Villages and Mapping with Improvised Technology in Village Areas. It aims to provide a 'record of rights' to those having houses in villages, and issue them a property card. The plan is to survey all rural proper ties using drones and prepare GIS-based maps for each village. The scheme was launched by PM Modi on National Panchayati Raj Day, on April 24, 2020. Back in 2020, the scheme was implemented as a pilot project in about 1 lakh villages across nine states - Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. The aim was to cover all 6.62 lakh villages in the country by the end of financial year 2023-24.

Why dead olive ridley turtles are washing up on Tamil Nadu's beaches

Over the past two weeks, numerous dead olive ridley turtles have washed ashore in Tamil Nadu, particularly in Chennai. Experts have estimated that so far, between 300 and 350 turtles have been found dead. Olive ridley turtles arrive near the Tamil Nadu coast around September-October to breed. Their nesting season begins in late November and ends in March. The turtles mate near shore areas and females arrive in small batches for nesting on Tamil Nadu's beaches. As a result, they often get trapped in long fishing nets of commercial trawlers as bycatch-the unintentional capture of non-target marine life-and die, according to experts.