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  • Supreme Court questions the continuing relevance of two-child norms. The Court observed that falling fertility rates have weakened the population-control rationale behind laws disqualifying people with more than two children from contesting local body elections. It referred the issue to a larger Bench for consideration
  • Supreme Court declines to shift Tirupati laddu case outside Andhra Pradesh. The Court rejected a plea seeking transfer of the trial, despite arguments that political statements by Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister could affect the fairness of proceedings
  • Supreme Court transfers Azam Khan's fresh ED bail plea to Allahabad High Court. The apex court declined to consider the Samajwadi Party leader's bail request in a fresh Enforcement Directorate case and directed that it be listed before a division Bench of the High Court on November 16
  • Two killed in Delhi building collapse; contractor booked. Two bodies were recovered after a building collapsed in Chawri Bazaar. Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta said the contractor had been booked and the concerned junior and assistant engineers suspended
  • Uttar Pradesh voter rolls show a 2.4-crore discrepancy. A difference of approximately 2.4 crore names has been reported between the state's panchayat and rural Assembly voter lists. The Election Commission has ordered the two sets of rolls to be matched
  • Gujarat announces 3% dearness allowance hike. The state government announced a three-percentage-point increase in dearness allowance for government employees and pensioners ahead of Diwali
  • Sensex and Nifty post their strongest single-day gains in months. The Sensex surged 2,008.61 points, or 2.60%, to close at 79,310.01, while the Nifty 50 climbed 576 points, or 2.40%, to 24,536.60. Financial and automobile stocks led the rally, supported by falling crude prices and renewed foreign investor buying
  • Maaya Rajeshwaran reaches WTA-level quarter-final. The 17-year-old Indian defeated Poland's Weronika Falkowska 6-4, 6-3, becoming the first Indian woman since Sania Mirza in 2012 to reach a quarter-final at a WTA Tour-level singles event
  • Tanvi Patri reaches Youth Olympics badminton final. The 15-year-old defeated Japan's Yuzuno Watanabe in the semi-final, assuring India of a medal and becoming the first Indian badminton player to reach the girls' singles final at the Youth Olympics
  • India beat Pakistan 3-2 in SAFF Championship. India defeated Pakistan in a closely contested match, having led 3-0 before conceding two late goals. The victory was reported as a significant result for India's second-string side
  • India beat Japan 4-1 to win a record sixth Asian Champions Trophy. India recovered from an early deficit to defeat Japan in the final at Mohali, extending its record as the tournament's most successful men's team
  • The Supreme Court issued notice to the Centre and the Election Commission on a petition challenging Section 16 of the Chief Election Commissioner and Other Election Commissioners Act, 2023, which grants the CEC and Election Commissioners protection from legal proceedings for acts performed in their official duties. The petition argues that such blanket immunity could leave citizens without an effective remedy for alleged wrongdoing by the Commission
  • The Supreme Court told voters whose names were deleted from Delhi's draft electoral rolls not to be apprehensive about seeking re-enrolment through Form 6, after the Election Commission assured it that such applicants would not be prosecuted merely because their names had appeared in earlier rolls
  • Congress leader Rahul Gandhi opened the party's campaign for the 2027 Punjab Assembly elections with an Insaaf rally in Sangrur, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann's home district, accusing the AAP government of failing to control drugs, gangster violence and corruption. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge outlined six commitments, including a drug-free Punjab, protection of farmers, employment for young people and action against corruption
  • Rahul Gandhi accused the AAP government of running Punjab through a remote control from Delhi and questioned Bhagwant Mann's ability to tackle drug abuse, making personal allegations about the Chief Minister's conduct during their time together in Parliament
Stock markets on fire due to US results, Sensex gains 2008 points to reach its highest level in 8 months
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Taking India Back In Time

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2023-08-07 08:18:05

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

It is good to produce anything in the country and create an ecosystem for such production. It is also not bad to put pressure on companies to start producing in India. This pressure can take the form of applying both the carrot and the stick. The Indian government has been pushing for Make in India and has also started incentivizing several sectors through a production-linked-incentive (PLI) scheme to make it attractive for companies to produce in India. The PLI scheme has yielded excellent results in some sectors. But for laptops, PCs and tablets there were no takers for the PLI scheme and no applications were received for setting up production facilities for the same in India. The government consulted with industry bigwigs and sweetened the deal but still no applications were made. Hence, the government took the extreme step of putting restrictions on import of laptops, PCs and tablets and brought it under the licensing regime. Henceforth, all imports of these items will require a licence. Although the licence regime was to kick in immediately, the government has deferred it by three months (it now kicks in from November 1) after concerns about disruptions, shortages and price rise.

The concern about huge imports from China (which is by far the largest supplier of laptops, PCs and tablets to India) is valid and so is the push to get these products made in India to bring in investment and create jobs. But this is not the correct way. This brings back the much-derided licence raj that was prevalent in the country before the economic liberalization in 1990s. The government has done much to usher in Digital India. The first requisite of a digitized economy is free availability of equipment (in this case laptops, PCs and tablets) at fair prices. Import restrictions will reduce supplies and raise costs. The government has said that there will be no caps on the number of units that can be imported and hence prices will not rise. If that is true, what then is the need for licencing? The licencing regime will bring back bureaucratic discretion, red tape and corruption and take India back in time. This is not something that the excellently-unfolding India story needs at this point of time. 

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