Covid-19 cess, 40% tax for rich – IRS officers offer economy-revival tips to Modi govt
Raising income tax rate to 40 per cent for those who earn over Rs 1 crore a year, re-introduction of wealth tax and effecting a one-time Covid-19 cess of 4 per cent on taxable income of over Rs 10 lakh — these are some of the recommendations made by over 50 officers of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS) to help the economy recover from the lockdown, reports Sanya Dhingra.
Modi govt wants states to start producing herbal remedy for Covid-19 immunity, sends recipe
The Ministry of AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha, sowa rigpa and homoeopathy) has directed states and union territories to start the commercial production of a herbal decoction that it claims boosts immunity against Covid-19, reports Himani Chandna.
Situation normal, but all locked up: How Modi govt has risked incapacitating India
India needed to get back to work in stages, instead of extending the induced coma of the lockdown and allowing selective opening up in our colour-coded country. We are managing to stay alive, but our livelihoods are in deep freeze. Tens of crores who’ve been lifted out of poverty post-1991 are half-a-wheezing-breath away from slipping back there, writes Shekhar Gupta in this week’s National Interest.
BJP wants us to see Indian Sonia Gandhi as Italian but Canadian Akshay Kumar as Indian
Why do we regard Kalpana Chawla, Sunita Williams and Priti Patel or even Akshay Kumar as Indians, when we still call Sonia Gandhi by her Italian name? Read this Jyoti Yadav article to know the answer.
As Gulf calls for an ‘India without Islamophobia,’ Jaishankar works the phones
India’s cultivated Gulf policy has been at risk of unraveling, with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Kuwaiti government and a UAE royal princess decrying hate speeches by Indians accusing the Tablighi Jamaat of deliberately exacerbating the coronavirus pandemic. But External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar was going to leave nothing to chance, and so he decided to work the phones, writes Jyoti Malhotra.
Covid vaccine could come in a year, but life-as-usual years away, says WHO chief scientist
A vaccine for Covid-19 could emerge in about a year, World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan has said, even as she sought to highlight the possibility of the novel coronavirus becoming a seasonal virus like the influenza, or an endemic infection, reports Sandhya Ramesh.
Shashi Tharoor: Modi govt wasted money on faulty Chinese Covid tests ignoring Indian options
Why did India buy Chinese rapid testing kits for Covid-19 when other countries have complained about its accuracy? In the words of a TV showman, the nation wants to know, writes Congress MP Shashi Tharoor.