Free speech in India is messily contested. But amidst its history lie clues to its future

Bhairav Acharya: Free speech & its discontents

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The government has moved to increase the strength of the joint committee of Parliament that will scrutinise the two bills proposing simultaneous elections from 31 MPs to 39, giving representation to more parties.
The list of Lok Sabha MPs proposed by the government now includes one member each from the Shiv Sena (UBT), CPI(M) and the Lok Janshakti Party (Ram Vilas), besides two more members of the BJP and one more of the Samajwadi party.
The list of business for the House for Friday includes a motion from Union minister Arjun Ram Meghwal to refer the two bills to a joint committee, including 27 members from the Lok Sabha and 12 from the Rajya Sabha.
The new Lok Sabha MPs proposed to be part of the committee are Baijayant Panda and Sanjay Jaiswal from the BJP, the SP's Chhotelal, Shiv Sena (UBT)'s Anil Desai, LJP's Shambhavi and the CPI(M)'s K Radhakrishnan.
The committee will scrutinise the two "one nation one election" (ONOE) bills, including one for amending the Constitution.
Fo

Parliament, New Parliament

Latest news updates: Catch all the latest developments from around the world here

Fire, Fire accident

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported more than 270,000 people to 192 countries, including India, over a recent 12-month period, the highest annual tally in a decade, according to a report released Thursday that illustrates some of the financial and operational challenges that President-elect Donald Trump will face to carry out his pledge of mass deportations.
ICE, the main government agency responsible for removing people in the country illegally, had 271,484 deportations in its fiscal year ended Sept 30, nearly double from 142,580 in the same period a year earlier.
It was ICE's highest deportation count since 2014, when it removed 315,943 people. The highest it reached during Trump's first term in the White House was 267,258 in 2019.
Increased deportation flights, including on weekends, and streamlined travel procedures for people sent to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador fuelled the increase, ICE said. The agency had its first large flight to China in six years and al

US flag, US, united states

Several hand grenades, including No. 36 and WP hand grenades, were also found, along with two wireless radio sets

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At least five companies, including Zomato Ltd. and its recently-listed rival Swiggy Ltd., have unveiled or announced plans to offer quick food delivery in the last few weeks

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The key benchmarks - Sensex, Nifty faced another bear attack on Thursday, with the BSE Sensex crashing 1,162 points or 1.44 per cent to its intraday low of 79020

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The Banning of Unregulated Lending Activities Bill calls for the CBI to handle probes in cases spanning multiple states or UTs

The Centre, in collaboration with states, has proposed to classify unregulated lending as a cognizable and non-bailable offence, with penalties including imprisonment of up to 10 years. The finance ministry has invited feedback by February 13 from st

Aditya Birla Money shares hit a record high of Rs 289, as they surged 17 per cent on the BSE in Thursday's intra-day trade amid heavy volumes in otherwise a weak market.

The number of active investors on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) have jumped 44 per cent over the past one year to 47.9 million at the end of September 2024. The surge in active clients is underpinned by the rally in the markets, with the Nifty 50

Parliament winter session news updates: The BJP has claimed that Rahul Gandhi pushed Pratap Sarangi during a melee, a charge rejected by the Congress leader

Rahul Gandhi, Rahul, Congress leader, Priyanka Gandhi, Priyanka

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) -- the nation's top oil firm -- will invest over Rs 21,000 crore to expand the Barauni refinery in Bihar as well as in setting up a city gas distribution network across the state, a senior executive said on Thursday.
IOC is expanding its Barauni refinery to 9 million tonnes per annum from current 6 million tonnes together with a petrochemical plant at a cost of about Rs 16,000 crore and invest another Rs 5,600 crore in setting up network to retail CNG to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households and industries in 27 cities of Bihar, company Executive Director Suman Kumar said while speaking at the Bihar Business Connect 2024 investor summit here.
"IOC is the oldest investor in Bihar, setting up the Barauni refinery in 1964. The initial capacity was 3 million tonnes per annum which was later expanded to 6 million tonnes. Now we are expanding the capacity from 6 million tonnes to 9 million tonnes per annum. Alongside, a 200,000 tonnes polypropylene is

Indian Oil

The apex court was hearing the plea filed by the CCI, seeking the transfer of 24 writ petitions filed in various high courts challenging its probe into alleged anti-competitive practices

SC, Supreme Court

Talks ended after around 13 hours of negotiation in the early hours on Tuesday without a deal but would resume mid-morning, a spokesperson for IG Metall union said

Volkswagen

Dollar index, which measures the US currency against six rivals, was steady at 106.77 and on course for 5 per cent gain for the year

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The air quality in Delhi deteriorates to 'severe plus'; strict measures under Grap Stage IV enforced to curb pollution

Delhi Air Pollution

The breaches were first reported by the Guardian in early 2018, and Facebook received fines from regulators in the United States and the UK in 2019

1971 Surrender pic India Pakistan

Allahabad High Court judge Shekhar Kumar Yadav, who purportedly gave controversial statements at a Vishwa Hindu Parishad function, appeared before the Supreme Court collegium on Tuesday, sources said.
According to the sources, Yadav appeared before the collegium headed by Chief Justice Sanjiv Khanna and was asked to put forth his version on the statements made.
The top court on December 10 took note of news reports over the statements and sought a report from the Allahabad High Court on the issue.
"The Supreme Court has taken note of newspaper reports of a speech given by Mr Justice Shekhar Kumar Yadav, a sitting judge of the High Court of Judicature at Allahabad. The details and particulars have been called from the high court and the matter is under consideration," an official statement had said.
According to the established norm, a judge, against whom a report is sought by the apex court collegium on any controversial issue from the high court concerned, is given opportunity to 

Supreme Court, SC

The Centre has described 'One Nation, One Election' as a transformative shift to improve governance, cut costs, minimise disruptions, and streamline the country's electoral process

'One Nation, One Election' proposal likely to have German blueprint

India cannot stay out of global technological race and should build capabilities that will keep it at the top while remaining vigilant against its misuse, said Jeet Adani, Director, Adani Airport Holdings Ltd.
Speaking at IIT Bombay's Techfest 2024, Adani, the 27-year old younger son of infrastructure magnate Gautam Adani, said the future of technology is both scary and exciting.
"But be it scary or exciting, we cannot afford to ignore technology or even go slow in our use of technology -- either as a nation or as its citizens. India cannot stay out of this global race," he said.
"Our generation needs to build capabilities to lead India into this new technological era if we want to stay at the top of our game and realise our dream of Viksit Bharat -- to become a USD 26-trillion economy by 2047," he said.
While technology has helped mankind progress, it is also being applied to wrong causes -- fake news, fake photos, fake videos, fake money, online scams, spoofing, phishing, and ...

Jeet Adani, director of Adani Airport Holdings Limited (AAHL)

TAC InfoSec share price hit a new high of Rs 1,112.45, locked in an upper circuit for the 9th straight day, and surged 46 per cent during the period

Bhairav Acharya

Bhairav Acharya

Bhairav Acharya

Bhairav Acharya: Free speech & its discontents

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Panel on ONOE bills expanded to 39 members for wider representation

LIVE news: Five charred to death after massive fire outside Jaipur petrol pump

US agency deports over 272K people to 192 nations, highest since 2014

Security forces recover weapons and ammunition from Imphal East district

Disruptive 10-mins deliveries now spread to food businesses as well

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Sensex sinks 1,150pts, Nifty dips below 23,900: What's behind market crash?

Draft Bill moots unregulated lending ban, up to 10-year imprisonment

This Aditya Birla Group stock surged 17% today; up 74% so far in December

Parliament scuffle highlights: LS Speaker bars parties from holding protests at Parliament gates

IOC to invest over Rs 21,000 cr in Bihar refinery expansion, gas projects