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The much-hyped general budget is over and rightly it had avoided populism ahead of assembly elections including Uttar Pradesh. This is refreshing as it is deviation from the past as budgets had more populism, big ticket announcements and less substance. But has the budget done enough to kick-start the economy, the answer is not clear yet.. This is because world over, the management of the economy is largely driven by the idea of dealing with crisis and how to manage and tackle crisis rather than bringing about long-term stability to the economy.

In the wake of cryptocurrencies gaining legitimacy with the imposition of 30 percent sin tax on the transactions, it may now be considered the next logical step to similarly recognise gambling and betting too as legitimate sporting activity. Revenue to the government has been a compelling argument in both cases.

New Delhi: Playing an all out game, India opened their campaign with an emphatic 5-0 win over France in FIH Hockey Pro League at Potchefstroom (South Africa) on Tuesday.

Ahmedabad: The trio of Lokesh Lakshman, Deepak Chouhan and amateur Harsh Gangwar carded identical three-under 69 to share the first round lead at Pre Qualifying II as the TATA Steel PGTI Qualifying School at the Kalhaar Blues & Greens Golf Club here.

Hyderabad: Young talent, including the Bakshi sisters, Jahanvi and Hitaashee, will be back in action on Wednesday as the first tournament in the 2022 season of the Hero Women’s Pro Golf Tour gets underway at the Boulder Hills Golf and Country Club in Hyderabad.

Both Delhi and Mumbai are up in arms. Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have watched his tongue. Covid-19 to the world came out of the blue, but when it struck India, it had already proved its killer-instincts across continents. And then when Modi clamped the first lockdown on the country, with a banging of utensils, there was hardly a couple of hours for India’s millions to prepare for Modi-Trump’s ‘Namaste India’ to the pandemic.

LUCKNOW: Fighting their assembly polls for the first time Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Samajwadi Party national President and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav are facing tough challenge from their rivals but both of them should win convincingly.

Manipur is going for assembly elections in two phases on February 27 and March 7. The politics in the state has gained a higher pitch. There is a very high stake for the ruling BJP led NDA since the state still seems to be heading towards a hung assembly, a prediction that the last poll survey has made almost one month ago.

India is missing an effective Opposition at the Centre and States as it tries to check the surge of the ruling BJP. Political equation often changes before the poll as the enemies become friends and friends become enemies. The BSP and Congress came together in 1996. The S.P. and the BSP came together in the early nineties, and the Congress and the S.P. joined hands in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

It is the year 2022, almost 17 years since the Right to Information Act, 2005 (RTI Act) has been passed. Albeit, in a functional democracy, the emerging field realities would have resulted in legislative changes that would have strengthened the law. However, our experience tells us otherwise. This article attempts to throw light on the systematic weakening of the RTI Act over a period of time; and share an experiential story of how an RTI appellate authority in Gujarat imposed a fine of Rs.10,000 on an applicant for simply exercising their right to information. It is argued that it is also indicative of larger patterns of intimidation and illegalities that exist in the implementation of the RTI Act and that the long journey ahead for the right to information to become an actual fundamental right in India.