TODAY NEWS ON February 01, 2025

News Headlines for CAT, CLAT and IPM aspirants

Source: THE HINDU

National News

• Hopes running high of tax cut as Nirmala Sitharaman presents record 8th budget
• Govt’s third term witnessing work at thrice the speed of previous dispensations: President Murmu
• Economic Survey pegs FY 2026 growth at 6.3% to 6.8%
• Fiscal discipline improved ‘progressively’; States having better tax positions: Chief Economic Advisor
• AB-PMJAY reduced out-of-pocket-expenditure from 62.6% to 39.4%: Economic Survey
• Sachin Tendulkar to get BCCI Lifetime Achievement Award
• Kumbh surge: Ganga Aarti in Varanasi stopped till February 5
• Core sectors’ output hit a seven-month high in December
• India, U.S. working on PM Modi's visit: MEA
• Days after stampede, MEA to take massive delegation of diplomats to Maha Kumbh
• Congress leader’s comments are in poor taste and avoidable: Rashtrapati Bhavan
• Opposition’s dissent notes removed from Waqf report
• India, U.S. working on PM Modi’s visit: MEA

International News
 

• Rwanda-backed M23 advances in DRC as volunteers rally to fight back
• Myanmar junta extends state of emergency by six months
• Harshit and tweakers derail England’s chase as India takes unassailable lead
• Norway police arrest ship on suspicion of Baltic Sea cable damage
• Investigators recover plane black boxes from Washington air collision

Headlines

Hopes running high of tax cut as Nirmala Sitharaman presents record 8th budget

A cut or tweak in income tax rates/slabs to ease the burden of the middle class struggling with high prices and stagnant wage growth is widely expected in Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s record-setting eighth consecutive Budget. Expectations of relief on income tax, particularly for lower middle class, is high after Prime Minister Narendra Modi invoked goddess of wealth for elevating poor and middle class.

Govt’s third term witnessing work at thrice the speed of previous dispensations: President Murmu

The government’s third term is seeing work being done at thrice the speed of previous administrations with a determination to end “policy paralysis”, President Droupadi Murmu said on Friday, citing decisions on issues such as Waqf boards and One Nation, One Election. Addressing a joint session of Parliament, signalling the start of the Budget session, Ms. Murmu said the government has placed special focus on the education of the youth and is creating new employment opportunities for them.

Economic Survey pegs FY 2026 growth at 6.3% to 6.8%

India’s economy is expected to grow in the range of 6.3% and 6.8% in 2025-26, the Economic Survey for 2024-25, tabled in Parliament on Friday reckoned, arguing that the fundamentals of the domestic economy remain robust, with a strong external account, calibrated fiscal consolidation and stable private consumption. While there are upsides to domestic investment, output growth and disinflation in the coming year, these are peppered with equally strong, prominently extraneous, downsides, the Survey’s authors stated, referring to significant global political and economic uncertainties as a key risk.

Fiscal discipline improved ‘progressively’; States having better tax positions: Chief Economic Advisor

Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran observed that the Union Government’s indicators for determining fiscal discipline have improved “progressively”. Additionally, the CEA also noted that the overall tax revenue position of State governments appeared better as of November last year. This was on account of increased tax devolution by the central government. On the aspect of improving fiscal discipline, the CEA elaborated that the quality of expenditure of the union has continuously improved since financial year 2021.

AB-PMJAY reduced out-of-pocket-expenditure from 62.6% to 39.4%: Economic Survey

The Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), India’s health assurance scheme, providing financial protection for secondary and tertiary healthcare, has contributed to significant reductions in out-of-pocket expenditure through an increase in social security and primary health expenditure, with over ₹1.25 lakh crore in savings recorded, said the Economic Survey 2024-25. Stating that the AB-PMJAY initiative aligns with India’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), ensuring no one is left behind, the Survey notes that as of January 1 2025, over 36.36 crore Ayushman cards have been issued.

Sachin Tendulkar to get BCCI Lifetime Achievement Award

Legendary former batter Sachin Tendulkar, whose records and impact on international cricket have stood the test of time, will be conferred with the BCCI’s Lifetime Achievement Award at the Board’s annual gala in Mumbai on Saturday. Overall, Tendulkar will be the 31st recipient of the award, which was instituted in 1994 in the honour of India’s first captain Col. C K Nayudu.

Kumbh surge: Ganga Aarti in Varanasi stopped till February 5

Authorities have stopped the Ganga Aarti performed at the ghats of Varanasi for the general public till February 5, considering a surge in crowd. Police Commissioner Mohit Agarwal has appealed to the people of Kashi not to leave their houses unnecessarily and to cooperate with the devotees.

Core sectors’ output hit a seven-month high in December

Output in India’s eight core infrastructure sectors hit a seven-month high in December, even as year-on-year growth moderated a tad from an upgraded 4.4% in November to 4%. Seven of the eight sectors that account for about 40% of India’s industrial production, recorded an improvement over December 2023 levels, with crude oil breaking a seven-month contraction streak with a minor 0.6% uptick. Natural gas production, however, fell for the sixth straight month, with a 1.8% dip.

India, U.S. working on PM Modi's visit: MEA

India and the U.S. are working on an early visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the U.S., the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday. “The two sides are working on an early visit of PM Modi to the U.S. to further deepen India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership,” External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

Days after stampede, MEA to take massive delegation of diplomats to Maha Kumbh

The Ministry of External Affairs will take a large group of diplomats to Prayagraj on Saturday (February 1, 2025), for a specially arranged visit hosted by the government just days after the stampede at the Maha Kumbh. According to officials, 118 senior diplomats, and their spouses, representing 77 countries have confirmed their participation in the one-day programme.

Congress leader’s comments are in poor taste and avoidable: Rashtrapati Bhavan

Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s reaction to President Droupadi Murmu’s address to the joint sitting of Parliament triggered a political row, with the Rashtrapati Bhavan terming Ms. Gandhi’s comments to be in “poor taste, unfortunate and entirely avoidable”.

Opposition’s dissent notes removed from Waqf report

Significant portions of the dissent notes filed by the Opposition parties were redacted from the 944-page-long final report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, published by the panel, leading to outrage from the members.

India, U.S. working on PM Modi’s visit: MEA

India and the U.S. are working on an early visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the U.S., the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Friday (January 31, 2025). Modi and US President Donald Trump held a telephonic conversation on January 27. This was their first phone conversation since the American leader’s inauguration last week.

Rwanda-backed M23 advances in DRC as volunteers rally to fight back

The Rwandan-backed armed group M23 moved south as it closed in on a key military airport in DR Congo, with queues of young men volunteering to defend a provincial capital on Friday. The group captured most of Goma, the capital of North Kivu province, earlier this week and has vowed to march all the way to the capital Kinshasa.

Myanmar junta extends state of emergency by six months

Myanmar’s junta extended a state of emergency by six months on Friday (January 31, 2025), four years after it seized power triggering a civil war that has claimed thousands of lives. The country is mired in a bloody, multi-sided conflict stemming from the February 1, 2021 putsch that ended a 10-year experiment with democracy.

Norway police arrest ship on suspicion of Baltic Sea cable damage

Norwegian police said on Friday that they had arrested a Norwegian ship with an all-Russian crew on suspicion of involvement in causing damage to a fibre optic cable in the Baltic Sea. “The arrest took place at the request of Latvian authorities,” the police in the northern Norwegian city of Tromsoe said. “It is suspected that the ship has been involved in serious damage to a fibre cable in the Baltic Sea between Latvia and Sweden,” the police said in a statement.

Investigators recover plane black boxes from Washington air collision

Investigators recovered the black boxes from a passenger plane whose mid-air collision with a military helicopter over Washington’s Potomac River killed 67 people, as rescuers pulled victims’ bodies from the freezing water. U.S. President Donald Trump launched a political attack blaming diversity and inclusion policies championed by his Democratic predecessors for causing the incident.