GST restructure plan: In new regime, online gaming likely to be placed in top bracket

With the Government proposing to overhaul the GST regime with a special rate of 40 per cent on "sin and demerit goods", the top slab is likely to see the inclusion of pan masala, tobacco, cigarettes, luxury cars, SUVs - and online gaming.

Supreme Court takes up plight of cadets disabled in military training

The Supreme Court will hear on Monday a suo motu writ petition titled "Cadets disabled in military training struggle" after taking cognizance of reports published in The Indian Express on the plight of officer cadets who were discharged from the nation's top military training institutes on medical grounds -and have since been battling severe disability with shattered dreams and poor benefits. 

ALASKA SHIFT

US President Donald Trump's decision to align with Russian President Vladimir Putin's approach to peace in Ukraine at the Alaska Summit has provoked sharp criticism in Europe and at home. Yet this reaction may be missing the essence of what Trump is trying to do. He has long been indifferent to the censure of the mainstream press and foreign policy establishment that labels him "soft on Putin." Trump has endured that line of attack for a decade, including attempts to remove him from the White House during his first term. Across three presidential campaigns - in 2016, 2020, and 2024-Trump has consistently reaffirmed his conviction that the United States needs better relations with Russia. In his latest campaign, he promised a quick end to the war in Ukraine. The Alaska Summit was the culmination of that commitment. By moving beyond the narrow objective of a ceasefire and pressing for a peace agreement, Trump has signalled recognition of battlefield realities, rather than deference to Putin. Speaking to a television channel after the summit, Trump bluntly stated that Ukraine has little chance of defeating Russia, a far larger power

The discomforts of modernity

MacIntyre does not convert his diagnostic into a political programme. For all his criticisms of liberalism, he had an anti-authoritarian streak, a serious suspicion of converting any ideology into something that could be deployed by the state. He broke with Marxism over this. He is now deployed as the guru of post-liberalism. But he gives no one comfort. The extent of our incoherence is such that all modern ideologies that claim to transcend modern pathologies end up exemplifying it. Marxism cannot transcend the managerial frame of modernity. Modern conservatism, he presciently observed, turns out to be even more hyper-individualist than liberalism. 

THE UPGRADE

Last Week, S&P Global Ratings raised India's long-term sovereign credit rating from BBB- to BBB. A BBB rating, which is at the lower end of the investment grade rung, indicates adequate capacity to repay obligations. S&P's rationale for the upgrade rests on the pillars of "buoyant" growth, the "commitment" to fiscal consolidation, improved "quality" of spending and anchored inflationary expectations. Coming at a time of acute economic uncertainty, the ratings action - this is the first upgrade by the agency in 18 years - reaffirms India's growth prospects, underlines its resilience and its "remarkable" recovery from the pandemic.

The next leap forward

As the tricolour was unfurled on India's 79th Independence Day, the country stood proudly as a confident, resilient, and rising nation. It is not just the world's largest democracy, but a country that has success-fully crafted its destiny since attaining independence in 1947. Notwithstanding the cur-rent headwinds of US President Donald Trump's tariff war, it has weathered many storms in the past. One may recall the sanctions by the US in 1998 after the Pokhran nuclear tests conducted by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government or the role of the US in sending its Seventh Fleet in 1971, when India's war with Pakistan led to the creation of Bangladesh. India emerged stronger on each occasion. Today, no one can stop India's rise - its time has come.

Nothing moved in Alaska

Any competent analyst or scholar of international relations knows that prior to a summit meeting, enormous amounts of preparation are necessary. An agenda is agreed upon, and the aides to the respective leaders burn the midnight oil to reach agreements in advance and iron out key differences. Only a few odds and ends are usually left to be tackled at the meeting itself. When the event convenes, the leaders confer to establish a new relationship or bolster an existing one and then turn to various public ceremonies as well as press conferences

Stress tests for nuclear taboo

The Bombing of Hiroshima with an atomic weapon on August 6, 1945, that killed almost 1,40,000 people and led to the end of World War II is a pivotal event in global history. It marked the dawn of the apocalyptic atomic age, wherein nuclear weapons demonstrated their enormous destructive capability - first in Hiroshima and three days later over Nagasaki. Progressively, a norm was internalised globally that Nagasaki would be the last time that a nuclear weapon would be used milita'y. And

so, the nuclear taboo was born. 

Corporate loan growth slows as India Inc delays investments, turns to cheaper debt

Corporate loan growth by domestic banks slowed down in the first quarter of FY26, as companies put off investment decisions. This was largely due to uncertainty around tariffs, weak demand that held back private capital spending, and a shift towards cheaper funding options in the corporate bond market. Additionally, many companies continued to reduce their debt levels, which further dampened loan demand.

India's first sustainable aviation fuel plant to start production by year-end

The Country's largest refiner and fuel retailer Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) expects to start producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) on commercial scale at its Panipat refinery by December, following the recent international certification received by the unit for manufacturing the biofuel from used cooking oil, according to energy major's chairman Arvinder Singh Sahney. By the end of this calendar year, IOC will have the capacity to produce 35,000 tonnes per year of SAF from used cooking oil, which will be sourced from large hotel chains, restaurants, and sweets and snacks majors like Haldiram's, which normally discard cooking oil after single use

Why US Fed decided to stop crypto-focused supervision of banks

In a fresh boost for cryptocurrency popularisation in America, the US Federal Reserve on Friday withdrew its Novel Activities Supervision Program which was unveiled in the aftermath of the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and its domino effect on three lenders - Silicon Valley Bank (SVB), Signature Bank and Silvergate Bank in 2023.

'GST reforms, US-Russia summit key drivers for markets next week'

Plans for big bang reforms in the GST regime by Diwali, the Putin-Trump summit and S&P upgrading India's sovereign credit rating are likely to instil optimism in the domestic equity market in the week ahead, analysts said.

SPINELESS FOE: HOW JELLYFISH DISRUPT NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

One of the largest nuclear power plants in France was forced to temporarily shut down on August 10 due to a slimy and spineless adversary: jellyfish.

The incident took place after a “massive and unpredictable" swarm of the marine creature clogged up the plant's cooling system.

This is not the first time that jellyfish have thwarted nuclear plants. Swarms of these invertibrates have caused such disruptions across the world since at least the 1990s.

However, the incidents of jellyfish disrupting power generation have been on the rise in recent years. For instance, in 2011, jellyfish paralysed plants in Israel, Japan, and Scotland. In 2013, an invasion of jellyfish halted a reactor in Sweden.

India's S&P rating upgrade

Last week was turning out to be a great one for the Indian economy even before Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a raft of reforms in his Independence Day speech. A day earlier, S&P Global Ratings had upgraded its rating for India to BBB from BBB-. The sovereign rating upgrade by S&P is significant for two key reasons. One, it came after a gap of nearly two decades; and two, it has meaningful implications for the Indian economy.

Govt plan for an animal blood bank network

The Centre is working on ways to facilitate and standardise blood banking and blood transfusion in veterinary care.

The Department of Animal Husbandry & Dairying under the Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying has invited comments from experts, institutions, and the public on the draft "Guidelines/ Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for Blood Transfusion & Blood Bank for Animals in India" that it prepared last month.