THE union budget presented in parliament on February 1, 2021 announced a long-promised and much-awaited vehicle scrappage policy. Subsequently, the minister for road transport and highways (MoRTH) provided some additional details, although the final policy document was not made available in the public domain on or after February 15 as he promised. Nevertheless, sufficient information is now available to enable at least a preliminary assessment of this policy.

THE recent Quad declaration of the US, India, Japan and Australia has not foregrounded the military axis of their meeting but stressed more on the vaccine thrust against the Covid-19 pandemic. With the threat of a second or a third wave in various countries, vaccines are emerging as the centrepiece of not only global recovery but also of global diplomacy. That is why ASEAN – or South East Asia – with its 700 million people and its huge market, is at play in vaccine competition between the US, its Quad allies and China.

THE government announced new Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021 last week, superseding the 2011 Rules which mainly addressed intermediaries. The new rules provide for regulation of all kinds of online media, including intermediaries like Facebook or Google, over-the-top streaming services like Netflix or Amazon Prime, messaging services like Twitter or Whatsapp, and news and current affairs websites. While we may touch upon the other media, focus here will be online news media.

THE government has released a Science, Technology and Innovation Policy 2020 (STIP 2020) and invited responses by January 31, 2021. The Department of Science & Technology and the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government did conduct a series of consultations with some scientists and other experts to seek, albeit prior to the actual formulation and release of the policy document leading to considerable disgruntlement in this community.

THE world seems to have turned topsy-turvy when the undisputed voices of global capital start talking about the virtues of “cooperation” among nations and “universal vaccination” in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic. The International Monetary Fund, in its latest report, talks about “strong multilateral cooperation” and “universal distribution of vaccines...at affordable prices for all” for the global economy to recover.