https://www.businesstoday.in/personal-finance/tax/story/indias-direct-tax-collection-for-fy2025-fiscal-hits-target-with-17-growth-473701-2025-04-25  Direct tax collection for FY2025 fiscal hits target with 17% growth
India's provisional net direct tax collections for 2024-25 reached Rs 11,82,875 crore, marking a 17% growth over the previous year, and achieving 100.78% of the budget target. 

'A 40% IPL tax could build 10 IITs': Bengaluru professor questions India’s vision priorities https://www.businesstoday.in/latest/economy/story/a-40-ipl-tax-could-build-10-iits-bengaluru-professor-questions-indias-vision-priorities-473764-2025-04-27 In IPL 2023 alone, BCCI reported a ₹5,120 crore surplus, with revenues touching ₹11,770 crore, mainly powered by media rights. With projected revenues for 2024 and 2025 reaching ₹12,000–₹13,500 crore annually, the scale is only growing.   Professor Mayank Shrivastava from IISc Bengaluru points out that if a simple 40% tax were applied just on BCCI’s IPL profits, nearly ₹15,000 crores could have been raised over three years—enough to fund 10 new IITs or create a national deep-tech innovation corpus. "Add franchise profits (₹800–₹1,200 crore/year), and another ₹320–₹480 crores could be collected annually. In total, nearly ₹6,000 crores per year could be redirected into research, just from the IPL ecosystem," he writes.

And I must speak, not softly but starkly:
I am no confessor for a stranger’s sins.
No tribunal sits above my brow.
I owe no one the hippodrome of guilt.
The sun rises without my bidding,
and so too do the madmen fall—without my nod.

I am Indian. Not as an addendum.

https://www.farahdeen.com/2025/04/i-am-not-your-apology.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah5y5P9_dR4 

20th April 2025

Dharti Aaba Birsa Munda - a biographical documentary on Bhagwan Birsa Munda

Birsa Munda was an Indian tribal independence activist, and belonged to Munda tribe. He spearheaded a tribal religious millenarian movement that arose in the Bengal Presidency in the late 19th century, during the British Raj.

Sanjay Singhvi was a signatory to the registration of doccentre as Centre for Education & Documentation in 1978.  Barely out of the Xaverian Union Agitation, where he finally went on a fast unto death for 9 days, he spent hours on the typewriter and cyclostyling machine preparing handouts on the issues of the day.    It is too much to ask him to Rest. We therefore wish him "Amar Rahe"

Indira Jaisingh's tribute https://theleaflet.in/miscellaneous/an-ode-to-sanjay-singhvi-for-whom-life-was-an-unwavering-commitment-to-labour-justice   Sanjay, too, belonged to a disappearing class of labour lawyers who did not represent management for ideological reasons. Today it is fashionable to say: “I will take any case that comes my way.”  It is the cab rank rule but some of us make choices and he made his choices regarding which side of the line he wanted to be on. A friend, who is also a lawyer for management, told me, “He made life hell for employers, but that is what is needed. These people will never change when it comes to the rights of workers.“

The Price of Dissent (NewsLaundry Originals): A documentary on the criminalisation of anti-CAA protestors under FIR 59.
Watch here: https://youtu.be/S6JsoxsY2Eg?si=stacMoXl0l2kH1qa 

Behind Spike in Hate Content on YouTube (ICFJ + NewsLaundry): Investigating how hate is manufactured and disguised as public opinion.
Watch here: https://youtu.be/lMh9NGiL0sA?si=oSwNtbT7-zl3HymI 

Saurabh Kumar is a documentary filmmaker, multimedia journalist and film educator with a background in grassroots media and narrative strategy. He has worked across research-driven films, public interest reporting, and media training. He is the founder of Opia Films, a production house dedicated to socially engaged storytelling, and co-founder of Public Bolti, a citizen journalism platform launched during the pandemic.

The U.S. dollar is losing its status as a safe haven | Fall in Bond Prices https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8904I_WpKs | By Ankit Agrawal  For decades, the U.S. dollar has been considered the world's most reliable safe-haven asset—but that status may now be under threat. In this eye-opening analysis, Ankit Agrawal explains the shifting dynamics in the global economy, the fall in U.S. bond prices, and what it means for investors, countries, and emerging markets like India.

 ट्रंप का यूनिवर्सिटी पर हमला | The Great HARVARD Debate & what's in it for INDIAN UNIVERSITIES https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVOdFw1sJRc   Apr 16, 2025
हार्वर्ड ख़त्म हुआ तो इसका असर भारत पर भी पड़ेगा। ट्रंप अमरीका की यूनिवर्सिटी को क्यों कंट्रोल करना चाहते हैं? वहां की यूनिवर्सिटी अमरीका का ब्रांड हैं। भारत सहित दुनिया भर के छात्र पढ़ने का सपना देखते हैं। अमरीका में एक युद्ध छिड़ गया है। एक यूनिवर्सिटी ने कह दिया है कि वो अपनी सरकार के आदेशों के सामने नहीं झुकेगी। अमरीका की हार्वर्ड यूनिवर्सिटी में जो हो रहा है उस पर हर जगह चर्चा होनी चाहिए और ख़ास तौर पर भारत में। दस सालों में भारत के बेहतरीन विश्वविद्यालयों पर लगातार हमला किया गया, झुका दिया गया। इंस्टीट्यूट ऑफ़ एमिनेन्स के दावे ध्वस्त हो चुके हैं। हार्वर्ड, कोलंबिया और येल जैसे विश्व विद्यालयों पर सरकार का पहरा बढ़ेगा तो वहां पढ़ाने और पढ़ने का माहौल भी ख़त्म होता जाएगा। आप इस वीडियो को पूरा देखिए। 

 China’s DeepTech Vs India’s CowTech | Did BJP Unlock Any Ancient Secrets? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCB4gpW8heA | Akash Banerjee & Rishi
 Apr 16, 2025 The prestigious Delhi University saw some serious research this week - involving cow dung being used to cool down classrooms ... but while Minister Piyush Goel scolds Indian startups for failing to keep up with Chinese deep tech companies - what has the Govt done in its core focus area of Cow-Tech over the last 10 years .... after a decade of money / incentives and focus - what does the Govt have to show????  

As much as 80 per cent of the overall intelligence gathered by various agencies comes from open sources. It's no longer dependent on signals, field agents, and informants.

https://theprint.in/opinion/indian-universities-must-teach-osint-to-students-its-the-new-intelligence-currency/2589578/ 

When publicly available information is collected and analysed to produce actionable intelligence, it is known as Open-Source Intelligence (OSINT). The sources for collecting such information are wide-ranging, including, but not limited to, media outlets, social media, commercial satellite imagery, academic and grey literature, commercial aviation and shipping data, as well as the deep and dark web.

With more individuals and organisations actively engaging in digital platforms, the intelligence community found itself with a new and vast resource of publicly available information, allowing analysts to monitor digital resources for gaining insights into strategic and tactical events. In recent years, commercial satellite companies like Planet Labs and Maxar Technologies have launched fleets of high-resolution imaging satellites, making geospatial data publicly available. 

Many countries, including the US, the UK, Israel and France, have taken significant steps to institutionalise OSINT within their intelligence and national security frameworks.

Despite its growing importance, the OSINT ecosystem in India remains fragile. No public or private university in India offering courses in Political Science, International Relations (IR), Defence, or Security Studies has included Intelligence Studies in their curricula. 

As a result, most Indian students graduate without even a basic understanding of the intelligence framework. Meanwhile, intelligence agencies in the country primarily recruit candidates either through dedicated examinations such as the Intelligence Bureau – Assistant Central Intelligence Officer (IB-ACIO) or by deputing officers from police and defence services, who were originally selected through broader civil or defence examinations

Indian intelligence agencies should establish dedicated OSINT units and allow the lateral entry of experts in the domain. The growing community of self-taught youth on social media platforms should be recognised and harnessed through fellowships and training

by Mohit Vashisth and Nikita Vats

15/04/2025

Back in 2020, a bright IIT graduate had an idea. No, it wasn’t another biryani delivery app or an “Uber but for cows” pitch. He simply developed an app that could auto-fill your ticket details faster than the IRCTC app. Anyone who has tried booking a tatkal ticket during peak season, knows what a herculean task this is. But instead of acknowledging the efforts of this guy, the Indian Railways sued him. Yes, IRCTC filed a case and he got arrested. Interestingly, Piyush Goyal was in charge of the railway ministry during that time. He could have begun his start-up mission right there, but instead lost the opportunity. https://thewire.in/business/india-start-up-innovation-piyush-goyal-hate 

Now in the Startup Mahakumbh Piyush Goyal is forced to scold Indian entrepreneurs for making “only food delivery apps” and converting jobless youth into “cheap labour.”

China was also known for its cheap labour three decades ago, but its determination to change the lives of its people paid off. World Bank data tells us that in 1980, India’s per capita income was $266 while that of China was only $194. But by 2000, things took a turn, and India was at $1357 and China at $4450. In 2022, India’s per capita income was $2388 while China had raced much ahead at $12,720.

Piyush Goyal says our startups should work in deep tech, semiconductors, and AI.

A semiconductor startup-founder explained the problem with this grand plan on Reddit. Writing an open letter to Goyal, he said his startup was eligible for some tax benefits. But Goyal’s department kept his application pending for two years before finally rejected it, saying: “Additional documents required.” A few hours later, a facilitator called him and said, “If you take our help in preparing the documents, you’ll get guaranteed results.”

So there is a space for bribes in our system, but not for working by the rules.

An innovation climate doesn’t build itself – you have to create it. Abhijeet Kumar writes in Business Standard that in 2023, only 5% of Indian startup funding went into deep tech, whereas China invested 35% in deep tech. In 2024, China waived $361 billion in taxes and fees for high-tech firms. They also gave $80.7 billion in research and development deductions. In 2024, China’s total R&D spending was $496 billion. Meanwhile, in India’s 2025 budget, a fund of just $23.45 billion was made for private-sector-driven R&D. Indian startups are already suffering from a funding shortage – and on top of that, there are regulatory concerns. Whereas in China, the state itself backs startups – it even directly invests in many of them.

by Kavita Kabeer

16/04/2025