India-Kyrgyzstan Bilateral Investment Treaty comes into force
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Hindu
a few seconds ago
- The Hindu
Rajasthan seeks Central assistance for renewable energy projects
Rajasthan has sought Central assistance for its renewable energy projects, while drawing the Centre's attention to the need for their inclusion in the third phase of the Green Energy Corridor (GEC-III) to develop the intra-State transmission infrastructure. The State is expected to invest ₹9,000 crore in the transmission projects. Chief Minister Bhajan Lal Sharma, who met Union Minister of Power, Housing and Urban Affairs Manohar Lal Khattar, in New Delhi on Wednesday (August 20, 2025), said the State had received several proposals for investment in renewable energy. The Central assistance was required for accelerating the infrastructure development to meet the renewable energy targets, Mr. Sharma said. The Chief Minister discussed the issues related to energy and urban development in Rajasthan with Mr. Khattar. He also sought Central assistance for urban bodies of non-million plus cities in the State under the 15th Finance Commission. Mr. Sharma said the financial assistance would enable the urban local bodies to execute the development works speedily. Mr. Sharma drew the Union Minister's attention to the fifth phase of the Rajasthan Urban Infrastructure Development Project (RUIDP), being operated with the joint funding of Asian Development Bank and World Bank. He said the fifth phase project had been prepared and submitted to the Centre, on which a positive response was expected. 'The State government is committed to achieving the goals of urban development, including water supply, waste water management, solid waste management, urban traffic reforms, flood management, and heritage conservation,' Mr. Sharma said. An early approval of the project would help accelerate all-round development of cities in the State, he added.
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
31 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Best of BS Opinion: Rolling the dice on gaming bans, AI rules, and growth
In the Mahabharata, Chausar was not mere entertainment but a test of foresight, nerve, and destiny. Dice in hand, pieces moving, fortunes shifting, the game carried the weight of unpredictability and choice. Each roll of dice carried the possibility of triumph or ruin, every move shaping the course of kingdoms. What made the game enduring was its blend of chance and calculation, a reminder that even the strongest warriors could falter when strategy met uncertainty. Modern policymaking and economic choices carry the same weight. Laws, frameworks, and reforms resemble moves on a vast board where ambition, caution, and risk constantly collide. Let's dive in. The Union government's Online Gaming Bill, 2025 embodies this duality. It seeks to ban online money games, citing addiction, fraud, and financial losses, while simultaneously creating a regulatory framework to promote e-sports and casual play. The industry warns of job losses, underground markets, and declining investor confidence if prohibition prevails, notes our first editorial. With over Rs 25,000 crore in FDI and Rs 2 trillion in valuations at stake, the decision resembles a risky throw. Like a hasty roll of dice, Parliament must decide whether prohibition secures or destabilises the board. The Reserve Bank's FREE-AI report, too, is a masterclass in anticipating moves, highlights our second editorial. With its seven guiding 'sutras,' it seeks to balance the promise of AI with the perils of bias and opacity. By proposing common AI infrastructure, sandboxes, and indigenous models, the RBI wants India to play not as a follower but as a designer of the game. Execution, however, will decide whether AI becomes a trusted ally or a loaded dice. Meanwhile, Naushad Forbes urges India to respond to Donald Trump's tariff threats not with defensive swagger but transformative ambition, much like Japan transformed humiliation into industrial resurgence. To become a developed nation by 2047, India must reform education, agriculture, taxation, and manufacturing, aiming for sustained growth above 9 per cent. The choice is whether to play defensively or pursue the bold moves that can transform the board. Amit Kapoor cautions that India's cities risk losing vitality if migration slows. Migrants power both formal and informal economies, yet fear-driven governance has weakened their sense of belonging. With urban investment needs of $840 billion over 15 years, cities must remain open and trusting, or else the pieces on the board may stop moving altogether. And finally, as Ambi Parameswaran notes in his review of Sandeep Das's Why Your Strategy Sucks, strategy itself is the master move. Das distinguishes true strategy from mere plans, offering frameworks for both corporate goals and personal careers. Even if richer case studies might have added depth, its core lesson stands, that strategy is not about playing every piece but choosing the few moves that can redefine the entire game. Stay tuned!
&w=3840&q=100)
Business Standard
31 minutes ago
- Business Standard
Judge denies DOJ request to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts
A federal judge on Wednesday rejected the Trump administration's request to unseal grand jury transcripts from Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking case, joining two other judges who declined to release similar records from investigations into the late financier's sexual abuse of young women and girls. Judge Richard Berman, who presided over the 2019 case, ruled a week after another Manhattan federal judge turned down the government's request to release transcripts from the grand jury that indicted Epstein's longtime confidante Ghislaine Maxwell. Barring reversal on appeal, Berman's decision appears to foreclose the possibility of federal courts releasing Epstein-related grand jury testimony. A federal judge in Florida declined to release grand jury documents from an investigation there in 2005 and 2007, though some material from a state case against Epstein was made public last year. The rulings were a resounding repudiation of the Justice Department's effort to unlock the records, a move the Republican administration undertook amid a fierce backlash over its refusal to release a massive trove of documents in its possession. Berman and the judge in Maxwell's case, Paul A Engelmayer, made clear in their rulings that the grand jury transcripts contain none of the answers likely to satisfy the immense public interest in the case, with Berman calling the request a diversion. President Donald Trump had called for the release of transcripts amid rumours and criticism about his long-ago involvement with Epstein. During last year's presidential campaign, Trump promised to release files related to Epstein, but he was met with criticism including from many of his own supporters when the small number of records released by his Justice Department lacked new revelations. A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on Wednesday. Each of the judges who declined to release transcripts cited longstanding grand jury secrecy rules and concluded that the government did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could justify making them public. They also noted that the Justice Department has voluminous records related to Epstein that aren't covered by grand jury secrecy rules. Berman wrote that the scant information contained in around 70 pages of Epstein grand jury transcripts pales in comparison to the Epstein investigative information and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice," which he said totals around 100,000 pages. The Government is the logical party to make comprehensive disclosure to the public of the Epstein Files, Berman wrote in an apparent reference to the Justice Department's refusal to release additional records. He said the request to release grand jury records "appears to be a diversion' from the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the Government's possession. The grand jury testimony is merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged conduct. The Justice Department had informed Berman that the only witness to testify before the Epstein grand jury in 2019 was an FBI agent who, the judge noted, "had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case and whose testimony was mostly hearsay. The rest of the grand jury presentation consisted of a PowerPoint slideshow and a call log. Last year, a judge in Florida unsealed around 150 pages of transcripts of the grand jury proceedings that led to Epstein's indictment on state charges there in 2006. Maxwell, a British socialite and publishing heir, is serving a 20-year prison sentence after her 2021 conviction on sex trafficking charges for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. She was recently transferred from a prison in Florida to a prison camp in Texas. Epstein died in jail awaiting trial. Maxwell's case has been the subject of heightened public focus since an outcry over the Justice Department said last month that it would not release any additional documents from the Epstein sex trafficking investigation. The decision infuriated online sleuths, conspiracy theorists and elements of Trump's base who had hoped to see proof of a government cover-up. Since then, officials in Trump's Republican administration have tried to cast themselves as promoting transparency in the case, including by requesting the unsealing of grand jury transcripts. Meanwhile, Maxwell was interviewed at a Florida courthouse weeks ago by Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche. The House Oversight Committee also said it wanted to speak with Maxwell. Her lawyers said they would be open to an interview but only if the panel were to ensure immunity from prosecution. In a letter to Maxwell's lawyers, Rep James Comer, the committee chair, wrote that the committee was willing to delay the deposition until after the resolution of Maxwell's appeal to the Supreme Court. That appeal is expected to be resolved in late September. Comer wrote that while Maxwell's testimony was vital to the Republican-led investigation into Epstein, the committee would not provide immunity or any questions in advance of her testimony. (Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
