'Bargaining tactics...': Shashi Tharoor sheds light on Trump's tariff critique of India
07:04
12:12
04:17
08:01
08:24
09:18
01:39
01:14:54
28:24
34:32
05:44
07:21
06:03
35:30
01:44
01:15
10:35
04:34
03:15
55:27
03:02
01:56
05:01
03:26
03:01
04:27
03:54
03:07
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
17 minutes ago
- Indian Express
‘Manjunath changing surname to Fernandes': MLAs object to ‘outsiders' taking Goan names, CM vows crackdown
Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said the state government will take steps to further amend the Goa Change of Name and Surname Act, 1990, and make it more stringent, if required, 'to prevent any misuse'. This came after Opposition legislators flagged complaints that people, especially those from outside the state, were fraudulently changing their surnames to traditional Goan ones to avail government schemes. Opposition MLAs Viresh Borkar of the Revolutionary Goans Party, Altone D'Costa of the Congress, and Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai moved a calling attention motion, raising concerns about people changing their surnames to Goan surnames. Drawing attention to newspaper advertisements declaring such name changes, the Opposition legislators said the 'outsiders' were exploiting legal loopholes and adopting Goan names and surnames, calling the 'trend' an 'erasure of the distinct Goan identity' and a threat to the state's demography. The Goa Change of Name and Surname Act, 1990, lays down the rules for carrying out changes in names. In 2019, the Goa Assembly passed an amendment to make it a cognisable offence, punishable with imprisonment, to carry out fraudulent name changes without following the laid-down procedures. The amendment was brought after MLAs across party lines and several communities raised concerns over changes in names and surnames advertised in newspapers by 'outsiders', alleging they had adopted Goan names and surnames to avail benefits under government schemes, to apply for a Portuguese passport, or to inherit land. The Assembly brought in more stringent provisions and passed another amendment Bill in 2022, which mandated that a person desiring to change his or her name 'should be born in Goa and his or her birth should be registered in the state of Goa' and 'that either his parents or grandparents should be born in Goa'. The amendment also vested the power to approve name change applications with a 'Civil Judge Junior Division' or a 'District Judge'. Earlier, this power was vested in the Registrar or the Chief Registrar of the state. Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai said, 'This is a serious concern. Identity is a carrier of our history, community and legacy.' Congress's Yuri Alemao, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, said, 'Manjunath is applying to change to Francisco Fernandes. This is perceived as an invasion from one state to another, from one community to another.' While acknowledging that a change of one's name or surname is the right of a citizen, Alemao asked what 'specific' steps the government was considering to address the issue. Responding to the calling attention motion, Sawant told the House that the government enacted the Goa Change of Name and Surname Act, 1990, to lay down the procedure for name change of any person born in the state of Goa, and that it was subsequently amended to address complaints over loopholes. The Chief Minister said the government has been taking all necessary steps to ensure there are no cases of the change in name or surname, or both, by any ineligible persons to traditional Goan surnames. 'Similarly, penal provision under section 3A was introduced in the Act to make the Act more stringent and further the offence under the Act was made cognizable, where anyone changes his name or surname or both or publishes any notice/advertisement for such change without following the procedure as laid down in section 3, punishable with imprisonment… Further, certain conditions were subsequently laid down under the Change of Name and Surname (Amendment) Act, 2022, whereby a person should be born in Goa and his birth should be registered in the state of Goa, and further either of his parents or grandparents should be born in the state of Goa. Only such a person can apply for a change of name,' he said.
Economic Times
17 minutes ago
- Economic Times
The jobs data revisions that cost a US government statistician her job
Synopsis Significant downward revisions to U.S. payroll gains for May and June led to the firing of the Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner. The combined revision of 258,000 jobs is the largest since 1979, excluding the pandemic period. June's initial estimate was reduced by 133,000, and May's by 125,000, marking substantial deviations from historical trends. AP FILE- A sign announces hiring, July 15, 2025, in Richardson, Texas. (AP Photo/LM Otero, File) The revisions to previous estimates of the size of U.S. payrolls gains for May and June that prompted President Donald Trump to fire Bureau of Labor Statistics Commissioner Erika McEntarfer on Friday were by any measure extraordinarily large. Indeed, the combined downward revision for the two months of 258,000 was the largest - outside of those during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic - since at least 1979. Here's a quick graphical breakdown:The monthly nonfarm payrolls report, released typically on the first Friday of each month, includes an initial estimate of employment changes for the immediately preceding month and revisions to the earlier estimates for the prior two months. BLS makes the revisions because more survey responses come in over the ensuing weeks and because it updates the seasonal factors affecting each month's estimates. The BLS on Friday said 133,000 fewer jobs had been created in June than first estimated. Over the last several years, the first estimate of the net change in payrolls each month has been revised lower more often than not. It has been revised down in eight of the last 12 BLS reports over the last year. The downward revision on Friday was the largest since the first estimate of payrolls gains for March 2021, published in April 2021, was revised down by 146,000 a month later. Over the last three years through June, the median estimate revision was -10,000. That contrasts with a median increase of 8,000 during the decade before the pandemic and a median increase of 2,000 over the series history since 1979. The total for May's payroll gains was revised lower by 125,000 in Friday's report, when the third estimate for payrolls for that month was published. That figure was the largest downward reduction of payrolls gains for a second revision - outside of the pandemic era - since the estimate for March 1983 was revised down by 127,000 in the report published in June combined downward revision for the two previous months - May and June - was larger than anything reported outside of the pandemic era. Indeed, the estimates for the two prior months combined have more often than not been revised higher. Since 1979, the median two-month combined estimate change was an upward revision of 10,000. Measured in absolute terms - revisions in either direction - Friday's revision also stands out. There have only been four larger revisions: +709,000 for November and December 2021; -642,000 for March and April 2020; +285,000 for August and September 1983; and +414,000 for April and May 1981.
Economic Times
17 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Trump says he's cut drug prices by up to 1,500%. That's not possible
Synopsis Donald Trump claimed significant drug price cuts, even up to 1500%. Experts refute this, stating such cuts are impossible. They suggest it would mean people are paid to take medicine. The White House defended Trump, citing price differences with other nations. Trump also mentioned future price drops. Some drugmakers are open to cuts. AP Days after he sent letters instructing top pharmaceutical manufacturers to use a "most favored nation" pricing model for prescription drugs, President Donald Trump told reporters on Sunday that he had cut costs by up to 1,500%. But Trump's grandiose claim is mathematically impossible. Here's a closer look at the facts. TRUMP: "You know, we've cut drug prices by 1,200, 1,300, 1,400, 1,500%. I don't mean 50%, I mean 14 - 1,500%." THE FACTS: This is false. Cutting drug prices by more than 100% would theoretically mean that people are being paid to take medications. The Trump administration has taken steps to lower prescription drug prices, but experts say there's no indication costs have seen such a massive drop. Geoffrey Joyce, director of health policy at the University of Southern California's Schaeffer Center, called Trump's claim "total fiction" made up by the Republican president. He agreed that it would amount to drug companies paying customers, rather than the other way around. "I find it really difficult to translate those numbers into some actual estimates that patients would see at the pharmacy counter," said Mariana Socal, an associate professor of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University who studies the U.S. pharmaceutical market. She added that Trump's math is "really hard to follow." Asked what Trump was using to back up his claim, White House spokesman Kush Desai said: "It's an objective fact that Americans are paying exponentially more for the same exact drugs as people in other developed countries pay, and it's an objective fact that no other Administration has done more to rectify this unfair burden for the American people." The White House provided a chart of price differentials for drugs in the U.S. and comparable countries, but did not offer any other evidence. On Sunday, Trump also described cuts to drug prices as a future development, not that already happened. "So we'll be dropping drug prices," he said. "It will start over the next two to three months by 1,200, 1,300 and even 1,400%." Prices for most prescription drugs - unbranded generics are the exception - are higher in the U.S. than they are in other high-income countries. This is in large part due to the way drug prices are negotiated in the United States. Trump made his recent appeal in letters to 17 pharmaceutical manufacturers, the White House announced last week. He asked them to reduce costs in the U.S. by matching the lowest prices of prescriptions drugs in other comparably developed countries. Some drugmakers have since indicated that they are open to cutting costs. This move follows an executive order Trump signed in May setting a 30-day deadline for drugmakers to electively lower prices in the U.S. or face new limits in the future over what the government will pay. The federal government has the most power to shape the price it pays for drugs covered by Medicare and Medicaid. It's unclear what - if any - impact the Trump administration's efforts will have on millions of Americans who have private health insurance. Socal pointed out that if drug manufacturers had cut costs to the extent Trump claims, they would be shouting it from the rooftops, especially given the heat they've taken over the years for their pricing practices. "My expectation would be that they would make announcements - public announcements - and that those announcements would come way in advance of the actual effective dates when those price cuts would come into effect," she said. Joyce agreed that there has been no indication of a substantial cut. "Not at all, not at all, none whatsoever," he said. "And let alone 1,500."
