Latest news with #TheCensus
Scottish Sun
4 days ago
- Business
- Scottish Sun
Bargain hunters rushing to Sports Direct to buy holiday essential that's half-price and perfect for summer
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) BARGAIN hunters are rushing to their nearest Sports Direct to grab a holiday essential, scanning for just half-price and perfect for summer. Holiday-goers are raving about a top-of-the-shelf suitcase which has had its price slashed in half. Sign up for Scottish Sun newsletter Sign up 2 T Luggage Soft Shell Luggage 'The Census' selling for £44.99 - £40 off the original price Credit: Sports Direct 2 The essential item can be bought via Sports Direct's website Credit: Getty The IT Luggage Soft Shell case is now just £44.99 at Sports Direct — a whopping £40 off the original price. Dubbed "The Census", this suitcase boasts a ribbed design on the front panel made of EVA. It's made from a rubber-like material that's soft, flexible, and said to offer "great protection for your things". Customers can choose from three sizes: Large: 81 x 49 x 29cm, 102L, 3.26kg Medium: 71 x 44 x 26cm, 70L, 2.92kg Cabin: 55 x 35.5 x 21.5cm, 35L, 2.46kg The bargain was shared on the popular LatestDeals website, where eager shoppers left several comments hoping to snap up the discounted item. One user wrote: "What a fantastic offer all this luggage for such a great price or offer my holidays in the summer. "I will definitely be getting some of these." "My last suitcase broke, so this is good timing," commented another. This shopper added: "I believe it is a really good deal indeed. Thank you very much for your sharing." CUTE TEE 'Definitely worth checking out', says fashion fan after bagging 'total bargain' in Dunnes Stores for €1 in 'great sale' "Great price I am looking at replacing some of my cases but was going to wait till the end of the summer to see if I can get a bargain," a third said. LatestDeals warns that the IT Luggage Soft Shell bargain may no longer be available in stores — but it's still on sale for £44.99 on the Sports Direct website. It comes after Asda shoppers raced to the aisles to nab a huge six-person tent that's been marked down by a whopping £85. A shopper shared the bargain on Extreme Couponing and Bargains and astonished Facebook users are rushing to snap up the camping gear. She wrote: "ASDA BARGAIN! If you're like me and you're after a bargain for camping, £115 down to £29.75! "Can't wait to use it! Storm just wanted to model it for you all." The adorable post featured her black cat perched on top of the holdall that contains the huge six-person tent. It's manufactured by Asda's Ozark Trail brand, which has several other-sized tents up for grabs on the retailer's website. It comes with a storage bag, guy ropes and pegs, making the cut-price tent an absolute steal. One person penned: "Need to find an Asda with tents in stock", while an unfortunate customer lamented: "We paid full price!" Another comment helpfully divulged: "Chesterfield store had about 2/3 this afternoon." This follows Tesco fans racing to get their hands on a holiday essential, scanning for just half the price. And here are six tips for keeping down costs on a last-minute holiday.
The Wire
05-05-2025
- Business
- The Wire
The Delay in Conducting The Census Is No Less Than A Pandemic Event
In 2021, various experts argued that the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) forex reserve is in excess and batted for the government's salivating tongue to take a swipe of a few billions of dollars from it. Better sense prevailed somewhere, the tongue rescinded, and the forex reserve chest was left untouched. It is the size of this forex reserve that gives confidence to the RBI to navigate the rupee amidst the extreme volatility in the post-Trumpian world and to dip into it to bankroll its folly that is the now terminated gold bond scheme. Sadly, when it comes to the Census of India, India missed this prescient wisdom and now stands exposed to policy risks for delaying the conducting of the Census, that was due in 2021 by a good five years and counting. The Census of India, started in 1881, continued every decade thereafter unabated till 2011. Not even wars, drought, balance of trade crisis, bubble bust could stop this politically bi-partisan exercise. For a few reasons, it is important to take note of the delay of this seemingly pedantic exercise of data collection that largely churns scholastic commentary. Foremost, the brilliance of India's Census is its exhaustive nature. It measures every unit of human mass. It leaves nothing to sampling and conjectures. A policy crisis stares in our faces Furthermore, the tenure of census to be once in every decade is based on the premise that ten years is a reasonable period to measure incremental changes in the demographic, external factors like technology & environment on the society and in the progress of state's policies. Such a decadal output provides data backed insights that serve as a foundation for designing of policies, prioritising of scarce resources among many claimants and shunning individual whims and partisan interests. Therefore, the thought of the delay in the conduct of the Census was beyond the realm of imagination. But come 2021, its schedule was put in suspended animation due to Covid related disruptions. This pandemic-induced delay by a few months or thereabouts is understandable but of five years is unprecedented. A policy crisis stares in our faces due to this delay and that needs to be understood for a few reasons. Firstly, in many ways the Census decade between 2011 and 2021 was most disruptive among all the Census decades of the past. Therefore, this delay is also the most unfortunate in the history of The Census. Between 1881 and 1911 (30 years), the share of India's urban population hoovered around 11%. Between 1911 and 1981 (70 years), the share of this urban population increased by mere seven percent to 18%. Differently put, the pace of change in these Census decades of the past was marginal because of the unplugged and analogous nature of those times and of our economy. Therefore, for argument's sake if governments of those times decided to not conduct the census say in 1911 or in 1921, the research gaps may have been filled up with intelligent guesstimates without much missing the mark. But, the urbanisation of India jumped to 25% in the Census of 1991 (a rise of seven percent in a mere ten years) and to 31% in 2011 (a rise of another six percent in twenty years). What would have happened if the Census of 1991 was given a miss on some pretext? How precise would be our policies about reforms in urban local bodies, urban housing and water management, waste management or energy consumption in cities, in 2001 be, if the state extrapolated the data on urbanisation from the Census of 1981? Secondly, we should compare the decade of 2011-21 for the enormity of change that India experienced during this time and all the Census decades of the past. It is in this decade that digital took over the broadcast media as the medium of choice. A decade of significant changes It is in this decade that UPI not only debuted, but it also became the mainstay of banking. It is in this decade cash as a medium of economic transaction not only receded to a naught one fine day but rebounded to regain its former glory as if the shock of demonetisation never happened. It is in this decade online commerce opened its shop and cornered fifteen percent of the retail market. It is in this decade; toilets were promised to be delivered at the doorsteps of rural India, and one hundred smart cities were promised in urban India. It is in this decade, India's demographic dividend turned to gig to deliver pizzas & biryanis and airport drops at the doorstep of the famed middle class. It is in this decade reels, shorts and online gaming became the antidote for under employment. It is in this decade crypto entered the lexicon of the common man and a greater number of people turned to share market than they did in all decades put together ever before. It is in this decade, remittances that India received from Indians working aboard was more than they sent in the twenty years before it and more than all they sent in all the years before those two decades. It is in this decade India's carbon dioxide emission was more than that the combined emission of the last three decades put together. It is in this decade methane emission of India more than doubled from the level it was in 1991. It is in this decade the health system of the country that defunded public health infrastructure and incentivised private healthcare through the route of medical insurance, stood exposed during the Covid crisis. It is impossible to call out any other decade since the start of Census, in which India experienced such a testosterone fed pace of change. Now, imagine the picture of such a country that needs to be constructed at the end of 2021 for the purpose of distribution of resources, design and delivery of welfare, economic profile and deficits that need to be bridged on education, healthcare, housing, sewage and safe and clean environment, based on the Census that was conducted in 2011? For instance, the Census of 2011 states urbanisation of India to be nearly thirty two percent of which nearly one hundred million people live in slums. If the policy decisions that concerns urbanisation challenges of India in 2025 extrapolate this data, it is bound to be off the mark because proxies point to a fifty percent of India that is now urbanised, if not more. Census that sits within the government records constructs an outdated picture of India The Census that sits within the government records constructs a picture of India that is sans Xiomi, Paytm, Zomato, Reels, Influencers, Ola, Zepto, Shark Tank, Dream11, Live-ins, Jamtara, Medical Insurance, Long Covid et. al. The Census provides precise inputs to bureaucracy to estimate the cost-benefit trade-offs of state's actions. If policies and laws drafted by the state rests on data that trace its roots to fifteen years ago, why should the under-delivery of state's governance not be critiqued for the delay in the conduct of the Census of 2021 ? Why should it be wrong to hypothesised that for the lack of recent data on the Census, the RBI's GDP projections have consistently missed the mark in the last many quarters. Policies like the Smart Cities Mission and the Clean India Missions have silently receded from the public memory without any objective analysis about their hits and misses for the lack of recent data slums, sewage access. Currently, the only recourse to fill data gaps in policy and governance due to the delayed Census is to rely on customised research conducted by both state and non-state actors (private sector, autonomous bodies etc.). But they rely on sampling techniques and build outsised conclusions from it. It is not to say that their approach is necessarily ill-intentioned, but inherent limitation of such methodologies makes them pre-disposed to misplaced interpretations and therefore they can't be substitutes for a robust methodology of the Census. It is in the moment of crisis; we get humbled about steps we missed taking to avoid the crisis or to blunt the effect of the crisis. We missed shelters only when floods or cyclone strike us. We miss fire brigades when fire engulf our buildings. In the post-Trumpian world when India confronts a turbulent world of self-preservation, the delay in not conducting the Census is not only a crisis of our own making but it may also come back to bite us. This delay is no less than a pandemic for the planners and executioners of policy and for everyone else in between. When the new Census happens in 2026 and if it happens, we will have to pick up pieces from the ruins of this pandemic of data and start afresh. Ankur Bisen is a Senior Partner at Technopak Advisors, and the author of 'Wasted: The Messy Story of Sanitation in India, A Manifesto for Change' (Macmillan; 2019). The author is on X: @AnkurBisen1
