Latest news with #Flickr
Mint
2 days ago
- Sport
- Mint
Who is Divya Deshmukh? Meet India's 4th female grandmaster who clinched Women's Chess World Cup 2025
Divya Deshmukh became the fourth Indian woman to earn the Grandmaster title. Courtesy? The 19-year-old's Nagpur girl's victory at the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 in Batumi, Georgia. Divya's historical moment came against none other than fellow Indian chess legend Koneru Humpy. The FIDE star follows Humpy, R. Vaishali, and Harika Dronavalli in taking the prestigious Grandmaster title. Unlike most who tread the long road of GM norms and rating milestones, Divya's achievement of the Grandmaster title came from an atypical path. Usually, chess players earn the 'Grandmaster' title by achieving three GM norms and a FIDE rating of 2500 or more. There's however, an another way of securing the title—winning top-level competitions including the FIDE Women's World Cup — which Divya Deshmukh did on Monday. Divya Deshmukh was born on December 9, 2005 in Maharashtra's Nagpur. As per Divya's world ranking stands at 905. Previously, Deshmukh has bagged the 2022 women's chess champion, 2023 Asian women's champion, and 2024 Under‑20 World Champion titles, mentioned the Chess website. The FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 final match between Divya and Humpy was nothing short of a clash of generations—19-year-old Divya facing off against veteran Humpy, who is India's first woman Grandmaster and twice her age. In this image released by Flickr, India's chess players Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh during the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 final match tiebreaks, in Batumi, Georgia, Monday, July 28, 2025. (Flickr/Andrey Anosov via PTI Photo)(PTI07_28_2025_000265A) More significantly, it was an all-Indian final, while China's Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie competed for third place. Divya's latest feat makes her the 88th Grandmaster in India. The victory for the Nagpur player came after the two classical games played on Saturday and Sunday ended in draws. Having drawn the two classical games, it was the first set of tiebreakers that proved decisive as Humpy lost her nerves. Except the World Cup and the Women's World Championship, Humpy has won everything under the sun but, as fate or nerves would have it, the World Cup title eluded her. Divya showed steely resolve on Monday, and the bonus for the determination was the Grandmaster title, reserved for the champion of this event, reported ANI.
The Wire
6 days ago
- Business
- The Wire
Bottom 50% Consumers' Share in GST Same as That of Middle 30%, Says New Study
This study contradicts a 2023 Oxfam report that said the poorest 50% of Indians were paying two-thirds of the total GST collection while the richest 10% accounted for a mere 3-4%. 'A balanced GST structure is essential to bridging the gap between MSMEs and the larger companies they supply.' Photo: Ishan Khosla/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). New Delhi: The bottom 50% of Indian consumers pay the same amount of Goods and Services Tax (GST) as the middle 30%, a new study by a Delhi-based think tank has shown. The study, authored by Sacchidananda Mukherjee of National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP), used data from the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) for 2022-23 to analyse the impact of the indirect tax regime on consumption. It found that both the bottom 50% and the middle 30% of Indian consumers living in rural areas shared 31% of the GST burden. Similarly, in urban areas, the bottom half and the middle 30% groups faced 29% and 30% of the GST burden respectively. The top 20% in rural areas accounted for 37% of GST collection while those in urban areas accounted for 41%. According to the Indian Express, the findings of this study contradict a 2023 Oxfam report that said the poorest 50% of Indians were paying two-thirds of the total GST collection while the richest 10% accounted for a mere 3-4%. The latest study, however, suggests that GST is 'moderately progressive' as it has had a redistributive effect. A tax system is considered progressive when higher-income groups pay a higher rate of tax. The study has come amid talks of a major overhaul of the GST brackets. Among the proposals for this overhaul is the elimination of the 12% slab by dividing goods from this bracket between the 5% and the 18% slab, the Indian Express reported. The study divided 390 items across nine categories: exempt, exempt to 5 per cent, 5 per cent, 5-12 per cent, 12 per cent, 12-18 per cent, 18 per cent, 28 per cent, and more than 28 per cent. Items like alcohol and fuel were part of a separate 'Out of GST' category. According to Mukherjee's study, 45% of the monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) in both rural and urban areas was on items in the 'exempt' and 'exempt to 5%' GST buckets. Items in the 'Out of GST' category accounted for 9% of rural MPCE and 10% of urban. The study found that 47% of rural consumption was limited to items that were either exempt from GST or had a GST rate of up to 5%. The study warned that reducing the number of items exempt from GST may increase the tax burden for least-consuming people in rural areas. It also cautions against increasing the tax on items in the 5-12% slab as that would increase the tax burden on low-income households in both urban and rural areas. Mukherjee argued that while the consumption of items in the 12-28% bucket was complex, increasing the tax on these items 'may not be regressive if designed carefully'. Indirect taxes like GST are considered regressive as they increase the tax burden on the poor. The share of indirect taxes in the country's total tax collection has been rising since GST's implementation, while the share of direct taxes as well as corporate tax has fallen. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
AFP
22-07-2025
- Politics
- AFP
Posts criticising Australian migration policy misuse decade-old picture
"Half of all recent refugees in Australia are on welfare and 44% can't speak English," reads a headline emblazoned on an image of women in burqas published on Facebook by The Noticer -- an online news site that Australian-based ABC News says "promotes white supremacist ideologies" (archived link). The post has been shared over 2,500 times since its publication on July 4, 2025. Image Screenshot of the false post, taken on July 21, 2025 It links to an article highlighting statistics the government released in late June about various types of permanent migrants who moved to Australia between 2012 and 2021. Among those surveyed are those classified as "humanitarian migrants", more commonly known as refugees and asylum seekers (archived link). According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 44 percent of humanitarian migrants who were in the country for less than five years do not speak English very well, though the survey noted that proficiency "was higher for permanent migrants who had lived in Australia for longer". The image also spread on Facebook, X and Instagram by users criticising Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and his Labor government's migration policies. Some social media users appeared to think the women in burqas were in Australia. : "Their country has a rule that women's heads must be fully covered at all times, and usually their bodies too. Why aren't they told that that rule does not apply here and the law states that your face and head must be fully visible when entering any businesses?" Another user said: "Just look around the shops or your neighbourhood, these in Islamic and Indian garments walking and enjoying the streets whilst you are on the way to work. Yes, we are carrying them so wake up!" But the photo has been cropped and shared in a misleading context. A found a larger photo on the Flickr page for The Institute for Money, Technology & Financial Inclusion (IMTFI), which is part of University of California Irvine School of Social Sciences (archived here and here). Image Screenshot comparison between the false post (left) and the original image, with an orange box added by AFP denoting how it was cropped That picture reveals more clues that the women were not in Australia, as it shows the faces of the people around them and their attire, as well as a red shelter being held up with wooden poles. The Peace Research Institute Oslo published the same photo credited to researcher Jan Chipchase (archived link). He told AFP that he took it "a long time ago" in Afghanistan, and confirmed IMTFI's Flickr page information, which dated it as being shot on August 22, 2010. "That would be correct. I did a project for the IMTFI at that point," he said in an email on July 11. Since their return to power in Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban have imposed an ultra-strict vision of Islamic law, modelled on their previous rule from 1996 to 2001. Women are required to have their bodies and faces covered (archived link).
ABC News
21-07-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Four day work week good - if pay stays the same
Those who reduced their work week by eight or more hours felt less burnout, and had improved mental health and job satisfaction. ( Flickr: Kompania Piwowarska )
The Wire
21-07-2025
- Politics
- The Wire
'ED Not a Super Cop or a Loitering Munition to Attack at Will On Any Criminal Activity': Madras HC
The court added that there must be criminal activity coming within the schedule of the Act along with the presence of proceeds of crime based on which the ED will have jurisdiction to start a probe. The Madras high court. Photo: roadconnoisseur/Flickr CC BY-SA 2.0 New Delhi: The Madras high court has said that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) can take action only upon the existence of a predicate offence and the agency cannot conduct investigations on its own. A bench of Justices MS Ramesh and V Lakshminarayanan reiterated the fact that ED is not a super cop for investigating anything and everything that came to its notice. 'The ED is not a super cop to investigate anything and everything which comes to its notice. There should be a 'criminal activity' which attracts the schedule to PMLA, and on account of such criminal activity, there should have been 'proceeds of crime'. It is only then the jurisdiction of ED commences,' said the court, reported LiveLaw. The court added that there must be criminal activity coming within the schedule of the Act along with the presence of proceeds of crime based on which the ED will have jurisdiction to start a probe. 'The terminus a quo for the ED to commence its duties and exercise its powers is the existence of a predicate offence. Once there exists a predicate offence, and the ED starts investigation under the PMLA, and file a complaint, then it becomes a stand alone offence,' said the court. The court said that if the agency was allowed to conduct an investigation merely on coming to know about any activity, the ED would be conducting roving enquiry. 'The essential ingredient for the ED to seize jurisdiction is the presence of a predicate offence. It is like a limpet mine attached to a ship. If there is no ship, the limpet cannot work. The ship is the predicate offence and 'proceeds of crime'. The ED is not a loitering munition or drone to attack at will on any criminal activity,' said the court. The observations were made by the court while hearing a plea filed by RKM Powergen Private Limited, which has challenged the ED's action of freezing its fixed deposits. The court added that as per Section 66(2) of the PMLA, if the ED comes across a violation of law during the course of the investigation, it cannot assume the role of an investigating agency and investigate those offences also. In June this year, Justice Ramesh had remarked that while courts often term the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) of 2002 as an 'evolving legislation' which throws up new legal questions, but it is actually the 'officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) who are evolving day by day by expanding their powers.' Justice Ramesh's remarks came as he wondered which provision of the PMLA empowers the ED officials to seal a residential/business premises if it was found to be locked when the officials go over there for a search and seizure operation. Following the remarks, the ED had told the high court that it did not have the power to seal premises if the same was locked at the time of making a search as per Section 17 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments.
