SLOWDOWN CYCLICAL, KEY TO REVIVAL OF GROWTH IS HIGHER SPENDING: ECONOMICSURVEYA day ahead of Budget 2020-21, the Economic Survey tabled in ParliamentFriday advocated a counter-cyclical fiscal policy, which in other words,means giving spending a boost to spur demand and revive growth. ".to boostthe sluggish demand and consumer sentiments, counter cyclical fiscal policymay have to be adopted to create additional fiscal headroom," the Surveysaid. This, it said, can be achieved by rationalising food subsidy,estimated at Rs 1.8 lakh crore in 2019-20.The Survey expects the economy to rebound strongly and clock a growth rateof 6-6.5 per cent in 2020-21. This, it said, would be possible because of alow statistical base of 5 per cent growth rate in 2019-20. The economy hadcontinuously powered down over the last six quarters from 8.1 per cent inJanuary-March 2018 to 4.5 per cent in July-September 2019.While Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman estimated the fiscal deficit for2019-20 at 3.3 per cent of the GDP, the Survey gave enough indications thiswould be breached.Citing ancient texts of Thirukural and Arthashastra, the Survey authored byChief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian, underlined the importanceof wealth creation. Stressing that many of the interventions over the yearsin sectors such as pharmaceuticals and agriculture have beencounterproductive, the Survey called for strengthening the 'invisible handof markets' along with the 'hand of trust' to support markets. "India'saspiration to become a $5 trillion economy depends critically onstrengthening the invisible hand of markets together with the hand of trustthat can support markets," it said.According to Subramanian, looking at the business cycle phenomena in India,typically the peaks and troughs, and co-relating them with what hashappened, "it seems like we have hit the trough therefore there should beuptick in growth. That is what we are Budgeting."PRESIDENT CALLS CAA HISTORIC, DRAWS OPPOSITION PROTESTSHailing the new citizenship law as "historic" and a fulfilment of MahatmaGandhi's wish, President Ram Nath Kovind today deprecated violence in thename of protests, saying it weakened the society and nation, remarks thatcame amid protests against the contentious law.The President's glowing reference to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act in hisaddress to a joint sitting of Parliament drew protests from Oppositionmembers, many of whom wore black bands, with some shouting "shame shame",while BJP MPs thumped benches in support. The President said the governmentenacted the CAA in tune with the wishes of Mahatma Gandhi who had said thatHindus and Sikhs who did not wish to live in Pakistan could come to India.Delivering his 70-minute address in Hindi which marks the start of theParliament's Budget session, Kovind pointed out that mutual discussions anddebates strengthen democracy. "Any kind of violence in the name of protestsweakens the society and the nation," he said. Condemning the religiouspersecution of minorities in Pakistan, he urged upon the global community totake a note of it.He said doing away with Articles 370 and 35(A) had paved the way for speedydevelopment of J&K and Ladakh. Elections were held for about 4,400panchayats and 300 Block Development Councils, while 24,000 houses wereconstructed under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana in J&K, he said.OPPOSITION PRESSES FOR AMENDMENTS TO PRESIDENT ADDRESS HAILING CAAThe Congress-led Opposition today signaled plans to move comprehensiveamendments to the President's address to the joint sitting of Parliament,listing out three major areas of concern where they are likely to seekchanges.On top of the Opposition's mind are amendments to seek deletion ofreferences to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 in today's address byPresident Ram Nath Kovind. While the government, through the President,lauded the CAA, the Congress and the CPM today said it was a shame that theCabinet projected CAA as an achievement of the government when close to 30people had been allegedly killed across the country in agitations againstthe law.CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, while objecting to the mention of CAAin the President's address, warned of a civil war-like situation building upin India. "The society is dangerously inching towards a civil war-likesituation and the government is solely responsible for it," Yechury said.Congress leaders Azad and Anand Sharma, while terming the CAAunconstitutional, also questioned the mention in President's speech ofnormalcy in J&K.Opposition leaders are expected to consult each other to move comprehensiveamendments in the President's address to seek removal of references to CAAand JK normalcy and question the absence of solutions to record highunemployment in the country.AIR INDIA SPECIAL FLIGHT WITH OVER 300 INDIANS ON BOARD HEADS HOMEAn Air India's special jumbo B747 plane took off from the Wuhan airport inthe early hours of Saturday for Delhi, evacuating over 300 Indian nationalsfrom China as the neighbouring country continues to deal with the outbreakof novel coronavirus."With 324 passengers, the special flight has taken off for India from Wuhan.It may reach Delhi at 7.30 am," an Air India spokesperson was quoted assaying by news agency PTI.Meanwhile, the Indian Army has set up a quarantine facility in Manesar nearDelhi to keep these passengers. According to officials, the procedure ofscreening and quarantine will comprise two steps. The first one will be atthe Indira Gandhi International airport followed by quarantine at Manesar."If any individual is suspected to be infected, he/she will be shifted tothe isolation ward at Base Hospital Delhi Cantonment," said an official.KEJRIWAL'S RETORT TO PAK MINISTER: MODIJI IS MY PM TOODelhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday said the Delhi election is aninternal matter of India and no interference by Pakistan, the biggestsponsor of terrorism, would be tolerated.Responding to a tweet by Pakistan's Minister of Science and Technology FawadHussain, the CM said no matter how hard Pakistan tried, it could not attackthe unity of the country. Hussain had tweeted: "People of India must defeat#Modimadness ,Under pressure to lose another State Elections(Delhi on Feb8th),he resorts to ridiculous claims and threats endangering Region,Mr Modihas lost balance after internal and external reaction to Kashmir,Citizenshiplaws and failing economy.""Narendra Modi ji is the Prime Minister of India. He is my prime ministertoo. The election of Delhi is an internal issue of India and we will nottolerate the interference of the biggest sponsors of terrorism. As much asPakistan tries, it cannot attack the unity of this country," Kejriwal saidin a tweet.BREXIT: UK LEAVES THE EUROPEAN UNIONThe UK has officially left the European Union after 47 years of membership -and more than three years after it voted to do so in a referendum.The historic moment, which happened at 23:00 GMT, was marked by bothcelebrations and anti-Brexit protests.Candlelit vigils were held in Scotland, which had voted to stay in the EU,while Brexiteers partied in London's Parliament Square.In a message released on social media an hour before the UK's departure,prime minister Boris Johnson said: "For many people this is an astonishingmoment of hope, a moment they thought would never come."And there are many of course who feel a sense of anxiety and loss."And then of course there is a third group - perhaps the biggest - who hadstarted to worry that the whole political wrangle would never come to anend."I understand all those feelings and our job as the government - my job - isto bring this country together now and take us forward."He said that "for all its strengths and for all its admirable qualities, theEU has evolved over 50 years in a direction that no longer suits thiscountry"."The most important thing to say tonight is that this is not an end but abeginning," he said, and "a moment of real national renewal and change".TRUMP IMPEACHMENT: FAILED WITNESSES VOTE PAVES WAY FOR ACQUITTALUS President Donald Trump is set to be acquitted in his impeachment trialafter senators voted against calling witnesses or admitting new evidence.Democrats hoped four swing Republicans would vote for witnesses, which wouldhave extended the trial without in all likelihood changing its outcome.In the end, only two of the four Republicans voted with Democrats.The trial now moves forward to a vote on whether to acquit President Trump,which he is all but certain to win.Senior members of President Trump's Republican Party pushed from the outsetfor a speedy trial with no witnesses or new evidence. Above all, they wantedto avoid senators hearing from former National Security Adviser John Bolton.KERALA FALLS BACK ON NIPAH DRILL: TRACING VIRUS PATIENT'S CONTACTSAfter India's first confirmed case of coronavirus was detected in Kerala'sThrissur district, health officials have fallen back on an ambitious andexhaustive exercise that helped them contain the lethal Nipah virus in 2018- trace and monitor every single person who has been exposed to the patient.On Friday, the Health Department identified 58 primary and 45 secondarycontacts of the novel Coronavirus (nCoV 2019) patient, a 20-year-old womanmedical student who returned from Wuhan last week, and whose condition has"improved".Officials said a list has also been prepared after analysing the patient'sitinerary - from the day she left Wuhan, and transited through Kunming,Kolkata and Kochi before reaching home, until she was placed in isolation atthe Thrissur government hospital. Her activities and contacts with othersduring that period were traced, too.Primary contacts are those with direct exposure to the index case, while thesecondary category includes persons who came into touch with those on theprimary list. In 2018, such a strategy proved crucial in containing thespread of the Nipah virus that claimed 17 lives in Kerala.This time, officials said, the primary contacts are being brought under theobservation of a network of public health centres. Ambulances are ready inall districts to take them to hospitals for isolation, if required, theysaid. Officials said passengers of the Kolkata-Kochi flight that the studenttook on January 23 will also be monitored. However, staff at theinternational airport in Kochi are not on the list of contacts as they hadalready been equipped with personal protective gear.NIRBHAYA CASE: COURT STAYS EXECUTION OF CONVICTS UNTIL FURTHER ORDERSThe scheduled execution of the convicts in the 2012 Delhi gangrape andmurder case was deferred till further orders by a Delhi court on Friday.Additional Sessions judge Dharmender Rana at the Patiala House court complexpassed the order on a plea by one of the convicts seeking a stay on theirexecution scheduled for 1 February.The convict's counsel, advocate AP Singh, asked the court to defer theexecutions 'sine die', that is, without an appointed date for resumption.Among the convicts represented by Singh - Pawan Gupta, Vinay Kumar Sharmaand Akshay Kumar Singh - Vinay's mercy plea is pending before the president,the report said.Saying only one convict's plea is pending and the others can be hanged,Tihar Jail authorities challenged the application of three condemnedprisoners in the case seeking a stay on their execution. The convicts'lawyer disagreed with the jail authorities and said rules dictate that whenone convict's plea is pending the others cannot be hanged.Asha Devi, the mother of the victim, said that soon after the order waspassed, the lawyer "challenged" her that the convicts "will never beexecuted". She added, "I will continue my fight. The government will have toexecute the convicts. Devi also told reporters that her "hopes are dashed"but she will continue her fight.ECONOMIC SURVEY INTRODUCES 'THALINOMICS' AMID RISING PRICESRising inflation may have burnt a hole in common man's pocket but FinanceMinistry's Chief Economic Adviser believes otherwise as he brought a novel'thali' concept to otherwise heavy-duty data crunching to drive home thepoint that affordability of a plate of meal has improved.Calling it 'Thalinomics', Krishnamurthy V Subramanian compared price ofstandard veg and non-veg meal plates across the country to say thataffordability as a factor of daily wage has improved overtime, indicatingimproved welfare of the common person.The affordability of vegetarian 'thalis' improved by 29 per cent while thatof non-vegetarian by 18 per cent between 2006-07 and 2019-20, the EconomicSurvey said in its chapter 'Thalinomics-The Economics of a Plate of Food inIndia".The conclusion has been drawn after analysing the data from the ConsumerPrice Index for industrial workers for around 80 centres in 25 states/UnionTerritories from April 2006 to October 2019.SCHOOL HEAD, PARENT HELD FOR MODI 'ABUSE' IN DRAMADays after a sedition case was slapped against a school in Karnataka, itsheadmistress and a student's mother have been arrested for allegedinvolvement in staging of a drama portraying Prime Minister Narendra Modi inpoor light over the CAA and NRC, police said on Friday.The action came after they questioned the two women, a few staff members ofShaheen School in Bidar and students on Thursday. A court remanded them injudicial custody.The drama was staged by students of Class IV, V and VII on January 21.Thecase was lodged on January 26 on the complaint of social worker NeeleshRakshyal.HONKING AT MUMBAI'S TRAFFIC SIGNALS MAY SOON PROLONG WAITWith complaints of rigorous honking at traffic signals piling, the MumbaiPolice has come up with the initiative 'Honk More Wait More', to curtaildecibel levels at traffic signals.Under the initiative, police are planning to configure traffic signals tostay red for a longer period if incessant honking cause the decibels levelsto shoot up beyond 85 decibels (db).Making the announcement on Friday on its official Twitter handle, the MumbaiPolice also uploaded a 1.54-minute video of an experiment it had conductedat Marine Drive and CSTM junctions in November last year. The video alsoclaims that the initiative will be rolled out in parts of the city soon.ARVIND KRISHNA ELECTED IBM CEOIndian-origin technology executive Arvind Krishna has been elected ChiefExecutive Officer of American IT giant IBM after a "world-class successionprocess", succeeding Virginia Rometty, who described him as the "right CEOfor the next era at IBM" and "well-positioned" to lead the company into thecloud and cognitive era.Krishna's appointment as head of the global IT giant adds to the growinglist of Indian-origin executives at the helm of some of the biggestmultinational companies. Krishna joins the club that includes Microsoft CEOSatya Nadella, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, MasterCard CEO AjayBanga, PepsiCo's former CEO Indra Nooyi and Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen.SUPER OVER CONTINUES TO HAUNT KIWIS AS INDIA GO UP 4-0A nervous New Zealand threw it away yet again as a perseverant Indiaprevailed in the Super Over for the second successive time to take a 4-0lead in the T20 International series on Friday.Needing just 11 runs off the last two overs with seven wickets in hand, NewZealand dug a hole for themselves yet again, taking the game to a Super Overtwo nights after doing the same in Hamilton.In the Super Over, New Zealand managed 13 runs in six balls and India gotthere effortlessly. KL Rahul smashed 10 runs off the first two balls beforehe was caught. Then, a fired-up Virat Kohli and Sanju Samson finished thegame in style.Earlier, Manish Pandey proved his value to the team with an unbeaten 50 off35 balls, taking India to 165 for eight from 88 for six in the 12th over.India's total wasn't enough considering the batting-friendly conditions butthe hosts made life a lot tougher for themselves from a commanding positionbefore succumbing to pressure.Mohammed Shami, who was rested on Friday, had bowled a brilliant 20th overon Wednesday and man of the match Shardul Thakur was up to the task thistime, conceding just six runs in the last over of New Zealand innings whenthe hosts needed seven for victory.With the series already in the bag, India gave opportunity to Sanju Samson,Washington Sundar and Navdeep Saini for the first time in the five-matchseries, resting Rohit Sharma, Ravindra Jadeja and Shami. However, none ofthem was able to make an impact in the game.THIEM FIGHTS BACK TO REACH AUSTRALIAN OPEN FINALDominic Thiem booked his place in his third Grand Slam championship final onFriday with a hard-fought win at the Australian Open.The fourth seed battled back from losing the first set, and saved two setpoints in the third set of a 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(3), 7-6(4) victory overfirst-time major semi-finalist, Alexander Zverev, the seventh seed fromGermany, in three hours and 42 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.Thiem is the first Austrian to reach the Australian Open final, where hewill look to beat second seed and seven-time champion Novak Djokovic andrise above Roger Federer to a career-high No. 3 in the FedEx ATP Rankings.The 26-year-old has previously finished as runner-up to Rafael Nadal atRoland Garros in 2018 and 2019.