The Centre may consider registering a criminal case against the creators of YouTube channels and social media users, who run an anti-India agenda and spread fake news. 

The ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) has ordered the blocking of more than 100 YouTube channels and other digital platforms since December. Majority of them were being operated from Pakistan and around 35 of them were based in India.

The Supreme Court on Sep 21 rapped the Centre’s inaction on the hate speech issue, while directing it to file its reply within two weeks clearly indicating whether it intends to enact a law to curb the menace, as recommended by the Law Commission.

Highlighting the same issue, the Election Commission had last week told the apex court that it does not have the legal power to de-recognise political parties or disqualify candidates over hate mongering because existing laws don’t define hate speech or hate mongering.

Slamming the news channels that promote hate speech, the bench  of K M Joseph and Hrishikesh Roy  has noted that television anchors allow certain panellists to make vitriolic comments but stop the other side to express their counter views by muting their microphones. The bench said strict action should be taken against erring news anchors and that such people should also be taken off air.

The bench posted matter for hearing on November 23.

India on Sep 21 won a UN award for its Hypertension Control Initiative. The initiave is a large-scale intervention under the National Health Mission (NHM).

Amid the ongoing surveys of unrecognised madrasas across Uttar Pradesh, the state government has issued directives to district magistrates and commissioners to re-examine the documents of all the properties registered under Waqf since April 7, 1989, and to record the status of such lands. According to the order, issued by the state government on September 19, Shia and Sunni Waqf Boards would be investigated in all the districts across the state.

The Federal Reserve raised the key US interest rate again  on Sep 21 and said more hikes are coming as it battles soaring prices -- an aggressive stance that has raised fears of a recession.

It was the third consecutive increase of 0.75 percentage point by the Fed's policy-setting Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), continuing the forceful action to tamp down inflation that has surged to the highest in 40 years.

The increase takes the policy rate to 3.0-3.25 per cent, and the FOMC said it "anticipates that ongoing increases... will be appropriate."

Soaring prices are putting the squeeze on American families and businesses and have become a political liability for President Joe Biden, as he faces midterm congressional elections in early November.

But a contraction of the world's largest economy would be a more damaging blow to Biden, to the Fed's credibility and to the world at large.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has made it clear that officials will continue to act aggressively to cool the economy and avoid a repeat of the 1970s and early 1980s, the last time US inflation got out of control.

A coalition of lawyers and advocacy groups said on Sep 20 it has referred the fatal shooting of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh to the International Criminal Court on behalf of her family, calling on prosecutors to investigate what it described as Israel’s deliberate targeting of the veteran reporter.

Palestinian officials, Abu Akleh’s family and Al Jazeera accuse Israel of intentionally targeting and killing the 51-year-old journalist, who was wearing a helmet and a protective vest marked with the word “press” when she was shot last May in the occupied West Bank.

The Reserve Bank on Sep 20 said Central Bank of India has been removed from the Prompt Corrective Action Framework (PCAF) watch list following improvement in various parameters and a written commitment that the state-owned lender will comply with the minimum capital norms.

Of the three state-owned lenders under the RBI's PCA framework, Indian Overseas Bank and UCO Bank were removed from the watchlist in September 2021.

Central Bank of India was put under the PCA framework in June 2017 due to its high net non-performing assets (NPAs) and low Return on Assets.

In a statement, the RBI said the performance of Central Bank of India was reviewed by the Board for Financial Supervision and it was noted that as per the assessed figures for the year ended March 31, 2022, the bank was not in breach of the PCA parameters.

The lender has provided a written commitment that it would comply with the norms of Minimum Regulatory Capital, net NPA and leverage ratio on an ongoing basis.

PCA is triggered when banks breach certain regulatory requirements such as return on asset, minimum capital and quantum of non-performing assets.

Chief economic advisor V Anantha Nageswaran  has said Indian economy will grow at over 7 per cent, down from above 8 per cent of growth rate projected in January. He, however, said that the economic momentum and the animal spirits are "unmistakable".

"India's own growth rates have come off the projections made in January down to about 7-plus per cent for the current financial year," Nageswaran said speaking at Global Fintech Fest event .

He said the world is still undergoing the aftereffects of Covid pandemic and the ongoing war in Europe triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, suggesting that these factors are hurting growth.

The economic survey released before the annual budget in January this year has estimated FY23 growth to come at 8-8.5 per cent.

The RBI has estimated the GDP to grow at 7.2 per cent, but some analysts have said that there will be a downward revision of the estimate soon.