New Delhi: Industry body CII in its budget suggestions for 2025-26 has recommended lowering the excise duty on fuel to boost consumption, especially at the lower income level, arguing that fuel prices significantly drive inflation. The budget could also consider reducing marginal tax rates for personal income up to Rs 20 lakh per annum. This would help trigger the virtuous cycle of consumption, higher growth and higher tax revenue, said CII. ET Year-end Special Reads What kept India's stock market investors on toes in 2024? India's car race: How far EVs went in 2024 Investing in 2025: Six wealth management trends to watch out for Asserting that the gap between the highest marginal rate for individuals at 42.74 per cent and the normal Corporate Tax Rate at 25.17 per cent, is high, it said, inflation has reduced the buying power of lower and middle-income earners. "The central excise duty alone accounts for approximately 21 per cent of the retail price for petrol and 18 per cent for diesel. Since May 2022, these duties have not been adjusted in line with the approximately 40 per cent decrease in global crude prices. Lowering excise duty on fuel would help reduce overall inflation and increase disposable incomes," the industry body said. Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General, CII, said domestic consumption has been critical to India's growth story, but inflationary pressures have somewhat eroded the purchasing power of consumers. "Government interventions could focus on enhancing disposable incomes and stimulating spending to sustain economic momentum. Persistent food inflationary pressures particularly impinge upon low-income rural households who allocate larger share to food in their consumption basket", he added. 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In its pre-budget proposals, CII has also recommended an increase in the daily minimum wage under the MGNREGS from Rs 267 to Rs 375 as suggested by the 'Expert Committee on Fixing National Minimum Wage' in 2017, with the industry body estimating that this will entail an additional expenditure of Rs 42,000 crore. Further, it urged the government to raise the annual payout under the PM-KISAN scheme from Rs 6,000 to Rs 8,000. Assuming 10 crore beneficiaries, this will entail an additional expenditure of Rs 20,000 crore, CII said. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) also sought an increase in the unit costs under the PMAY-G and PMAY-U schemes, which have not been revised since the scheme's inception. The CII suggested the introduction of consumption vouchers, targeted at low-income groups to stimulate demand for specified goods and services over a designated period. The vouchers could be designed to be spent on designated items (specific goods and services) and could be valid for a designated time (like 6-8 months), to ensure spending. The beneficiary criteria can be defined as Jan-Dhan account holders who are not beneficiaries of other welfare schemes. Nominations for ET MSME Awards are now open. The last day to apply is December 31, 2024. Click here to submit your entry for any one or more of the 22 categories and stand a chance to win a prestigious award. (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel )Unsure of what to gift someone close to you this holiday season? Last minute stocking-stuffers have you in a pinch? Lottery tickets, scratch-offs or a few pull-tabs might seem like an easy solution, but a solution that should be thought deeply about as it could lead your loved one down a path to developing a gambling problem. Although pull-tabs and scratch-offs may seem fun to your child, it is important to remember that these gifts are not meant for those under the age of 21. “In fact, research has shown that early exposure to any form of gambling can lead to problem gambling later in life,” yourlifeiowa.org reported. Did you know many young people report their first gambling experience occurs around 9-11 years of age? According to data found by Your Life Iowa, 4-6% of adolescents presently have a serious problem with gambling, and 10-14% of adolescents are at risk for developing a problem with gambling. Putting it all into perspective, adult gambling disorder prevalence rates are about 1-2% of the population. These are all important facts found by the National Council on Problem Gambling as well as Your Life Iowa and something to keep in mind this holiday season when picking out those last-minute gifts for those around you. The holidays are a joyful and fun time for all ages! Please remember the statistics and think carefully before gifting any form of gambling or lottery products to those in your life. If you are interested in any prevention services offered by ASAC, email prevention@asac.us or call (319) 390-4611. Your Life Iowa can be reached by calling (855) 581-8111, texting (855) 895-8398, or going online to www.yourlifeiowa.org to find resources.
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TRAVIS Kelce has beat out Patrick Mahomes for a major NFL award. The Kansas City Chiefs tight end has been nominated by his team for the Walter Payton Man of the Year award. Every year, each NFL team nominates one of their players for the prestigious award. "The Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award presented by Nationwide recognizes an NFL player for his excellence on and off the field. "The award was established in 1970 and was renamed in 1999 after the late Hall of Fame running back, Walter Payton. "Each team nominates one player who has had a significant positive impact on his community, with one winner selected from the 32 nominees. Read more on Travis Kelce "Each year, nominees are recognized beginning in Week 14 with a WPMOY trophy silhouette helmet decal applied through the end of the season. "In addition, all current players who have received this esteemed award are honored with a trophy silhouette patch on the front of their jerseys." The winner of the award receives a $265,000 donation to a charity of their choice while all nominees receive $55,000. Kansas City decided to nominate Kelce this season for his impact in the community. Most read in American Football Kelce runs the Eighty-Seven & Running foundation to help underserved youth learn life skills and mentorship. He also launched the Ignition Lab, an after-school program for inner-city students to learn real-world experience. "I'm truly honored to be nominated as the Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year. This organization and this city mean so much to me and to have the Chiefs nominate me again is special," Kelce said. "Growing up in Cleveland Heights with supportive family and friends, I know the power of having people in your corner. "It's been incredible to be able to work towards providing that same support and inspiration to kids through Eighty-Seven & Running and our work with Operation Breakthrough and the Ignition Lab. "To see the inaugural class from the Ignition Lab getting ready to graduate is so special and something that I'll cherish forever. I know how valuable hope and purpose is in those high school years, and these kids have really seized the opportunity. "Being able to give back to the community here in Kansas City as well as show love to my hometown is not something I'll ever take for granted. August 1 - Hall of Fame Game - Houston Texans vs Chicago Bears August 8 - Pre-season begins August 27 - Deadline for 53-man rosters September 1 - Final day of pre-season September 5 - Season opener - Baltimore Ravens vs Kansas City Chiefs November 5 - Trade deadline January 5 - Week 18 of regular-season January 11 - Playoffs begin February 9 - Super Bowl LIX in New Orleans, Louisiana "I'm forever grateful to represent Kansas City, the Hunt family, our fans and my foundation, and it's an honor to be nominated." Chiefs fans were thrilled to see their tight end be nominated for the special award, and shared their congratulations on social media . "Being nominated is a huge honor! Well done!," one fan said. Read More on The US Sun "Bring it home, Trav!" another fan said. "Congratulations Travis I can’t think of anyone who deserves it more," a third fan said.
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Nearly half of American teenagers say they are online “constantly” despite concerns about the effects of social media and smartphones on their mental health, according to a new report published Thursday by the Pew Research Center. As in past years, YouTube was the single most popular platform teenagers used — 90% said they watched videos on the site, down slightly from 95% in 2022. Nearly three-quarters said they visit YouTube every day. There was a slight downward trend in several popular apps teens used. For instance, 63% of teens said they used TikTok, down from 67% and Snapchat slipped to 55% from 59%. This small decline could be due to pandemic-era restrictions easing up and kids having more time to see friends in person, but it's not enough to be truly meaningful . X saw the biggest decline among teenage users. Only 17% of teenagers said they use X, down from 23% in 2022, the year Elon Musk bought the platform. Reddit held steady at 14%. About 6% of teenagers said they use Threads, Meta's answer to X that launched in 2023. Meta's messaging service WhatsApp was a rare exception in that it saw the number of teenage users increase, to 23% from 17% in 2022. Pew also asked kids how often they use various online platforms. Small but significant numbers said they are on them “almost constantly.” For YouTube, 15% reported constant use, for TikTok, 16% and for Snapchat, 13%. As in previous surveys, girls were more likely to use TikTok almost constantly while boys gravitated to YouTube. There was no meaningful gender difference in the use of Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook. Roughly a quarter of Black and Hispanic teens said they visit TikTok almost constantly, compared with just 8% of white teenagers. The report was based on a survey of 1,391 U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 conducted from Sept. 18 to Oct. 10, 2024.
It looked like a recipe for disaster. So, when his country's swimmers were being accused of doping earlier this year, one Chinese official cooked up something fast. He blamed it on contaminated noodles. In fact, he argued, it could have been a culinary conspiracy concocted by criminals, whose actions led to the cooking wine used to prepare the noodles being laced with a banned heart drug that found its way into an athlete's system. This theory was spelled out to international anti-doping officials during a meeting and, after weeks of wrangling, finally made it into the thousands of pages of data handed over to the lawyer who investigated the case involving 23 Chinese swimmers who had tested positive for that same drug. The attorney, appointed by the World Anti-Doping Agency, refused to consider that scenario as he sifted through the evidence. In spelling out his reasoning, lawyer Eric Cottier paid heed to the half-baked nature of the theory. “The Investigator considers this scenario, which he has described in the conditional tense, to be possible, no less, no more,” Cottier wrote. Even without the contaminated-noodles theory, Cottier found problems with the way WADA and the Chinese handled the case but ultimately determined WADA had acted reasonably in not appealing China's conclusion that its athletes had been inadvertently contaminated. Critics of the way the China case was handled can't help but wonder if a wider exploration of the noodle theory, details of which were discovered by The Associated Press via notes and emails from after the meeting where it was delivered, might have lent a different flavor to Cottier's conclusions. “There are more story twists to the ways the Chinese explain the TMZ case than a James Bond movie,” said Rob Koehler, the director general of the advocacy group Global Athlete. "And all of it is complete fiction.” In April, reporting from the New York Times and the German broadcaster ARD revealed that the 23 Chinese swimmers had tested positive for the banned heart medication trimetazidine, also known as TMZ. China's anti-doping agency determined the athletes had been contaminated, and so, did not sanction them. WADA accepted that explanation , did not press the case further, and China was never made to deliver a public notice about the “no-fault findings,” as is often seen in similar cases. The stock explanation for the contamination was that traces of TMZ were found in the kitchen of a hotel where the swimmers were staying. In his 58-page report , Cottier relayed some suspicions about the feasibility of that chain of events — noting that WADA's chief scientist “saw no other solution than to accept it, even if he continued to have doubts about the reality of contamination as described by the Chinese authorities.” But without evidence to support pursuing the case, and with the chance of winning an appeal at almost nil, Cottier determined WADA's “decision not to appeal appears indisputably reasonable.” A mystery remained: How did those traces of TMZ get into the kitchen? Shortly after the doping positives were revealed, the Institute of National Anti-Doping Organizations held a meeting on April 30 where it heard from the leader of China's agency, Li Zhiquan. Li's presentation was mostly filled with the same talking points that have been delivered throughout the saga — that the positive tests resulted from contamination from the kitchen. But he expanded on one way the kitchen might have become contaminated, harkening to another case in China involving a low-level TMZ positive. A pharmaceutical factory, he explained, had used industrial alcohol in the distillation process for producing TMZ. The industrial alcohol laced with the drug “then entered the market through illegal channels,” he said. The alcohol "was re-used by the perpetrators to process and produce cooking wine, which is an important seasoning used locally to make beef noodles,” Li said. “The contaminated beef noodles were consumed by that athlete, resulting in an extremely low concentration of TMZ in the positive sample. "The wrongdoers involved have been brought to justice.” This new information raised eyebrows among the anti-doping leaders listening to Li's report. So much so that over the next month, several emails ensued to make sure the details about the noodles and wine made their way to WADA lawyers, who could then pass it onto Cottier. Eventually, Li did pass on the information to WADA general counsel Ross Wenzel and, just to be sure, one of the anti-doping leaders forwarded it, as well, according to the emails seen by the AP. All this came with Li's request that the noodles story be kept confidential. Turns out, it made it into Cottier's report, though he took the information with a grain of salt. “Indeed, giving it more attention would have required it to be documented, then scientifically verified and validated,” he wrote. Neither Wenzel nor officials at the Chinese anti-doping agency returned messages from AP asking about the noodles conspiracy and the other athlete who Li suggested had been contaminated by them. Meanwhile, 11 of the swimmers who originally tested positive competed at the Paris Games earlier this year in a meet held under the cloud of the Chinese doping case. Though WADA considers the case closed, Koehler and others point to situations like this as one of many reasons that an investigation by someone other than Cottier, who was hired by WADA, is still needed. “It gives the appearance that people are just making things up as they go along on this, and hoping the story just goes away," Koehler said. “Which clearly it has not.” AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
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