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The Supreme Court on Tuesday said that at this stage, it didn't want to say that Patanjali's Baba Ramdev and Acharya Balkrishna were being let off the hook in the contempt case hearing. They have been given a week to issue a public statement in the fake advertisements case."You are not so innocent that you did not know what we said in our earlier order," SC told Patanjali MD Balkrishna. The duo were present in the court after the SC ordered them to do so.A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah was hearing the case. The apex court has posted the case for further hearing on April 23.Taking cognisance of their unconditional apology, the bench warned them against their speeches degrading modern medicine systems.Interacting with Ramdev, the bench said that alternative forms of medicine like Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha have been present in India for 'time immemorial'."We didn't mean to violate SC's orders. We did over 5,000 researches and experiments," Ramdev said.The bench asked about the press conference done by the company a day after it told SC that it wouldn't engage in degrading other forms of medicine. Ramdev once again said that the company will not give such statements in the future.ALSO READ: SC refuses apology again, warns duo to be ready for action in contempt casePatanjali's apologyThe matter pertains to a petition filed by the Indian Medical Association which has alleged that the company engaged in a smear campaign against modern medicine and at the time, Covid-19 vaccines.In the previous hearing, the SC slammed the duo as the bench refused to accept the affidavits containing 'unconditional apology' filed by Ramdev and Balkrishna in the matter. Court said these apologies were 'only on paper'.ALSO READ: Baba Ramdev, Acharya Balkrishna tender 'unconditional' apology again to Supreme CourtSC's view on Uttarakhand authorityIn addition, it also pulled up the Uttarakhand State Licensing Authority for their inaction over the misleading ads issued by the company.SC accused the body for remaining in 'deep slumber' despite being aware of the misleading ads. The SC bench asked the USLA why the court shouldn't believe that it was in cahoots with Ramdev and Balkrishna and was keeping its eyes shut deliberately.On USLA counsel's reference to the bona fides of its officers, SC was none to impressed. "Bona fide you say? We will rip you apart on bona fide. We will rip you apart".

India's online government bond trading platform is facing technical issues, which has halted trading activity, five traders said on Tuesday. "The platform is facing technical glitches and we are unable to place any bids or trade since last 10 minutes," a trader with a private bank said. The benchmark 7.18% 2033 bond yield was last traded at 7.1894% at 11:13 IST (0543 GMT) on the Negotiated Dealing System-order Matching (NDS-OM), according to the Clearing Corporation of India's website.

With both national parties BJP and the Congress having released their respective manifestos for the upcoming Lok Sabha election, economists say the ruling party’s manifesto will have limited fiscal implications while the grand old party’s measures will entail ‘significant costs to the economy.”“Similar to the pre-poll interim Budget, where the central government prioritised prudence over populism, the manifesto signalled a continuation of existing reforms and social welfare schemes rather than lean towards new big-bang promises, which could carry significant fiscal costs,” economist Radhika Rao wrote in a report by DBS Bank.The ‘Modi’s Guarantee’ document highlighted macro and financial stability as priorities, marked by low inflation, strong external balances, high growth, and fiscal prudence, the report says.Meanwhile, Congress’ manifesto the report says “carried populist undertones to woo votes.”Plans are afoot to prioritise macro and market stability reforms, infrastructure push, provisions towards healthcare, etc in the Congress manifesto.Rao claims that implementing the social welfare and populist measures that the Congress promises in its manifesto will entail significant fiscal costs.These schemes could necessitate subsequent revenue-enhancing measures, in the absence of which, the target -5.1 per cent of GDP might be missed by a sharp margin, the report says.Measures like waiving farm loans, cash transfers of Rs 1 lakh per year under a proposed Mahalakshmi scheme, universal healthcare facilities and plans of conducting a nationwide socio-economic and caste census are on the cards.There is a lack of clarity as to what extent these measures will be implemented and whether the inherent costs could act as a natural speed-breaker to plans, as per the report.States have been tapping the loan waiver as a pre-poll sweetener in recent local elections, increasing the fiscal strain on their books, the report says.“For a start, a basic universal income, depending on the coverage, annual income threshold, and intended beneficiaries, could amount to 1 per cent to 2.6 per cent of GDP,” the report says.Besides affecting the repayment capacity of farmers and hurting future access to formal sector lenders, the previous nationwide debt waivers (e.g., 1990 and 2008) the report says, “have carried sizeable fiscal costs.”“For instance, the 2008 debt waiver, which targeted certain classes of cultivators for 100 per cent waiver entailed 0.9 per cent of GDP (approximately 37 million farmers), which will potentially be higher by two-thirds in current prices,” the report says.In all, voters are likely to weigh these manifestos against their own ground realities, living costs, employment opportunities and growth prospects, the report adds.