European Union\'s top court supports net neutrality rules
European Union's top court supports net neutrality rules
The Associated Press
Tuesday
Sep 15, 2020 at 7:06 AMSep 15, 2020 at 7:06 AM
LONDON (AP) " The European Union's highest court has given its support to the bloc's rules that stop internet providers from charging customers for preferential access to their networks.
The European Court of Justice on Tuesday issued its first interpretation of the EU's net neutrality rules since they were adopted in 2015.
The rules require telecommunications providers to treat all data traffic the same, and prevent them from reserving better access for their own services, or selling bandwidth to big companies like Google and Netflix while leaving a slower Internet for everyone else.
The Luxembourg-based court backed the principle of an open internet after Hungarian wireless carrier Telenor Magyarorszag had sought an interpretation of the rules. Hungarian regulators had stopped the company from offering two 'zero tariff' packages under which data traffic used by some applications and services didn't count but traffic for others was slowed or blocked.
Rules to 'protect Internet users' rights and to treat traffic in a non-discriminatory manner preclude an internet access provider from favouring certain applications and services' through zero tariff packages and blocking or slowing traffic, the court said.
The U.S. repealed its own net neutrality rules in 2017.
European Union\'s top court supports net neutrality rules
43k MSEs benefitted from govt's public procurement policy in FY21 so far; sold goods worth over Rs 8k cr - The Financial Express
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43k MSEs benefitted from govt’s public procurement policy in FY21 so far; sold goods worth over Rs 8k cr
Trade, import and export for MSMEs: out of the total procurement from MSEs, the government enterprises have bought goods and services worth Rs 237.07 crore from 1,744 MSEs owned by scheduled caste and scheduled tribe entrepreneurs.
The government had earmarked 25 per cent annual MSE procurement target for CPSEs from April 1, 2015, onwards up from 20 per cent earlier,
Trade, import and export for MSMEs: 90 central public sector enterprises (CPSE) have made 32.70 per cent of their overall procurement so far in FY21 from micro and small enterprises (MSEs) as on September 12, 2020, according to MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari. The CPSEs have bought goods and services worth Rs 27,120.58 crore from companies out of which Rs 8,869.75 crore worth of procurement has been made from 43,399 MSEs, Gadkari said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Monday citing data from public procurement monitoring portal MSME Samadhaan.
Moreover, out of the total procurement from MSEs, the government enterprises have bought goods and services worth Rs 237.07 crore from 1,744 MSEs owned by scheduled caste and scheduled tribe entrepreneurs. On the other hand, procurement from women-led 1,045 MSEs as on September 12 stood at Rs 198.52 crore. The government had earmarked 25 per cent annual MSE procurement target for CPSEs from April 1, 2015, onwards up from 20 per cent earlier, according to the MSME Ministry’s website. Out of the 25 per cent target, a sub-target of 4 per cent from SC/ST owned MSEs and 3 per cent from women-owned MSEs were earmarked.
Meanwhile, the online public procurement marketplace GeM, launched in August 2016 to enhance efficiency and transparency in the government buying process, has 1,23,251 MSE sellers out of overall 5,16,790 sellers. Currently, MSE sellers on GeM have a 57.91 per cent share in the total order value on the platform. So far, 46,16,716 orders have been placed on the portal even as transaction value stood at Rs 62,811 crore.
As transactions and number of sellers on the GeM portal continues to increase, the government had taken cognizance of the possibility of fake or poor quality products being sold on the platform. Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal had last month cautioned sellers against selling goods of inferior quality or charging high prices. The minister had warned that such sellers will be blacklisted not only from the GeM portal but from the “entire government ecosystem,” he had said during the e-National Public Procurement Conclave organised by GeM.
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