In this edition of Gadget of the Week, BusinessLine's Mala Bhargava presents some of the highlights of the CES 2021. She also shares her thoughts on some of the 'whacky' gadgets showcases this season.

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The US is now placing more focus on Asia and is marking its friends and foes carefully -- the nation China views as a competitor, and is seeking to build allies to contain the threat of China. In an unusual move, the Trump administration declassified a national security document about the Indo-Pacific region 20 years ahead of schedule.

The “US Strategic Framework for the Indo-Pacific” talks about the challenges that the US faces in the Indo-Pacific region and builds a strategy to overcome them. It talks about the need to restrain the increasing Chinese influence in the region, contain North Korea and ways to promote a liberal trade order. It also places great importance to its relationship with India, and wants to build on it.

Why is this important and what lies ahead for the India-US relationship?

A peek into what BusinessLine's new podcast series would be about.

After a rather worrisome scenario 2020, many hope that 2021 would offer us better and happier times. The current state of the job market as well as the financial markets at large have led to many queries regarding investments and planning one's finances.

This new series, hosted by BusinessLine's T R Vivek, will look deeper into various aspects of a 'sound' financial plan.

In Episode 1, the Head of the Research Bureau at BusinessLine - Parvatha Vardhini C - and T R Vivek provide us an overview of various financial instruments and investment options for the first-time investor.

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Edited by Gitanjali Diwakar

The stock market indices reached all-time highs in 2020 in the midst of the worst global recession since World War II. Many fund managers and stock market analysts have said that the bullish market has long way to go. You might have also heard experts say that this market rally is a bubble.

Now, are you wondering what they are referring to and why?

The Supreme Court, on Monday, came down heavily on the Centre for not solving the issues that the farmers have with the three new laws that aim to reform the agricultural sector. It has suggested that it will form a committee that will monitor the talks. 

The three laws --  the Farmers' (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, the Farmers' Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Act, and the Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act -- were passed late last year, but many farmer unions, especially those in Punjab and Haryana, are unhappy about these agri-reforms. We have a podcast explaining the issue, and we have the link to it in the description. 

Even after eight rounds of talks, the two sides are unable to find a consensus. Will the SC's solution help? 

Have more girls/women decided to venture into to the space of entrepreneurship and robotics? Will AI truly substitute the human brain?

Here is a quick snippet from a conversation with Sneha Priya of S P Robotics.

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Hi and welcome to Quick look

On January 6, Swarms of protesters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday as they sought to force Congress to undo President Donald Trump's election loss, temporarily suspending a last-ditch effort by some of Trump's fellow Republicans to throw out the results.

Four civilians and one police officer died during the protests. The US Congress later convened to certify the US presidential elections with Joe Biden as the next US President.

India's COVID-19 caseload rose to 1,04,50,284 with 18,645 infections being reported in a day, while the recoveries have surged to 1,00,75,950.

The death toll reached 1,50,999 with 201 more people succumbing to the disease in a span of 24 hours.India's COVID-19 recovery rate to 96.42 per cent, while the case fatality rate dropped to 1.44 per cent.

The Tamil Nadu government will provide free data card of 2 GB per day capacity to over 9.69 lakh college students to enable them attend online classes till April this year, Chief Minister K Palaniswami announced.

The move was being effected since the colleges have remained closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and were conducting online classes.

Last week, the Ugly head of racism in Cricket again saw a recurrence when play was halted for a few minutes on the fourth day of the third Test between India and Australia after pacer Mohammed Siraj complained of abuse from a section of the crowd, leading to expulsion of some spectators and an unreserved apology from the Australian Cricket Board.

Digital platforms claiming to offer hassle-free loans to individuals, small traders, and other borrowers are in the news these days.

There have been several complaints against some of these lending platforms, lately.

They primarily relate to exorbitant interest rates, non-transparent methods of calculating interest, harsh recovery measures, and unauthorised use of personal data.

In this podcast, BL's Research Bureau team members Keerthi and Satya discuss what should one be cautious about while using these digital lending apps.

Read the full story here: Big Story | Five cautions against money-lending apps

India will chair the Taliban and Libya sanctions committees and the Counter-Terrorism Committee of the UN Security Council during its tenure as a non-permanent member of the powerful 15-nation body. India’s two-year tenure at the Council started last Friday.

Here’s all you need to know about it.