Modi faces a no-confidence motion in Parliament; And, will TikTok be the next platform to challenge Twitter?

Market Watch

• Indian benchmark indices ended the day in the green, with the Sensex increasing 351.49 points to stand at 66,707.20 and Nifty increasing 97.70 points to stand at 19,778.30.
• Sectorally, Nifty Consumer Durables (-0.31%) and Auto (-0.01%) shed the most, while PSU Bank (1.50%) and Realty (1.19%) gained the most.

Three things:

• Tata Motors’ board has proposed to convert DVR shares to ordinary shares.
• ITC Hotels is expected to be valued between Rs 15 and Rs 23 per share.
• Sebi is contemplating a review of its delisting regulations and may permit delisting via fixed price.

Opposition moves no-confidence motion against Modi government over Manipur violence

The Narendra Modi-led government is facing a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha over the ongoing violence in Manipur.

• The motion was filed by the Congress party and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS), and it has been accepted by the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.?
• The date for the debate on the motion will be announced soon.

Why it matters:?The no-confidence motion allows opposition parties to challenge the government in the house, and if the government fails to prove its majority, it must resign.

The big picture: The opposition parties have been demanding a statement from Prime Minister Modi on the Manipur violence since the beginning of the Monsoon Session of Parliament last week.

• The Parliamentary drama was triggered by a?viral video of two women being paraded naked in Manipur’s Kangpokpi district?that surfaced online, triggering a nationwide outrage.?
• The session has seen repeated disruptions and protests by the opposition over the issue.?

The other side: BJP leaders launched a synchronised attack on the opposition, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi accusing them of being directionless and misusing the name INDIA.

• Home Minister Amit Shah stated that the opposition had changed its name to erase its "hounding past" from public memory, while Nirmala Sitharaman and S Jaishankar targeted the alliance for allegedly seeking foreign intervention.?
• Shah has also stated that he is ready for a lengthy discussion on the issue, but the opposition parties are pressing for a discussion under a rule which also entails voting.

Yes, but:?In the current Lok Sabha, BJP’s National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has a strength of 331 members in the 543-member house, while the opposition alliance has 144 members.?

• Thus, the motion is unlikely to pass — but it serves as a platform for the opposition to corner the government on the issue of violence in Manipur.

Flashback: This is the 28th time that a no-confidence motion has been moved in independent India’s history.

• The first one was all the way back in 1963, when J B Kripalani sought to topple the Jawaharlal Nehru government; the most recent one was moved against the Modi-led NDA on July 20, 2018.
• Only one government has ever been ousted by a no-confidence motion — back in 1979, Morarji Desai resigned before a vote could be called on the motion.

Of note: Back in 2019, PM Modi had sarcastically told the opposition to prepare to bring a vote of no-confidence again in 2023; a video of his ‘prediction’ has now resurfaced and gone viral.

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After Meta’s Threads, TikTok adds text-based posts — but is it really becoming a Twitter rival?

Popular short video app TikTok has introduced a new feature allowing users to post written content.

How it works: TikTok users can now make short text-based posts, similar to Instagram stories, which can be shared with music, sound, stickers, and locations.?

• They can also be duetted and reposted like videos or photos.?
• The posts have a limited length of up to 1,000 characters.

The big picture: TikTok’s latest move appears to be a bid to challenge Twitter's dominance, coming at a time when several users have been frustrated by recent changes like paid verification and a major rebrand.

• It seems to be following in the steps of several other competitors like BlueSky, Mastodon, and, most recently, Meta’s new app Threads.

The intrigue: TikTok’s introduction of text-based posts can be seen as a strategic move to challenge other social media platforms like X (previously Twitter) and Threads, while increasing user engagement and offering different types of content on the platform.?

• This comes after the platform added music streaming, indicating that it may be trying to become a WeChat-like ‘everything app’, similar to Elon Musk’s vision for X.
• TikTok is also set to launch an e-commerce business in the US, selling Chinese-made goods and aiming to compete with online shopping platforms such as Shein and Temu.

However, a key difference is that TikTok’s text posts are not designed to facilitate conversation but allow users to express their written creativity, similar to Instagram posts, as they have a longer character limit compared to 500 characters on Threads and 280 on X.

• Furthermore, tighter data privacy regulations in the West mean that the ‘everything app’ model is less viable.
• This counterpoint is particularly relevant as TikTok has faced challenges over the app’s links to the Chinese government, due to which many US?states and countries like Canada, Australia, and New Zealand have banned the app on government devices.?
• As for its e-commerce venture, Shein and Temu have both faced criticism for poor quality of products and unsafe working conditions in their manufacturing workshops — an inevitable consequence of their inexpensive products that TikTok may also run into.
• TikTok may also face challenges in differentiating itself from established players and in the cost-effective management of its e-commerce business, which will be crucial as it will have to make huge investments in building up expertise in a new vertical while ensuring its prices are competitive.?

ICYMI

• OpenAI has released the Android app for ChatGPT on the Google Play Store in the US, India, Bangladesh, and Brazil.
• After Prosus, Peak XV Partners has now reportedly explained why its representative resigned from the board of edtech giant Byju’s.
• The ODI World Cup cricket match between India and Pakistan, scheduled for October 15, may be rescheduled due to security concerns.
• TRAI has backed selective bans on platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Telegram instead of internet blackouts during periods of civil unrest.
• Ahead of the 2024 general election, political parties are increasingly leveraging the influence of social media personalities to drive their campaigns.
• A controversial new reality TV show from Netflix makes real-life couples guess if videos of their partners cheating are real or AI-generated.
• Researchers believe that a push for recycling has obscured the larger issue of overproduction and has de-emphasised more sustainable waste management strategies.
• An investigation into alleged tax evasion has found that some insurance companies tried to use fake invoices to cover up instances of fraudulent input tax credit claims.