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The record disbursal of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) profits to the government of India in May 2024 has been in the news. The magnitude of the disbursal caught everyone by surprise. There is a fair bit of confusion as well since many in the mainstream media are trying to paint this move by the RBI in a positive light. In fact, the move raises a host of matters of principle.

With massive unemployment facing the youth, persistent rising costs of living (inflation), unprecedented acute rural distress, crisis in the production sector, growing wealth and income inequality, the union budget 2024-25 presented by the NDA union government on July 23, 2024 has failed to address overall state spending to stimulate aggregate demands and employment, expenditure on specific employment generation schemes, welfare programmes, education and healthcare.

The Union government’s decision to issue a fresh draft notification for nearly 56,825 sq km of the Western Ghats as an Eco-Sensitive Area (ESA) in the wake of the catastrophic landslides that ravaged Wayanad, flattening entire swathes of settlements, markets, and public spaces can only be seen a knee-jerk reaction, rather than a strategic, well-thought-out approach to the region's chronic environmental challenges.

When newcomer Arvind Kejriwal defeated three—time chief minister Sheila Dikshit in her constituency of New Delhi in 2013 assembly polls, jubilant supporters took to streets, hailing the moment when a common man got an opportunity to master electoral politics. Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party soon became the premier force in Delhi politics. In less than a decade, it extended its sway to one more state by winning the Punjab assembly elections in 2022, becoming the only regional party to be in power in two states. Growing footprint and ambitions in states like Goa, Assam, Haryana and Gujarat further catapulted the AAP into the non-BJP, non-congress political space and raised the profile of its charismatic leader.

On August 1, 2024, Bangladesh took a decisive step in its fight against terrorism and extremism by officially banning the Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) party and its student wing, Islami Chhatra Shibir. This action, undertaken under the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2009, follows widespread unrest and violent protests related to the quota system for government jobs, which the government has attributed to the instigation by these fundamentalist groups. The turmoil led to the deaths of at least 150 people, prompting the government to take severe measures to restore order and security.

WASHINGTON: U.S. President Bill Clinton forced a resisting Russian President Boris Yeltsin into signing a NATO-Russia pact in 1997 totally on U.S. terms, newly disclosed U.S. documents show. Further, the trove of U.S. documents adds, when Yeltsin demanded in return that NATO not expand eastwards towards Russia, thus incorporating the formerly socialist nations of Eastern Europe, Clinton turned him aside.

Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies plummeted on Friday, mirroring a broader market sell-off triggered by a weaker-than-expected US jobs report. The digital asset's attempt to rally early in the day was short-lived as investors opted for safer havens amid escalating economic uncertainties.

The verdict of the 7-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India allowing sub-quotas within the overall quota for Scheduled Castes (SCs) has a potential to twist the Indian politics in a new direction, since it paves the way for a new structured reservation policy for the country, not only for the SCs, but also for Scheduled Tribes (STs), Other Backward Castes (OBCs), and Economically Weaker Sections (EWS).

Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris’ ‘Indian heritage’ is being questioned while her allegedly fly-by-night ‘Black American heritage’ is being seen as for "convenience’s sake" only. Fact is, while Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is being berated by the media for introducing the "race card" in the presidential election, a sense of insensitivity, and "anything goes to win", has come to settle down on the Kamala Harris presidential campaign which, in the initial flush of President Joe Biden’s abdication, was forging ahead from the word go.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At a time when all energies should be directed to minimize the impact of the tragedy that struck Wayanad district in Kerala, the Bharatiya Janata Party is politicizing the tragedy to score brownie points. The blame game should have been avoided, at least for the time being.