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Is there a single ghostly reason why we in India should bother about the centenary celebrations of the ruling party of a neighbouring country?

Speaking at the inaugural session of the centenary celebrations of the Communist Party of China at Tian'anmen Square before the giant portrait of Mao Zedong in Beijing, capital of the Peoples’ Republic of China, the President of PRC, Comrade Xi Jinping, who is also the general secretary of CPC central committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission assured, “Chinese people will never allow any foreign force to bully, oppress, or subjugate us.” He stressed, “We have brought about a historic resolution to the problem of absolute poverty in China, and we are now marching in confident strides toward the second centenary goal of building China into a great modern socialist country in all respects.”

Last year when the pandemic caused countries to shut their borders, Sajan Prakash was stuck at his training base in Phuket’s Thanyapura Aquatic Centre. The lockdown in Thailand was so strict that, forget about swimming, Prakash could not even venture out of his room for close to three months.

Progressive organizations, led by the Poor People’s Campaign, the Institute for Policy Studies, and the Economic Policy Institute, are gathering organizational—and later individual—support for a $6 trillion-plus budget bill that “would meet all of our needs” in domestic spending, in United States.

On June 18, the Union Government proposed to introduce new changes into the existing Cinematograph Act, 1952. Its draft amendment bill for the same is open for public comments till July 2. However, many of the changes proposed by the bill are being seen as problematic. What are the proposed changes, and how will they affect the working of the film industry?

LUCKNOW: Opposition parties have accused ruling BJP of misusing the official machinery to capture maximum number of zila panchayats. BJP has already won zila panchayat presidents in 21 districts unopposed while there would be direct fight between BJP and Samajwadi Party in 53 districts on July 3. Since BSP president Mayawati annouced that her party would not contest the zila panchayats president's polls, Samajwadi Party, BJP and other parties are busy in winning over the members to vote for their candidates.

Anti-vaxer Prashant Bhushan and the gang arrested in Gujarat while spreading vaccine disaffection in the streets are among those who believe that vaccines are “spike protein bioweapons” and “those dying from Covid are who have been vaccinated”, and that vaccines “don’t really work.” Ergo “natural immunity” is the best because it produces more “general” antibodies which work against all Covid variants. These people go to the extent of saying that Covid vaccines are part of a global medical experiment, which is bound to fail!

The Centre’s “apathy and lackadaisical attitude” on extending welfare measures to migrant workers have now been noted even by the Supreme Court of India, which termed it “unpardonable”, and then passed an order that the very instrument – the National Database for Unorganised Workers (NDUW) – through which welfare measures are to be implemented be commenced by July 31, 2021. Not only that, the SC had to pass an order to the Centre to allocate additional foodgrains, and the states and the Union Territories (UTs) to frame appropriate schemes. However, the orders cannot be carried out in their true sense within the cut-off date, and here lies the real challenge of their implementation.

The Supreme Court has once again taken a proactive step to bring succour to the disadvantaged people by declaring that the dependents of those who lost their lives due to Covid pandemic are entitled to receive compensation from the government just like victims of other natural calamities.

New Delhi: The International Cricket Council (ICC) on Tuesday announced that the T20 World Cup 2021 will be held in the UAE and Oman from 17 October to 14 November.