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Nitish Kumar is certainly not indispensable. In fact the opposition should be credited with creating this perception amongst the people. Often the opposition leaders are heard criticising the NDA and describing the BJP as a fascist party which is opposed to poor, but they are never seen to fight unitedly against the BJP. The fact of the matter is the opposition leaders have never been critical of the political actions and policies of Nitish.

It is high time the government’s decontrol of petroleum products is challenged in the court. The decontrol, which has its declared intention of leaving the prices to market forces rather than be regulated by government, has in effect meant full control for the government while the customers have no control of what they would be asked to dish out for their fuel the next day.

Trump lies. Habitual dishonesty, whether it is masking the jobs crisis, the pandemic, or downplaying racism, is his signature feature. It has cost lives and threatens democracy.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The crisis bedevilling the Kerala Congress(M), an important constituent of the Congress-led United Democratic Front(UDF), has deepened with both the factions refusing to craft a compromise.

What is happening to the opposition parties, especially the Congress which is the only national party in the anti-BJP block to challenge the BJP led National Democratic Alliance at the centre? The next crucial assembly elections, are due to take place in Bihar in November this year, but taking into account the response of the contending parties in the anti-NDA camp in Bihar, it seems that there is no hurry in them to start discussions for working out a viable strategy for fighting the NDA in the state led by BJP and the JD(U) of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.

Political slugfest is going on in the big state of Maharashtra, even as the Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray-led government is trying to face the pandemic outbreak. While the BJP is yet to reconcile to the ascendency of Thackeray, it is becoming aggressive and aspires for power. The state BJP leaders are demanding the imposition of President’s rule claiming that the chief minister has failed to check the pandemic. According to insiders, the BJP is not willing to stake claim at this point of time and only want to get rid of the Uddhav government and rule the state through the Centre.

Yogesh Sharma, former editor of the fortnight Onlooker and now successful publisher of 167 international publications, has penned the heart rending narration of the harrowing experience of vacuum in life caused by the three month long Lockdown. Silence around his office edifice as he was attempting to pick up the tangled threads of normal life in first week to return to normality after relaxation in several restrictions on normal life activities tells the story of insurmountable difficulties for normalcy to come back. It is virtually exercise of the resumption of evolution process. Every artificially forced vacuum leaves undeniable mark. He has large staff but only two were able to help him to pick up the scattered threads. Others were still stranded in villages due to unavailability of transport. It remains suspended even now. Even restoration of internet link was the harrowing experience.

Low and declining women’s labour force participation rates in India have been a longstanding concern. 94% of the women who are counted as being in the workforce remain concentrated in the informal sector. In the non-farm sector, women are usually located as home-based workers, domestic workers, construction labourers, petty retailers and textile and garment factory workers, beauty, salon and spa services providers, in fitness industries and in the BPOs as customer care representatives of domestic and multinational companies. The national lockdown imposed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic adversely affected livelihoods in all of these sectors. Even as the lockdown is being eased, the overall slowdown in economic activity and the absence of adequate demand stimulus by the government does not bode well for future employment generation, especially for women.

Impressive as the worldwide demonstrations are against white racism, it will be unrealistic to expect their impact to be long-lasting. It is a safe bet that their tempo will subside in a month’s time and the world will return more or less to what it was before George Floyd’s sadistic murder by a white policeman. Floyd has become a part of history, of course, along with others such as Rodney King, who was also a victim of white racism. But it will be foolhardy to expect that prejudice and intolerance based on colour are now on their way out.

Adani Green Energy, a Gautam Adani company, has reportedly bagged the world’s largest contract to build a 8,000 MW-capacity photovoltaic (PV) power plant and additionally set up a 2,000 MW capacity domestic solar panel manufacturing facility. The combined investment is estimated at $6 billion (over Rs.42,000 crore). However, the Adani group’s existing massive debt burden somewhat dampens the hope that the project will become a success anytime soon and it will be able to keep its tariff commitment. In 2018, the Adani group’s total debt, according to Bloomberg data, was estimated at Rs.99,181 crore. This included Adani Power’s Rs.47,609 crore, Adani Enterprises’ Rs.22,424 crore, Adani Ports’ Rs.20,791 crore and Adani Transmission’s Rs.8,356 crore. However, the group is not concerned. It continues to bid big to acquire large projects. And, the government seems to be strongly by its side.