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The agreement signed between the USA and the Taliban in Doha on 29 February in the presence of representatives from India, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey, Indonesia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan – signalling a cessation to two decades of bloody war and withdrawal of the US troops in the rugged terrain of landlocked Afghanistan – faces a lemma of uncertainties pertaining to its implementation. As per the deal, in 14 months and a half, the number of US forces will be reduced from about 13,000 to 8,600. In exchange, the Taliban agreed to renounce al-Qaeda and prevent al-Qaeda and other groups from using Afghanistan as a base for terrorism against the USA. They agreed to negotiate a permanent ceasefire also with other Afghan militants and the Afghan government.

When the whole world is concerned about the spread of corona virus, the Indian economy is trembling before another virus. This is the virus of instability emanating from unending greed of the private capital. Though it has impacted all structures of life, the government is in no mood to recognize the widespread presence of this disastrous element in vitals of the economy. They close their eyes and try to pretend that it is only a minor illness that has affected the nation. They come out with funny types of prescription claiming that everything will be fine within a few days.

The premier public sector BHEL is making big advances in developing new technology through vigorous research and development efforts that have helped the PSE to offer new products and systems which are globally competitive. Significant developments/improvements in engineering, processes and product covering various businesses like power, industry, transportation and transmission have taken place during recent months.

With the outbreak of novel Corona Virus or COVID-19, it is a wakeup call for the nations and MNCs who are excessively dependent on global value chain manufacturing, concentrating in a particular country. During last two decades, China has become centre - stage for global value chain. It became important not as a biggest global manufacturer and exporter, but also supplier of intermediate inputs for manufacturing elsewhere.

Super Tuesday II was another round of victories for Joe Biden. Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, and Idaho were added to his column on March 10; as of this writing, only North Dakota went for Bernie Sanders, and Washington state is still counting. After two tough weeks at the polls and with endorsements from elected officials rolling in for Biden, there are increasing calls for the socialist from Vermont to close up shop and head back to Burlington. But there are many big reasons that Bernie shouldn’t call it quits, at least not yet.

The relation between the Congress and the RJD has never been affable under the stewardship of Tejashvi Yadav, the person in hurry to govern Bihar. With Congress nursing soft corner towards the former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar the situation has turned more complicated. In fact emergence of Kanhaiya as the most potent and radical face in the opposition camp has turned out to be the element of envy amongst the opposition leaders and has been at the base of the recent crisis in opposition political camp.

In parts of Assam, a strong undercurrent of tensions prevails in the post NRC(National Register of Citizens) updating exercise period. Wiser after the highly contentious headcount, bigger minority groups now insist that due legal process should decide citizenship issues, without any involvement of the special Foreigners Tribunals(FT). Leaders of the Citizens’ Rights Protection Co-ordination Committee (CRPCC), the largest HR group among the linguistic minorities, last week announced at Karimganj that they would approach the Prime Minister and other authorities in this regard. They proposed to launch a movement in the Barak Valley districts and other areas to intensify their struggle, according to Assam-based media reports.

A heady cocktail of ego, frustration, power struggle and one-upmanship is what has led to the current commotion in the oil market, which is of course welcome news for consuming countries like India. After shedding a third of its value, crude has since made some marginal recovery, but the overall trend continues to be downward, with new predictions putting the price in the early $20s.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It may sound a bit hyperbolic. But it is shockingly true.

With invocation of the provisions of Disaster Management Act, Epidemic Diseases Act, and other rules, India has virtually quarantined itself from the world until April 15. WHO has declared the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic due to alarming levels of, its spread from 48 to 114 countries of the world within seven days, its increased severity, and inaction on the part of many governments. WTO has to cancel all its meetings after one of its officials found to be infected with the virus. IMF has come out with some new fiscal policies to deal with the new situation saying that governments should protect people from the economic impact of this global health crisis. Those who are hit the hardest should not go bankrupt and lose their livelihood on account of local shutdown of business and industries because of local quarantine needs. It is in this scenario, India urgently needs a new series of fiscal policies to effectively deal with the situation.