View Articles

KOLKATA: What was scheduled to be a brainstorming session of West Bengal BJP on July 17 to locate the lacuna which stands between it and electoral triumph in the state turned into a slugfest. Strong words were voiced which deviated from the party line laid down by Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself and fisticuffs were also reported.

In India today, the number of unemployed especially in the working age has gone up to more than forty crore out of the population of one billion. The demon of deprivation stares at every unit of families. With occasional employment, life is barely sustained. The ruling circle never gets tired of claiming that unemployment rate has been falling. Even the government’s Periodic Labour Force Survey data showed unemployment rate had fallen to 3.1 per cent during 2022-23. However, the real time private data of CMIE shows unemployment has been hovering around 7-8 per cent.

If Aadhaar is a money matter, anything can be interpreted to mean anything else. This will be one of the key dilemmas that the seven-member constitutional bench will consider when it begins deliberations on the petitions against the use of money bill route by the Modi government to overcome legislative hurdles in pushing controversial legislations. Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud this week decided that it is time the learned judges got down to work after the bench remained virtually dormant since October last year when the bench was announced.

The architect of the abrogation of Article 370 is MIA, say the detractors of Amit Shah, the No.2 in the Narendra Modi Cabinet. Four Indian Army soldiers were killed in a terror attack in Doda on July 16, including an officer, and the Modi-led NDA government heavyweight is not to be heard or seen. It broke the heart when the officer’s mother told a TV news channel, “Ab who wapas nahi ayega?”

Approval by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the revised composition of India’s official think tank, the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog, on July 16, 2024, underscores beginning of a significant phase in the country’s future direction. It also underlines his political compulsions of leading a coalition government, as well as his intentions to have his way. However, only time will tell how things turn out in the future.

The missile attack on Okhmatdyt children’s hospital in central Kyiv, Ukraine on July 8 , 2024 by the Russian forces is very disturbing. Since the start of the conflict in Gaza 31 out of 36 hospitals have been damaged or destroyed and over 500 healthcare workers killed according to the UN Human Rights Office. Article 18 of the Geneva Convention stipulates that a building designated as a civilian hospital cannot be the target of attack. But this has been ignored despite several appeals including by the UNO.

A seed of an idea is all you need for success. Sathya Shankar K would know, for there is a tiny seed at the heart of his success story. His life got a kick-start in 1984.

India, the largest populated country of the world, has been undergoing significant changes in population distribution by economic status, which need urgent attention of the government. Though extreme poverty has declined by 12.5 per cent and the moderate poor population came down by 5 per cent, the number of poor rose by 11.4 per cent between 2011 and 2019. During this period non-poor people in the country rose by 6 per cent.

The national council of the Communist Party of India (CPI) had a deeper introspection on the performance of the ruling Left Democratic Front in Kerala in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections at its three day session in New Delhi from July 11 to 14. The party went into the root causes of the decline in the LDF votes in 2024 polls compared to the 2021 state assembly elections and on the basis of that decided to make course corrections so that the party along with its LDF partners are more prepared to face the Congress led UDF and the BJP in the state assembly polls scheduled in 2026.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump has chosen Ohio Senator James David Vance as his running mate. And JD Vance has an Indian connection! Lots of Republicans think JD Vance, born as James Donald Bowman, is the talisman Donald Trump has been waiting for since the Jan 6, 2021 “insurrection”. After Trump's first-term Vice President Mike Pence gave Trump his middle-finger at the Capitol Hill, former President Donald Trump has been looking for loyalty, undying loyalty.