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Nothing could compensate the loss of twenty young lives of the Indian Army, but the episode and China’s premeditated actions on India’s Himalayan borders willy nilly has changed for good the global geo-political narrative.

Are oil companies the true heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic? That’s sure what they’d like you to think. In a recent flurry of “corporate reputation advertising” highlighted by Emily Atkin in the newsletter HEATED, oil and gas companies, plus the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM) — an industry group that counts Chevron, Exxon, Citgo, and many others among its members — put out a series of Twitter ads arguing that, since oil and gas companies supply petroleum to manufacturers of face masks, hand sanitizer, and protective suits, they are helping keep the population safe and healthy.

A fourteen-year-old student, Zareb Vardhan, has been able to create a one-of-its-kind face-shield at home using a 3D printer, and has gifted 100 such shields to policemen. Zareb has created the face-shield after noticing people closely interacting with cops in the middle of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

It is necessary to remind ourselves in contemporary India that, politics makes the law as and when required and even remakes and replaces laws and therefore there is a limit to the judicial system under which you seek justice. The case of Akhil Gogoi reaffirms a belief that while law regulates, politics governs!

LUCKNOW: The Congress under the leadership and guidance of Priyanka Gandhi Vadhra appears to be taking the Yogi government head-on. She’s questioning the Uttar Pradesh government on various issues and it seems she is not even afraid of going to jail.

Three decade old tryst of the RJD with the highly caste sensitive Bihar politics suffered the first ever worst jolt with the founder of the party, former union minister and vice president, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh quitting the party along with five MLCs.

Gold prices hit record highs last week, with 10 gm of the metal costing over Rs 48,000. Prices have since scaled back a little, but continue to be at multi-year highs. Gold is perhaps the only asset whose value has gone up when everything else has declined under the impact of the deadly Covid outbreak.

In first six months of the year 2020, Indian people passed through two harrowing phases of major problems, first the pandemic corona virus and second consequences following the intrusion by China army unit in the Galwan valley of Ladakh in the North. The Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in the power seat in the second year of his second term. The experience ought to have taught him use of power but his government was found wanting in tackling both the critical issues.

Before the Coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown, it was widely expected that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar led NDA government would have an easy sail later this year when Bihar will go for assembly polls. Although the Election Commission has said that Bihar will be seeing elections in time, there are still some doubts. After all, much will depend on how Bihar bends the novel Coronavirus curve till then.

When the Rajya Savha reassembles for the monsoon session, it will be with new equations with a change in the composition of the house. It will see a shrunken opposition and an improved NDA. The BJP is inching towards a majority after this week’s biennial polls to Rajya Sabha. The NDA has crossed the 100 mark though it may take a while to reach the magic number of 123 for majority in the house of 245. The BJP alone has 86 seats, a vast improvement from its 2014 tally of just 43 members. Over the next four years till March 2024, over a 100 MPs are retiring and the BJP is likely to improve further. Elections will be held, 8 each in 2021 and 2023, 77 in 2022 and 4 in 2024 before the Lok Sabha polls.