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It has 10 days that the Central Government has unilaterally and arbitrarily abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution in the name of that elusive phrase ‘Vikas’ or ‘development’, which the rest of India has been dying to witness for the last 5 years. Instead of ‘ache din’ for other States, the Modi 2.0 Government was bringing ‘achhe din’ for Kashmir. So to bring ‘achhe din’, it has completely shut down all communications, including mobile network, internet services, and even landline (which did not even happen in the heights of militancy in the 1990s), while Section 144, CrPC is imposed in most areas of Jammu & Kashmir, and even in some parts of Ladakh.

It is Independence Day, a day for reckoning, for taking stock of the past, going deeper into the present, and for trying to fathom the shifts in future. Past could be a year, decade or few months. The signals are that democracy has been brought to its edges. The second term of five years for the BJP has started with a stormy session of the Parliament, starting with budget with its fault lines, triple talaq that has sharp edges on both sides, labour laws that promote unremunerated labour, draft education policy to spread illiteracy, the health policy permitting quacks to practice medicine, and the amendment to Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act which can now be misused to label anyone as a terrorist.

Planned trade deals with the United States could see Britain dragged into a Pentagon-led war on Iran, War on Want has warned.

BERLIN: The wise priest Laocoön, old legends say, vainly warned against the famous “Trojan horse.” A hostile god sent giant serpents which strangled him when the big wooden present was opened. The soldiers hidden inside opened Troy’s gates so the Greek battalions could rush in, kill the men, enslave the women and destroy the city. Its ruins are still being uncovered.

Weekly Round-Up of Major Decisions of the Courts in India as also Legal Policy Developments

Sonia Gandhi is back again as the Congress President after two years. She had taken a backseat during this period leaving the field entirely to her son after handing over the baton to Rahul Gandhi in 2017. She will be at the helm of affairs until the party holds the next organisational elections. Sonia had stepped in in1998 when the party was in bad shape and was able to check the erosion. She even brought the party to power twice (2004-2014) Now that she is reluctantly back as Congress chief, what would be her challenges in the coming days and months?

The trade war between the United States and China entered a more critical phase last week as Beijing allowed its currency to weaken further. The falling Yuan has become a major concern for not only the US, but also the rest of the world. Lower Yuan will help China dump more of its exports on other economies. Export to China will be more difficult. President Trump’s Treasury Department has formally labelled China a ‘currency manipulator’ as Chinese enterprises have stopped making fresh purchases of farm products from the US. In so far as India is concerned, lower Yuan may further flood Chinese goods into the Indian market and adversely impact the country’s economic growth and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘make-in-India’ drive.

Congress party, which still remains the main opposition party, did really a surprising thing by choosing Sonia Gandhi as the “new” president of the party — when names of senior leaders like Mukul Wasnik, Mallikarjun Kharge and young leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia were discussed in the media for the post. Remember what Rahul Gandhi told while putting his papers down from the post of presidentship — that neither his mother Sonia nor his sister Priyanka Gandhi would succeed him. However, it happened completely opposite what Rahul said — with his mother back in the helm as the “new” interim president of the party. Not to forget the fact that Sonia, who was the party president from 1998-2017, has been the longest president in Congress party's 133 years history.

The online support which the person who refused to accept a vegetarian platter from a Muslim delivery boy showed how ineffective has been Narendra Modi’s appeal for winning the vishwas (trust) of the minority community.

With increased transparency in the Indian economy and greater cross border capital flows, non-resident interest in the Rupee has gone up significantly, both for risk management purposes or speculative ends. This is pointing the need for wider participation of rupee forward markets in on-shore markets.