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While liberals in India and all around the world are celebrating the nomination of a “person of colour”, Kamala Harris, as the Democratic party’s vice-presidential candidate for the US polls, the BJP has been conspicuously silent.

The Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden tweeted on Tuesday: “I have the great honor to announce that I’ve picked @KamalaHarris — a fearless fighter for the little guy, and one of the country’s finest public servants — as my running mate.” It was indeed a historic moment for both Kamala Harris and the US.

The Covid-19 recession is having a disproportionate impact on the most vulnerable people in Britain, a report claims.

“All indications” suggest that the extreme temperature reading of 54.4 degrees Celsius recorded in California’s Death Valley on Sunday, is legitimate, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.

India’s ban on Chinese apps for allegedly protecting India’s data sovereignty, becomes suspicious when we see no such problem with the US companies doing exactly that: taking Indian citizens data out of the country.

Over the years, the Congress has seen scores of rebellions and defections by party men more senior and prized than Sachin Pilot. But never in recent memory has a disaffected leader has been assiduously wooed as a former Rajasthan deputy chief minister after his revolt against Ashok Gehlot.

An expansionist China is looming larger and larger before India, posing a threat to her land, sea and air. There is no denying the fact that all the three services of the armed forces – army, navy and air force – have been starved of adequate funds for long. This has become obvious in the wake of the confrontation in eastern Ladakh that has brought India and China on the verge of a war.

Over four decades ago, the then union industry minister T A Pai launched a unique campaign against multinational corporations producing and marketing global consumer bands in the country and following local practice of cheating in measures. MNC toothpaste brands were his favourite target. Packed toothpaste tubes, the minister pointed out, contained upto 20 percent air content. The year was 1974, months after the government promulgated the country’s first foreign exchange regulation act (FERA). Low technology-based multinational consumer products manufacturers and marketers were worried. Pai’s campaign worked. The MNCs, selling branded consumer products, soon mended their ways. The industry minister’s consumer protection campaign, most unusual by a union cabinet minister, also served a strong message to Indian brands, their marketing managers and ad firms. The country did not have a consumer protection act, then. The consumer movement hardly existed.

The Black Plague was the most devastating pandemic ever recorded, resulting in the deaths of between 75-125 million people. It peaked in Europe between 1347 and 1351, having come on Italian merchant ships from Asia via the Silk Road. In fact, the idea of quarantine originates in plague-stricken 14th-century Italy, when ships arriving in Venice from infected ports were required to wait offshore for 40 days before docking. The word quarantine derives from the Italian quaranta giorni, 40 days.

The UK has been pushed into its first technical recession - defined as two consecutive quarters of economic decline - since 2009. The economy shrank 20.4 per cent compared with the first three months of the year. Household spending plunged as shops were ordered to close, while factory and construction output also fell.