View Articles

On the occasion of World Population Day recently, we witnessed the all too familiar chorus of demands for a population control law. Unfortunately, most of these demands involve making the two-child norm compulsory such that a wide gamut of individual rights and benefits can be denied in case of non-compliance, thus allowing for unreasonable state interference in the private sphere. This rhetoric has also become a potent tool for blaming religious minorities and economically weaker sections, leaving little room for a nuanced discussion based on the changing socio-economic realities of India.

The political leadership of the capitalist countries and their policymakers are in a state of utter slipup on how Putin got massive mandate and also how to deal with Russia and its economy under him. While slapping sanction the Western world had visualised that Putin would come to his knees and abide by their dictates. But it did not happen.

Since last year’s debacle of the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections, the party has refused to go for a deep introspection and an overall systematic change from top to bottom. Instead, Rahul Gandhi resigned as the party president —not mainly for owning his responsibility for the party’s disaster at the elections — but for the grudge he held against the seniors of the party, who according to him didn’t support his campaign of alleged corruption in Rafael against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. More correctly, the Congress party actually lost the plot much before the election results due to Rahul’s wrong political strategy to attack Modi led BJP.

It is not as difficult as it may seem to guess the outcome of some of the elections later this year and during 2021. The predictions are fairly easy if the present trends in the poll-bound states are kept in mind. To take the more or less surefire results first, it seems obvious that the DMK will emerge victorious in Tamil Nadu. It should not find it too demanding to overcome an AIADMK weakened by Jayalalithaa’s demise.

India is the cheapest producer of electricity from coal, solar and wind sources in the entire Asia Pacific region. It is the only country in the region where solar power costs almost 14 percent less than that of thermal power. However, in terms of tariffs paid by Indian consumers, electricity charges are among the highest, much higher than those in countries such as Malaysia, Vietnam and China.

New Delhi: Former captain Rahul Dravid has disclosed that it was all-rounder Kapil Dev's advice that gave him sense of direction to follow after his retirement ." "After I finished (playing), there were quite a few options and I was not sure what to do. It was Kapil Dev who gave me this advice actually when I was coming to the end of my career."

It’s really no longer controversial to state that Donald Trump embraces the ideas and thinking of the racist right; he’s been brandishing his bigoted credentials since long before he was elected. But the recent adoption of explicit neo-Nazi and white nationalist imagery and symbols by his campaign suggests Trump is going all out to attract every possible extremist vote he can get.

After a lot of drama, imprisoned poet and activist Varavara Rao, 79, was shifted to Saint George Hospital in Mumbai after testing positive for COVID-19. He has been moved from the Taloja jail prison hospital to J J Hospital in Mumbai last week. This was done after his family members raised an alarm on his deteriorating health condition and lack of adequate medical attention in Taloja jail. He has reportedly been sick since May, when he was last shifted to J J hospital in the city and hurriedly discharged before his bail hearing. Rao was a professor of Telugu literature, editor of Srujana, a literary journal and one of the founders of Virasam, a progressive writer’s movement.

The Indian National Congress and eight other political parties — CPI, RJD, CPI(M), CPI(ML), RLSP, VIP, HAM, LJD — have written a memorandum to the Election Commission opposing the digital poll campaign, requesting the EC to ensure free and fair public participation as well as demanding that equal opportunity to all the political parties to conduct electoral campaigns be provided, something that is not possible if the digital poll campaigning is allowed to go on.

Sachin Pilot and his 18-19 musketeers are up the creek without a paddle. They have been given respite till July 21 to think over what they want - disqualification or rehabilitation? That’s because the Rajasthan High Court has told the Speaker of the Rajasthan Assembly to lay off these legislators and not take any punitive action against them for the time being. Now, how will this help Pilot and his by now grounded MLAs is pure guesswork. The Congress party and its CM Ashok Gehlot appear to be on a stronger footing vis-à-vis Pilot and his once merry men. Young and “handsome” Sachin Pilot, say some bipartisan folk, has bitten off a bigger chunk than he could chew; his stealth aircraft downed by a Brahmos-like missile fired from the hip, cowboy-style, by Ashok Gehlot!