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On a recent visit to Caracas, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel characterized Venezuela as “the world’s primary anti-imperialist bastion.” This, coming from a Cuban, is a striking description.

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh Government has taken some such decisions which will go long way to help people belonging to below poverty line category. The most important decision relates to concession given on electricity bill. The other decision is to increase the maximum age limit for the recruitment for the Government jobs.

Since August 5, when Home Minister Announced in Parliament the centre's decision to scrap Article 370 and Article 35A of the Constitution, thereby removing the special status granted to Jammu and Kashmir as per the understanding at the time of accession to India, lot of petitions have been submitted to the Supreme Court by the aggrieved sections of the population challenging the actions of the Modi Government.

Eyebrows were raised when Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concern about population explosion in the country in his Independence Day speech on Thursday. The surprise was because it has been a ‘No-No’ issue to many politicians from the days of Emergency when the Indira Gandhi government used coercive population control measures. Her family planning programme received widespread condemnation and effectively never realized its purpose. Later, the ministry’s name was changed to Family Welfare.

The Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Amendment Bill, 2019 has been passed by the Parliament despite searing opposition to the inclusion of new provisions in the existing law. The Bill drew flak on two accounts. One, the new changes undermine human rights. Secondly, the amendments undermine the structure of Indian federalism.

Jeremy Corbyn has pledged to “drive big money out of democracy.” Speaking in Bolton the Labour leader revealed that PM Boris Johnson has accepted nearly a million pounds from hedge funds and bankers. Mr Corbyn announced a new policy to ban donations or loans to parties from non-doms and those not registered for tax in Britain. Cabinet Office shadow minister Jon Trickett is working on a comprehensive plan to stop big money “buying up our democracy” before outlining further plans in the autumn, Mr Corbyn said.

Now that the special status of Jammu and Kashmir is gone, the major challenge ahead of New Delhi is to win the hearts of local Kashmiris and bring peace in the valley torn by violent conflicts for decades. That's not an easy task. A large section of Kashmiris have been under the influence of separatists — agents of Pakistan — who see India as “an oppressor to their culture and identity”. Although we shouldn't forget the fact that India itself is a land of diversity — a combination of many religions, ethnic communities, languages and cultures. But, New Delhi also has its own history of blunders for its inability to prevent the Pakistan supported separatists' propaganda — which gave immense strength to terrorism in the valley leading to the exodus of the minority Hindu Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir.

Economic developments and technological innovations have helped increase life expectancy worldwide. There was a time when thousands would perish because of epidemics like plague and smallpox which had adverse effect on life expectancy. Such deadly diseases are under control now. Life expectancy in India was 32 years at the time of independence in 1947. In 1969 it rose to 47 years further growing to 60 years in 1994 and 69 years in 2019.India’s population grew at an average annual rate of 1.2 per cent between 2010 and 2019 to 1.36 billion, more than double the annual growth rate of China, according to a report by the United Nations Population Fund. Whereas the number of young people in our country increased at a rapid rate, the number of elderly also grew steadily.

It is possible that the BJP will aggressively pursue its Hindutva agenda at a time of economic slowdown by adopting the well-known bread versus circus tactic, which has been explained as providing entertainment for hoi polloi as a means of diverting attention from a shortage of bread, in other words, a serious problem.

The NDA government may have scored well in the socio-political front and caught a national and international limelight by abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution to redefine the state of Jammu & Kashmir, but the country’s economy is in shambles. It needs immediate repairs. Unless the government acts fast and control the damage, the economy may shrink further inviting major social consequences. Tens of thousands of jobs are on the block as an unprecedented demand recession has hit a number of sectors, led lately by the automobile industry.