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This time, the voter has asked for a humbler government and a more robust Opposition.

In a significant ruling, the Madras High Court has directed the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to ensure that an advocate or senior advocate employing the services of junior advocates in major cities of Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai pay them a minimum stipend of ₹20,000 per month. The court also said that in other cities of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry junior advocates must be paid a minimum ₹15,000. The court elucidated that it had arrived at the minimum stipend by taking into consideration the cost of living and current expenditure costs in these cities.

An Israeli parliamentarian and an Israeli journalist slammed their nation’s far-right-wing Benjamin Netanyahu government for conducting a brutal war against Gazans and for censoring the information that reaches the Israeli public and the wider world.

Rural India limited the Bharatiya Janata Party to 240 seats in the Lok Sabha. And but for the "NDA allies", Narendra Modi wouldn't have become Prime Minister for a third time. The BJP now depends on its partners for the simple majority in Parliament. The BJP lost a third of its rural parliamentary constituencies in 2024, reflecting acute rural distress. MSP, Agniveer and high unemployment, all of these contributed to the BJP's post-poll distress.

India’s National Capital Territory Delhi is running a shortage of water to the tune of 50 MGD (million gallon per day). The Water and Tanker Mafia are minting money. People are undergoing unprecedented suffering. Political parties are trying to derive political mileage by indulging in blame-game. The Supreme Court of India has intervened but the water crisis isn't going away. With no end in sight before the monsoon arrives.

In normal circumstances, except for a few specifically Bangladesh-related issues, Dhaka-based leaders/analysts do not always delve deep into Indian political developments. However, the outcome and trends of Indian general elections naturally generate considerable public interest and media-sponsored debates in Dhaka and other Bangladeshi cities. Now, after a new coalition headed by Narendra Modi has taken charge in India, Bangladeshis are keen to learn how bilateral relations will go from here on.

This might be stretching it a bit, but the presence of two daughters of note at the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as India's Prime Minister for the third time in a row led to talk that their attendance must have been more than what the eye could see. Especially, Nepali Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal's daughter Ganga Dahal.

By far the biggest takeaway from the 2024 general elections for India is that the ruling coalition will no longer be able to amend the Constitution and convert the country from a secular State to a Hindu Rashtra. During the election campaign, the Prime Minister of India memorably said, “Ram is my idea of India.” The people of India have denied him the opportunity to see his dream come true through an amendment to the Constitution.

A familiar scene played out in the city council chambers of Richmond, California, on May 22, 2024. For the last twenty years, since members of the anti-Chevron Richmond Progressive Alliance (RPA) first got elected to the council, any measure before that body affecting the city’s largest employer and business taxpayer has been hotly debated.

Indian National Congress (INC) is heading for another very interesting political battle for the Rajya Sabha, where it had just escaped a loss of the post of the Leader of Opposition. With two of its members in the Upper House recently elected to the Lok Sabha, INC's strength in the upper house reduced to 26, just one more than the required number of 25 to hold the post.