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The budget for Indian Railways does not seem to represent in true sense of the top three themes – aspirational India, economic development and the caring society – of the first Union Budget of the decade that has been envisioned to be ‘laying strong foundation for a bright future of the country’ and ‘key to India’s growth’. Rather, the Indian Railways, restructuring for which have already begun in the fag-end of December 2019, is likely to convert itself into Indian Railways Corporation under a CEO with a push towards privatization along with the Ministry’s façade of policy decisions and public accountability, a process tend to increase the rail services cost to the nation and its people. The Railways’ budget, in this context, can be termed as anti-people, because the Railways will be enforced to increase costs depriving general people of affordable means of bulk transportation. More so because railways may face a shortfall in actual revenue are calculated at the assumption of 10 per cent of growth rate of GDP, as against the current year’s growth rate of merely 5 per cent.

President Donald Trump’s acquittal was a certainty well before Sen. Lamar Alexander’s decision last night to hang tight with his long-time pal Mitch McConnell and oppose efforts by the Dems to call more witnesses and keep the trial going an extra week.

Never before there has been so much speculation about what the union budget would be, what would be the steeply sliding fiscal deficit figures and what concessions could be introduced in the budget to pull the economy out of its present rut as in the run up to the present one.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has used her budget speech as an employment guarantee scheme, not for the large army of unemployed in the country, but the protection of her own job. Her entire speech sounded like an anachronistic eulogy for Prime Minister Narendra Modi. So much so that Modi himself was seen struggling to hide his embarrassment.

The Supreme Court on January 31 issued notice to the Central Government on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the constitutional validity of the Right to Information (Amendment) Act, 2019 and its accompanying rules namely the ‘Right to Information (Term of Office, Salaries, Allowances and Other Terms and Conditions of Service) Rules, 2019.

United Kingdom leaving European Union in the midnight of January 31, has been the most consequential event in recent British political history.

At a time when the country is witnessing a strong polarisation between left and right ideologies “whether India is marching towards Fascism” — some significant developments are taking place in the Northeast. One is the crucial tripartite Bodo Accord signed by the Centre with the Assam government and various Bodo groups, including the four factions of National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). NDFB was a Bodo militant organisation which in the course of time further split into four factions due to differences within themselves regarding the fight for a separate Bodoland from Assam. Not to forget that the anti-CAA protests initially began from the Northeast, particularly Assam.

The latest to hit the book stands is the former External Affairs Minister S M Krishna’s autobiography. Written in Kannada, the book is full of anecdotes. It will soon be translated into English. He writes: “When I was two, Mahatma Gandhi was travelling from Bengaluru to collect Harijan fund. My brother-in-law asked me to handover a small amount of donation. But Gandhiji refused to accept the money and instead asked him to part with the earrings I was wearing. And we readily gave him the earrings.”

Panaji: The official mascot of the 36th National Games, Rubigula, Flame-Throated Bulbul made a grand entry amidst traditional Shigmo and Carnaval acts at a glittering Launch Event held in Panaji on Saturday.

Hyderabad: World No. 2 Tai Tzu Ying edged world champion PV Sindhu in the most-awaited clash to take Bengaluru Raptors to victory over Hyderabad Hunters in the showdown between the last two years’ champions at the Star Sports Premier Badminton League held at the GMC Balayogi Sats Indoor Stadium here in Hyderabad today.