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Trump’s State of the Union address aimed to unite a right-wing base and drive a wedge between Democratic moderates and progressives and the entire anti-extreme right-wing alliance, just as the 2020 presidential campaign gets underway.

The Centre for Sustainable Management of the Azim Premji University, Bangalore has brought out a unique report titled State of Working India 2018, the first of an intended annual series. At first sight, it might look paradoxical and surprising that when we get very little quality research output from thousands of state-run universities and other research centres, a corporate university should take the lead in coming out with an excellent report throwing light on contemporary labour conditions and the state of labour rights.

The Supreme Court ordering transfer of the Muzaffarpur shelter home trial to Delhi is a slap on the face of the Nitish government which claims to ensure justice to its people. In shifting the case at Saket in Delhi, the apex court has demonstrated its lack of confidence in the Bihar government. The disgust of the court could be gauged from the observation “Enough is enough’, give us details of 110 shelter homes in the state. How many inmates are there? How the state giving assistance and what is is the number of male and female inmates”. The Supreme Court rebuked Nitish government and transferred the Muzaffarpur case trial to Delhi.

Opposition unity is only skin deep. And Chandrababu Naidu’s ‘unite or perish’ warning may not register on Mamata Banerjee and the Left parties; Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav. Mulayam Singh Yadav’s ‘endorsement’ of ‘Modi for PM again’ indicates the Yadav vote-bank is divided. Akhilesh might have forgiven ‘Bua’ Mayawati, but Mulayam? It was he who got reputation tarnished and a big chunk of the Yadav still stand firm with the father.

People are generally happy when prices are low; they feel even better off when prices are falling. But that could be a nightmare for the economic policy makers. Rising prices can be fought back; but it is impossible to tackle falling prices. Japan, for example, is fighting deflation for two decades without much success.

Weekly Round-Up of Major Decisions of the Courts in India as also Legal Policy Developments

The last few weeks have been a revelation in the context of Rafale deal. Each day a new story comes of rampant procedural violations, bypassing of India’s national security interests, diluting anti-corruption clauses, and now the most damaging news that Anil Ambani had knowledge of the Rafale deal 10 days before the Prime Minister visited France in April, 2015. And it is clear that none of these documents/information were made available to the Supreme Court, which was kept in complete dark about the processes involved in the Rafale deal.

BHOPAL: After losing power in Madhya Pradesh the BJP is again in fighting mood and started behaving as an opposition party. To begin it has held strong demonstrations to express its anger against what it described as deteriorating law and order situation in the state. BJP is also holding demonstrations in various parts of the state pointing lacunae in the farmer loan waiving scheme. Besides BJP some other Kisan organisatons are also holding demonstrations. One such rally was held in Bhopal. A large number of farmers under the banner of Bharatiya Kisan Union took out a rally and handed over a memorandum to officials on Monday demanding waiver of all farm loans that are outstanding till December 2018.

LUCKNOW: Impressive road show of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rahul Gandhi and Jyotiraditya Scindia in Lucknow has unnerved SP-BSP alliance. Massive participation of people from all castes and religions at the road show has forced to Samajwadi Party and BSP to revise their strategy to contest 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee(KPCC) president Mullappally Ramachandran’s offer to the CPI(M) to have an alliance with that party in Kerala if it gives up the politics of violence is an eminently sensible idea whose time has come.