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Deaths of homeless people have been branded a “national tragedy” after shock figures revealed today that the number has leapt by almost a quarter in the last five years. Almost 600 people sleeping rough or in emergency accommodation died last year in England and Wales, according to an estimate from the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This total represents a 24 per cent rise from the 482 who died in 2013, according to the first research of its kind by the ONS.

Till a month back the rebellion by Tejpratap Yadav, elder son of Lalu Prasad, against his younger brother Tejashvi had very few takers. But with Lalu’s daughter and Rajya Sabha MP Misha Bharati blasting the brothers for fighting, bolstering the chances of their opponents JD(U) and BJP, it has given a rude shock to the RJD rank and file.

In an unusual gesture, Prime Minister Modi chose to personally announce an increase in honorarium for scheme workers like anganwadi workers and accredited social health activists (ASHAs) on 21 September 2018. He even called it a “landmark increase in remuneration”. However, the increase turned out to be quite paltry in absolute terms.

Now that the Congress has won convincingly in the state assembly elections in Chhattisgarh and formed the Government after fifteen years of rule by the BJP headed by Dr. Raman Singh, the time has come for the Congress leadership at both state and central level to take up real dialogue with the Naxalites and make sincere efforts to go into the root of the problem of violence in the affected districts.

British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn told some uncomfortable truths to Europe’s social democratic parties in Lisbon last week. He urged the congress of the Party of European Socialists to “work together to help build a real social Europe, a people’s Europe, a Europe that will strengthen solidarity across borders, resist the race to the bottom in rights and protections, and work together to extend them for all workers, consumers, and our environment.”

BHOPAL: Results of the MP Vidhan Sabha election clearly indicate that the policy of appeasement of Hindus followed by chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan did not pay dividend. In fact, he made all-out efforts to convert Madhya Pradesh into a state of Hindu rashtra. The first and foremost step was to lift the ban on government servants participating in RSS activities. Perhaps Madhya Pradesh was the first state to do so.

Merriam-Webster’s word of year 2018 is “justice”. Oxford dictionary chose “toxic” and Dictionary.com gave distinction to “misinformation”. New York Times, Washington Post and CNN may not have picked “fake”, probably the most referred word in “news cycles over months and months”, because the Trump-given “fake” to them has stuck to them whether they like it or not, whether they are nowhere fake at all. Perhaps a word not considered by wordsmiths is “conduct” which is at the heart of “justice”, “toxic” and “misinformation” and "fake”. And the conduct of a police officer was subject of a Privilege Motion in the Lok Sabha Wednesday.

While US-China trade war botched global trade, it opened a new gate for India’s export expansion to China. Hitherto, China never blinked in India’s radar for export destinations, despite the huge trade deficit with that country. Under MIES scheme in Exim policy – a specific market oriented export promotion measure – China never figured in the scheme.

The open letter sent by 83 retired bureaucrats of the country demanding the resignation of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for his role in dealing with the killing of the police officer in Bulandshahr violence on December 3, is a reflection of the agony and anguish of the former ruling elite of India who are stunned by the criminalization of the society and polity by the ruling politicians and the instigation by the state government itself for the anti-minority bias of the officials in charge of law and order.

Since the current NDA Union Government came to power in May 2014, there has been a systematic frontal attacks on the autonomy and independence of the national public institutions of Parliament, judiciary, Election Commission, education including Central Board of Secondary School Examinations, Reserve Bank of India, the national central bank, armed forces, investigative agencies like Central Bureau of Investigation, elected legislature and the free press. Every such institution that has been upholding a healthy and vibrant democracy, needing to be protected and cared for by the government of the day in order to dispense neutral decisions in the interest of every citizen of India, has been undermined to weaken democratic system of rule of law based governance, with the rise of the assertive majoritarian government.