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World Bank forecasts global economy to shrink to 2.9 percent in 2019, from 3 percent in 2018, citing the US-China trade tension. Given the fact that USA and China account for a little over one-fifth of world trade, the escalation in trade row will have a major impact on global trade, vis-a-vis, global economy.

LUCKNOW: Congress Party under the guidance of Priyanka Gandhi is building rainbow coalition of different smaller parties and groups to enlarge are support base to take on BJP in Uttar Pradesh. There is a realisation in Congress about its limitation due to two seats in Lok Sabha, six seats in Vidhan Sabha and six percents of vote share in the State.

India is witnessing the criminalisation of medical education that begins with licensing of colleges by the Medical Council of India (MCI), regulator of medical education and medical profession. According to sources in the Ethics Committee of MCI, this criminal nexus includes MCI, promoters of private medical colleges, real estate lobbies, local politicians and serving or retired doctors from government medical colleges. Large amounts of money changes hands at every stage of the medical education chain.

The AFL-CIO, the 12.5 million-strong labour federation, will not be making an early endorsement in the 2020 presidential race. “There will be no early endorsement of any of the candidates who have announced,” Lee Saunders, chair of the federation’s political committee, told People’s World.

Once again, India and Pakistan stood at the brink of war over Kashmir, and have only just begun to tone down the posturing and threats. With nuclear weapons uncomfortably close at hand, almost 2 billion people in the region face the risk of nuclear catastrophe. For well over three decades now, multiple simulations and projections have suggested that an India–Pakistan nuclear escalation could lead to millions of deaths in the region, rivaling past great famines. The consequences of a nuclear exchange of any magnitude could affect generations to come. Kashmir has proved an especially intractable political predicament for the two countries. As Arundhati Roy wrote in her 2017 novel, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, the confrontation over Kashmir is “a perfect war—a war that can never be won or lost, a war without end”.

BHOPAL: There are definite indications that selection of candidates for Lok Sabha polls is going to be herculean task both for the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress. Comparatively it will be more difficult task for the BJP. It appears that because of adverse reports about their performance the BJP may be forced to drop 40 percent of sitting MPs. Out of the total 29 seats in the state BJP’s strength is 26.

The Congress has less than 60 days to stop Narendra Modi from becoming Prime Minister again. And allowing Modi to set the electoral agenda is not how it should be done. The electorate wants an alternate plan of action and Modi should be rightly attacked on his many broken promises, his omissions and commissions. His bluff on national security should be called out and ‘Rafale’ shouldn’t be consigned to the hangar. But will these be enough?

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal may be committing harakiri by making full statehood for NCT region his poll plank for the Lok Sabha elections. Enlightened and educated Delhi voters know that the full statehood demand cannot be accepted precisely because it happens to be the seat of national authority. Two power centres cannot co-exist in one city.

Unemployment is at a 45 year low. That is not fake news. It is the government talking. And, at least on this, nobody is contesting the government. So, jobs are an issue. Or, shall we say joblessness is an issue. For a while, in the month of January 2019, joblessness made headlines. Everybody was talking of NSSO and the lack of jobs numbers. The BJP was on the back foot and the Modi Government had no answers.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Communist Party of India(Marxist) is pulling out all the stops to win the Lok Sabha elections from Kerala. The candidates list released by the party amply reflects its determination to send a decent complement of MPs to the Lok Sabha from the state.