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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala has, once again, lived up to its reputation for blazing new trails in various fields. The latest feather in its capacious cap is the Bill for amending certain provisions in the Kerala Shops and Commercial Establishments Act to usher in changes aimed at ensuring a comfortable working environment for women employees.

A good end of story for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. But the big story behind Delhi’s July 4 story is that Justice Chelameswar & Co. had no business alluding to ‘democracy in peril’ and there was no reason for top lawyers, sections of the media and opposition parties – displaying symptoms of ‘shared psychosis’ – to condemn India’s top court to the cell-block as worse than the one in Pakistan.

Trade war is not a short term tussle. It will linger. Nobody knows when it reaches the end game. It is an indirect sanction against export based economies, given that US is the biggest buyer in the world. Amidst this turbulence, a new pattern of economic partnership emerges. Even politically adversary countries are tending to re-unite to withstand USA’s protectionism. In this perspective, a relook at economic cooperation between China and India unleashes a new pattern of economic engagement.

With less than ten months left for the holding of the scheduled general elections to the Lok Sabha, the opposition parties led by the Congress have to frame its electoral strategy with insight and pragmatism so that there is a common candidate of the opposition in maximum number of seats. Out of 543 seats of Lok Sabha, all efforts have to be made to ensure one to one fight between the main opposition and the BJP led NDA in about 430 of the 543 seats leaving the remaining 113 seats open for contests among the regional parties and the Congress.

AITUC has decided to intensify its struggle against the anti-working class and anti-people policies of the Narendra Modi led RSS-controlled BJP government at the Centre. As part of the main programme the AITUC working committee has decided to carry out a 40-day nation-wide campaign with the slogans like ‘Save Workers, Save Nation’,’ Oust Anti-people Modi government’, starting from the Quit India Anniversary Day on August 9, 2018 and to culminate on September 18.

Finally, after messages on Whatsapp triggered one too many mob lynching, the government has bitten the bullet, asking the messaging app to prevent the circulation of false texts and provocative videos. Facebook–owned Whatsapp wouldn’t do anything on its own, that’s for sure, but Whatsapp’s biggest market is India and Mark Zuckerberg can’t risk a stomach-ache to go with the headaches he courted in the United States and Europe.

It is odd that a party with an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha should be as much preoccupied with an adversary who was seen to be down in the dumps only four years ago as the BJP is with the Congress.

Driven by continuous economic growth and strong policy support to curb air pollution, the Asia and Pacific region will account for over half of the total natural gas consumption growth until 2023 because of robust economic growth led by China and India, says Gas 2018 report jointly published by International Energy Agency (IEA) and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

‘This or that’ has been Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s lot ever since he took charge of India in mid-2014. All of us face ‘this or that’ situations in life, there's a Hamlet in all of us. But prime ministers should not allow the Hamlet in them to take charge.

The United States of America has left the United Nations Human Rights Council. This news came as a shock to some and as an eventuality to many. This latest decision is part of a broader foreign policy shift that is being witnessed under the Donald Trump administration in the White House. A greater disengagement by the United States when it comes to multilateral instruments.