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The first budget of the second Modi Government has completely ignored the existence of the acute job crisis in the country and nowhere in the statement of the Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, there is any mention of a problem called unemployment which is at its worst in the recent period. The budget talks of achieving 7 per cent growth rate in 2019-20 and projects a US$ 5 trillion Indian economy by 2024 on the basis of the jobless growth strategy that the first Modi government persued for the last five years.

The ‘Bahi Khata’ (traditional Indian ledger), instead of the ‘budget’ (a briefcase), carried by the Minister of Finance Nirmala Sitharaman while entering the parliament to present India’s Budget 2019-20 did mark a symbolic change. However, the Bahi Khata tabled in the parliament did not reflect the change in the mindset of the government. The dreaminess of the budget, wildness of some of the provisions, and gorgeous phrases has remained the same as usual that has pushed the country into a state of tepid growth, joblessness, and farm distress in the last five years of Modi rule.

The Economic Survey 2018-19 presented to Parliament on Thursday has called for a drastic restructuring of the strategy in the MSME sector for higher generation of jobs in the coming year’s underlining that the smaller firms in the sector have to grow fast through induction of technology and latest expertise. The Survey is not convinced about giving special incentives to the labour intensive sectors since what matters most is whether or not investment enhances productivity.

Beginning with the “ghetto riot” at the Stonewall Bar in Greenwich Village in 1969, an open gay liberation movement came into existence which has been a significant force in the larger peoples’ movements for almost a half-century. While most people identify gay liberation with the “New Left” of the 1960s, it, like the civil rights, women’s rights, and anti-war movements of the time, cannot be separated from the range of broad labor-left organizations that had been forced into a political closet with the onset of the Cold War, including the Communist Party.

Miltablishment has become somewhat hyperactive in Pakistan. The Opposition smells a rat. A meeting of major political parties, opposed to the ruling coalition government, led by the Pakistan Tehreek-e Insaf, in the Pakistani capital on 26 June assumed political significance. Convened by the Jamiat Ulma-e Islam, an Islamist political party albeit distanced from the Pakistani Taliban and other terrorists, the participants represented liberal, conservative, ethno-nationalist trends as also JUI. “This meeting has emphasized parliamentary, constitutional, and civilian rule in the country. We will oppose every move aimed at weakening the parliamentary democracy in our country”, said JUI chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman while briefing newspersons.

7th July is a historic day when the UN General Assembly passed Treaty Prohibiting Nuclear Weapons in 2017. The treaty is an opportunity which the global community must utilize to make the world free of nuclear weapons. An opportunity lost may never be regained.

The Economic Survey 2018-19 is euphemistic in tone. A little despair on account of much troubled economy has been taken away instilling a little hope through attractive phrases and portraying an ailing economy as potentially a great economy of the future. Survey departs from traditional Anglo-Saxon thinking by viewing the economy as being either in a virtuous or a vicious cycle, and thus never in equilibrium, and then goes on claiming that the ‘virtuous cycle’ has begun indirectly saying that ‘vicious cycle’ has ended for good. However, the heart of the matter is that the present Indian economy is under great duress, under ‘viscious cycle’ both in domestic and external sectors.

BHOPAL: The Government servants all over the state of Madhya Pradesh must have heaved a sigh of relief after hearing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s denunciation of Akash Vijayvargiya’s act of goondaism. After the Lok Sabha elections reports were pouring in Bhopal about the assaults on government servants from various districts of the state. In most of the cases culprits belong to the BJP or their subsidiary organisations. Besides violent attack the BJP leaders served oral threats. BJP cadres had created a climate of terror after loss of power.

The Budget deals with allocating money towards areas where the government thinks it is essential to spend and finding out ways such as taxes, to finance it. The Government primarily requires money to spend on social infrastructure (such as Swachh Bharat mission), physical infrastructure (such as railways, roads, and airports) and transferring funds to the poor and the deprived (through schemes such as MGNREGA, PM Kisan, and PM Shram Yogi Mandhan).

After having put all election-sensitive issues beyond the 2019 the Lok Sabha poll, the Supreme Court has resumed its business. All those issues will now come up before the court, but after it had conveniently deferred them all to a more opportune time.