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All the three wings of governance in India – the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary – suffer from a general disbelief of their being neutral and honest. People are helpless against the irregularities and injustices done by the legislators, top officials and ministers in the executives, and the judges from the judiciary. People have only limited scope of remedy for injustices, and for many of them they are absolutely helpless, a truth that has been spilled over as the four senior most Supreme Court judges, next to the Chief Justice of India, accepted before the press. They went to the extent to allege ‘assigning of cases to benches of preference’ breaching court rules. It is for the first time in India we have the ‘real head’ of the executive, and the ‘actual head’ of the judiciary alleged of doing whatever they like to do against all ‘traditions and norms’.

Soon after a massive Aadhaar expose by a reporter from The Tribune, another shocking incident, involving the Press Association, an organization of accredited journalists and photographers, has come to light. For decades the Press Association had been provided a room in the PIB’s first floor in the Shastri Bhavan. Later, when the National Media Centre building was constructed, there also a room was reserved for the Association. Suddenly, the Press Association received a letter, directing it, to vacate the room within “five working days”. The letter did not assign any reason for this uncalled for action and simply stated “the competent authority” wants the room to be vacated. According to sources in the PIB, no senior officer was willing to sign the letter. So, it was signed by a junior functionary of the PIB.

The World Bank had predicted higher growth for India next year. But that is not an isolated episode of global enthusiasm about the country. Earlier, credit rating agencies had upgraded India’s investment worthiness. But for now, the World Bank study indicated strong growth potential for India at plus-7% for the next decade when China slows down. One can safely say that for a decade from now on, India should be the fastest growing major economy, that is, unless the governments of the day totally derail the process.

Although the National Medical Commission Bill has been referred to the standing committee, certain things need to be answered. The best alternative, however, would be to revamp the MCI to remedy the shortcomings which had cropped in it. But if the government is too adamant, then it is important that at least some major concerns must be addressed.

Something we never get to know from research papers downloaded on us is what do the researchers themselves think about the issues they research, their own answers to the questions they pose to the sample surveyed. That is food for thought. Moving on, a newly published research paper titled ‘Explicit Prejudice: Evidence from a New Survey’ shows that not much has changed on the societal plane in India. The same prejudices still exist, and the people who they target haven’t changed face, too.

With US President Donald Trump in all-out war with media, fake news and fake media are current news. And one piece of news that sounds like “fake news” and is doing the rounds is that news reporting in mainstream Indian media is “fair and objective”.

The United States President Donald Trump will be attending the annual World Economic Forum conclave at Davos scheduled on January 22 to 26 this year. The WEF is known as the Forum of the world business leaders and the political statesmen who are known as ardent supporters of globalisation and always the American Presidents were welcome in this winter meet at the Alps in Switzerland, as the leaders of the free world. In 2000, the then US President Bill Clinton attended the conclave and mesmerised the delegates through his oration and articulation of globalisation with human face. It is after seventeen years, another US President is attending but this time, the WEF organisers are panicky. The new President is not coming as the acknowledged leader of globalisation, he is set to disrupt whatever the WEF has stood for till now. Trump is sure to draw all the attention of the conclave and set the agenda of his own.

The last time elections took place in Jammu and Kashmir there was violence and the Mehbooba Mufti-led government was forced to cancel the elections in the Anantnag constituency. By then close to 100 civilians were killed and several hundred others lost partial or complete eyesight.

With the Union Budget presentation approaching, expectations are rising among the salaried—not only about a possible hike in income-tax exemption limit but also on some major path-breaking schemes like unemployment allowance for youth and retrenched workers. However, some TU leaders are sceptical given the policy paralysis of Modi Government on labour issues.

Jignesh Mevani’s Yuva Hunkar Rally hoped to rally the millions of youth in India against the Narendra Modi government for failing to create jobs and for creating divisions in the body politic of India. But the rally in Delhi, which was to be followed by hundreds of rallies across India, failed to draw even 300 young.