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Congress spearhead and INDI-Alliance’s only hope Rahul Gandhi’s hoarse voice is what’s giving hope to those praying Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not get a third term. The Wayanad MP is asking people lining up to receive his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and listening to his speeches at the halts to “think hard”. He is asking the “low castes and the OBCs” in the electorate to deny Modi “Abki baar 400-paar”.

The internet has many reports from all around the world proclaiming that journalism is dying or the business of journalism is dying. Those who are part of this industry already know the truth. For several years, journalists stopped getting promotions as newspapers would just do with the minimal and entry level staff. Then, competition became too harsh to maintain the class and dignity of the profession. The good old days of journalism, where accuracy and refinement of language were as important as cross-checking the facts, were left behind. With that, we abandoned the tradition of independent journalism and the legacy of some of the stalwarts in this arena.

India’s defence secretary Giridhar Armane’s outburst at the INDUS-X defence summit against China, last week, on the continuing troop face-offs in the Ladakh region exposed, if anything, the ministry’s frustration in dealing with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The defence secretary described Beijing as a ‘bully” against whom Indian forces are standing firm along the frontier, after China’s rebuff once again of India’s push to defuse the continuing troop face-offs at Depsang and Demchok in eastern Ladakh in the latest round of military talks between the two sides. The PLA reportedly continues to forward deploy around 60,000 troops with heavy weaponry in western (Ladakh) and central sectors (Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh) of the 3,488-km-long LAC and 90,000 soldiers in the eastern part (Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh). India matches them with “mirror military deployments.”

For the past 10 days, Sonal Singh (name changed), a 20-year-old Engineering student from Ambala, located in the state of Haryana, India, has been overwhelmed with feelings of frustration and anxiety. She is anxiously waiting for news about the reinstatement of internet services in the northern part of India, which has experienced a shutdown ordered by the government of Haryana state due to the farmers' protest that is currently happening. Singh’s lack of access to her Coursera or Engineering Convertor App, an essential tool for Engineering students, has significantly hindered her exam preparation efforts.

Bahujan Samaj Party is like the sinking ship in countless high seas stories. Should anybody be bothered? BSP Supremo ‘Behan’ Mayawati gives the impression she doesn’t see the BSP floundering. If Bahujan Samaj Party MPs are leaving the BSP, that is because they might not get BSP tickets this time. That they don’t see a role for themselves in the BSP is another matter. But time is running out and the 2024 general elections are getting closer than what can be made of the cloudy image in the rearview mirror.

While Rahul Gandhi, joined by his sister Priyanka Gandhi, resumed Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra from Moradabad on February 25, TV news channels and even some YouTubers were articulating their anxiety on whether Rahul would turn the massive mass upsurge which had flooded the streets and lanes of the city to greet him, into votes.

It is not yet a done deal with regard to political alliances in Tamil Nadu for the 2024 Lok sabha elections. As the saying goes there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies in politics. In Tamil Nadu, politics revolves round two Dravidian parties DMK and AIADMK for a half a century or more. The two parties, which had around 30 to 35 per cent vote share each has certainly come down ever since the death of DMK patriarch M Karunanidhi and AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa some years ago. Since then the individual vote share of the two Dravidian parties have come down to 20-22 per cent each and as we had seen in the last few elections, whichever party stitches up better coalition, wins all, be it Tamil Nadu assembly or Lok Sabha elections.

The latest EPFO data released last week shows that formal job generation in India has been a casualty since 2018-19 when new EPF subscribers joining the EPF were 13.94 million but had fallen to13.85 million in the year 2022-23. During this period there were great fluctuations showing that fewer decent jobs were created in informal sector and those created belonged to low category.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The prophets of doom have ended up with egg on their faces. The Cassandras do not know where to rush for cover. Belying all dire predictions, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) has scored a morale-boosting victory in the local body by-elections held in several districts on February 23.

Indian Railways 848 projects, each costing Rs.150 crore and more, has been delayed by an average of over three years. According to a latest flash report by the Infrastructure and Project Monitoring Division of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, out of 1, 820 projects being monitored, 56 are ahead of schedule, 618 on schedule, 431 projects reported cost overruns, and 268 projects reported both cost and time over-runs in terms of their original project implementation schedule.