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The possibility of India becoming developed Bharat remains a mirage. In fact it can hardly turn into reality. The mother with her baby, hungry for last two days, a common feature in our country, can never be convinced of the easy availability of food for her new born. The FM was smug in her announcements, though most of them were without content. The issues like unemployment staring at face, were claimed to be on decline. Efforts were made to substantiate the claim with two government reports.

If at Harvard earlier this year students received their degrees in the colors of Palestine, in Paris this same flag was waved by France Insoumise MPs in parliament. Each set of images remind us of a different time: the 1960s and ’70s, when left-wing parties in Europe and the United States had close relations with the anti-colonial and peace movements.

LONDON: We Will not stand back and allow the far right to attempt to divide us, unions vowed on Wednesday..Violence has gripped Britain after far-right agitators exploited the fatal stabbing of three young girls in Southport to push their racist agenda.

The practice of growing vegetables on the land along Mumbai railway tracks is on its way out. The railways now plan to use the land for horticulture and beautify the tracks, giving the local commuters an aesthetic feel of the city. It has earmarked 150 acres in 115 locations covering 125 stations for this project. Over time, the railway will do away with vegetable farming being practiced now and redeem the 260 acres to use it for horticulture.

India didn’t know what was cooking in its backyard. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, vaunted vishwaguru – supposedly the only leader with the charisma to talk Russia out of the war with Ukraine – was caught off-guard when a coup forced Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take a clandestine flight to India, leaving Bangladesh to the mob!

After the sudden, inglorious exit of Sheikh Hasina from the political theatre of Bangladesh, the tone and temper of the students’ movement have changed. A new narrative is making rounds in the political and media circles that the student movement for quota reform is fading from the official narrative and BNP-Jamaat have conspired to take over the functions of the Government. It is also in the air that CIA and ISI, with the help of the Bangladeshi rightist forces, inimical to India, have backed the fundamentalist elements to turn the focus of the movement of the students in the direction of Hasina’s removal.

INDIA bloc is now firmly against taxing people on their future crises of life and health, protested within and outside the Parliament against imposition of 18 per cent GST on life and health insurance premium, and demanded their immediate removal. Modi government seems to be unwilling to concede to the demand, though healthcare has already been made unaffordable to the common people, and the GST has made life and health insurance even less affordable to the masses.

Vinesh Phogat’s Olympics debacle is the ultimate manifestation of the uncertainty in sports, where triumph and tragedy often converge in a moment’s breath. Phogat, a wrestler whose athletic prowess as well as her struggle against sports bureaucracy has made her a beacon of hope and defiance in Indian sports, found her aspirations for gold shattered by a matter of grams—100 to be precise. In a cruel twist of fate, Phogat was disqualified from the Paris Olympics because she exceeded the weight limit for her 50kg-category by just 100 grams. The number 100 turns out to be the most inauspicious for India’s sports aspirations.

After catching attention with her National Award winning big screen debut as Lakshmi, a low caste and morally ambiguous villager in Shyam Benegal’s Ankur 1974, Shabana Azmi has pitched out a rare feat of winning five National Awards for – Ankur, Arth (1983), Khandhar (1984), Paar (1985) and Godmother (1999)— and a masterful turn in both mainstream and arthouse movies. Azmi is arguably one of India’s most gifted actresses.

WASHINGTON: The vibes have not been this good for a long time. Only two weeks after President Joe Biden’s decision to end his campaign turned the 2024 election on its head, Vice President Kamala Harris has shocked the political establishment by choosing as her running mate Minnesota governor Tim Walz, the most progressive of the handful of names in contention. Walz has a record as governor that anyone on the Left has plenty to be pleased with, from putting in place free, universal school meals and paid family and medical leave to establishing a form of tuition-free public college and beefing up worker protections.