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Guess governments start to get more and more influenced by the party that forms the government as general elections approach. Witness the BJP-led Modi government. It has become more party-focused than country-concerned these last several months.

India may be the world’s largest producer of milk, but when it comes to per capita consumption, it is still far below the countries such as the US, EU members, Russia and even Brazil. Moreover, much of India’s milk is used for sweetmeat production. According to market researchers, India’s annual per capita milk consumption is still well below 100litres, compared to the US (nearly 300ltrs.), EU (over 280ltrs), Russia (220ltrs) and Brazil (156ltrs).Therefore, the recent statement in Lok Sabha by Minister of State for Agriculture Krishna Raj seeking to raise the country’s milk production to 254.5 million tonnes by 2021-22 makes sense. The minister said: "Milk production in the country was 165.4 million tonnes during 2016-17 and 176.35 million tonnes (provisional) during 2017-18.”

Donald Trump is the key to the treasury for the US media. Circulation and viewership. TRP. Advertisement revenue. Zoom. Vroom. The remote is never far from a hand. New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, MSNBC. All rolling in hay! No guesses on ‘why?’

The Drug Technical Advisory Board’s (DTAB) sub-committee’s report and recommendations to ban 343 of the Fixed dose Drug Combinations (FDCs) have been welcomed by the medical professionals in general. Several organizations have been demanding ban on these combinations on the basis of evidence produced by several studies.

It is indeed shocking that a section of the Indian Penal Code allows a married man to present his wife to someone else without the need to get her consent and without inviting the law against adultery. This should have been a clear case of trafficking or promoting prostitution, but ironically it is being permitted in the name of protecting the institution of marriage!

The biggest news is that the Monsoon Session of Parliament has been functioning normally. This is, perhaps, for the first time in four years, since the BJP came to power, that the two houses have been conducting business without interruptions and there is no adjournment for an hour, two hours and for the day. On the eve of the Monsoon Session, almost all newspapers predicted that this session too, like previous ones, will be a washout, but all of them proved wrong. The highlight of the ongoing session was admission of a no-confidence against the Modi government. During the day-long debate, talents from both sides sparkled and came to the fore. In the last session too, Opposition made a bid to bring the no-trust motion but Speaker, Sumitra Mahajan, did not give her consent on the plea that the house was not in order.

Notwithstanding the people’s fundamental right to be free from hunger and to consume safe food, free from toxics, pesticides, other micro-biologicals, chemicals and physical contaminants, the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat contain residues of pesticides. Adulteration of food is caused by sand, stone, chalk powder, mineral oil, coal tar, dyes, arsenic, lead, mercury, pesticide residues, larvae in food, rampant use of formalin in fish, infection by rodents, insects in the form of excreta etc. Poor implementation of the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act, 1954 and the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 that created the food regulator, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), coupled with law enforcers (food inspectors), deficiencies in the testing laboratories lead to persistence of menace of food adulteration.

And in this heart of darkness
Our hope lies on the floor
All love like flame is fleeting
When there is no hope anymore.

So we feel, many of us, as 2019 general elections close in on us in a relentless caterpillar-walk. The caterpillar eats distance in a hump-and-slide manner and watching one cover the floor is to come prepared with time to spare, loads of sand to trickle!

Change is taking place exponentially in today’s world. One unmistakable trend is the rapid rise of China and decline of the U.S. as the dominant global power, a place it has held since World War II. What does this portend for global economic and diplomatic relations? What new international order might prevail in a multi-polar world? Will it occur peacefully or will the coming years be marked by heightened tensions, turmoil and increased danger of war?

It’s been 44 years, come August 8-9, 1974, since Republican President Richard M. Nixon resigned in disgrace – before being thrown out of the Oval Office via impeachment and conviction – due to the accumulated scandals, constitutional crimes and cover-ups collectively known as Watergate.