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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: At a time when all energies should be directed to minimize the impact of the tragedy that struck Wayanad district in Kerala, the Bharatiya Janata Party is politicizing the tragedy to score brownie points. The blame game should have been avoided, at least for the time being.

A grainy picture of an ostensibly ‘Made in India’ part of a bomb in Gaza created a social media maelstrom last month and highlighted a growing concern about India’s arms exports exacerbating the suffering of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.

NEW YORK: Voters could elect a Trump administration that denies the climate crisis and whose policies are dictated by the fossil fuel industry. Or a Kamala Harris administration that builds on climate-friendly policies, curbs the power of the fossil fuel industry, accelerates a clean energy revolution, adapts to climate change, and builds resilient communities and global solidarity.

The New Popular Front (NFP) has taken a major step towards forming a coalition government in France after the partners agreed to name independent socialist Lucie Castets as the Prime Minister candidate for forming the new government after the July 7 general elections led to a hung national assembly. The NFP leadership has formally urged the President Emanuel Macron to immediately appoint her as the new Prime Minister.

The decadal census, which was due in 2021, has not been held so far. In the union budget 2024-25, no substantial provision has been made for conducting the census. The centre has also not extended the deadline of June 2024 to freeze administrative boundaries which are necessary to conduct the census as per the administrative boundaries like districts, taluk, block or village levels.

Left and Right politics do exist in America, but the divide has never been so pronounced as it is shaping up this time just ahead of the D-Day, when the Americans would be electing their next president in November this year. The blame for polarising this year’s presidential election on the left and right streak goes to the Republican candidate Donald Trump. Joe Biden making way for Kamala Harris has made Trump conscious of the tough challenge he would face in the incumbent vice-president. He obviously launched a vile campaign against her and started depicting her as a hardened leftist; using it as a metaphor of her being a hardened criminal.

Ransomware cyberattack on C-Edge, forcing the joint venture fintech platform of the State Bank of India (SBI) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) down, affecting about 300 co-operative and regional banks for the last three days should be a wake-up call for India, in the backdrop of the technology being the most targeted of Industries in the country, and also because it aims to roll out the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 soon.

Has Rahul Gandhi’s communications improved lately? From khatakhat to taka tak and tana tan, Rahul Gandhi seems to have honed his communication skills to effectively reach the Indian masses. His ability to connect with the people, despite being labelled as Sahajada, a leader born with a silver spoon in his mouth, is truly impressive. In contrast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party appears to have a significant communication gap with the people, despite his image as a hardworking leader with his hand on the nation’s pulse.

The Cabinet Secretary can take part in RSS activities. So can those who answer to him and to other government officials and their subordinates. This happened when in one fell stroke the Modi government lifted the 58-year-old ‘ban’ on government employees participating in the activities of the RSS, which some say is a retrograde step.

The unemployment rate has been rising sharply from seven percent in May to 9.2 percent in June, 2024 in our country today according to CMIE. Government is yet to offer way out from the great crisis. Though our economy is under the shadows of immense crisis, the Union budget has almost no plans to resolve the basic problems. Apart from the revenue and expenditure statements, the budget has almost nothing to offer for the coming fiscal year. It is a perfect example of how politics influences economy, though economy has a stronger influence over politics too, and that has been seen in the annals of history. The states of Andhra Pradesh and Bihar were mentioned immediately after agrarian sector and boosting of employment scenario.