View Articles

It is a mark of strength in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s functioning that nothing ever gets leaked unless deliberately done. This is amply reflected in recent expansion of the Union Council of Ministers. For days before the expansion and reshuffle, the TV channels and news papers ran extensively speculative stories of what is going to happen but almost all of them went wrong. With one possible exception (the inclusion of former Mumbai Police Commissioner Satyapal Singh), nearly every prediction went off the mark.

The National Health Policy 2017 document commits itself to culturally appropriate community centered solutions to meet the health needs of the ageing community in addition to compliance with constitutional obligations as per the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007. This policy recognizes the growing need for palliative and rehabilitative care for all geriatric illnesses and advocates the continuity of care across all levels. The question, however, is how all this is going to be met with.

India is passing through a treacherous times. There is no Dickensian dual scenario-it is one way- it is the worst of times. Indian democracy is at peril. The voice of dissent is being throttled. The ruling establishment is encouraging the most heinous type of abuses and abetment to violence in social media.; Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is considered as the darling of the online netizens, has found no time to send any condolence message on the brutal murder of one of the most respected journalists in the country Gouri Lankesh. Rather, he is following in twitter still the saffron heroes of online who are expressing glee at the death of one of the anti- Hindutva voices in the media. There is fear, apprehensions in the Indian media, more so in the states and the districts as the different segments of the Sangh Parivar are getting emboldened to take on the dissenters who question them or oppose their actions. Everything has to be in their way, otherwise?

On Friday, August 25, President Trump announced the imposition of tough new sanctions on the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, as punishment for the establishment of a new National Constituent Assembly in that country. But the Constituent Assembly is not taking Trump’s latest attacks lying down, but rather is forging ahead with a full program of reforms on the heels of military threats against the South American country.

Nearly 80 officials of Khunti administration, including SP Ashwini Kumar Sinha, were held hostage for 12 hours by tribal villagers 60km from Ranchi on August 25 in protest against a move to amend the Tenancy Act and give their arable lands to Adanis.

NEW DELHI: Dr. Arun Mitra, a leading ENT surgeon of the country, has been elected as Co-President of the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War at the 22nd Congress of IPPNW at York in UK.

BHOPAL: The sorry state of affairs in schools run by the state government. continues to haunt Madhya Pradesh’s education sector. Even as the state celebrates Teachers Day, the shortage of an estimated 31,000 teachers in government schools remains as a major malady. These vacancies are based on the department’s own figures, but the number is expected to be much higher if the guidelines for teacher-students ratio are taken into account. A more realistic number would be about 1 lakh.

JAFFNA; A fortnight back I was in Jaffna, the main city in the north dominated by Tamils. Though the city and its people are yet to come out of the trauma of the 30- year old ethnic war, the compulsion of survival has made them catch up with the time. Shop owners or small traders felt that while the financial condition of the people of the city is yet to make a substantial improvement, the area has undoubtedly attained a comparatively good economic growth rate. They shared the perception that soon the area will witness comfortable growth as the people are determined to achieve development.

The Modi Government unveiled its third Cabinet reshuffle giving primacy to gender factor by elevating a woman to the defense portfolio and dropping, inter-changing and adding a few familiar and new faces and the spotlight naturally shifts to governance now. But in the run-up to the reshuffle, a lot of ill-tidings gripped the government with the RBI announcing its final count of how much old currencies returned to the system to apprise the country rather obliquely of how the entire demonetization bid was a mountain labored to spawn a mouse! As if there is a distinct disconnect between official claims of demonetization and the stark ground reality, the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) came out with its first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures.

None of the attempts by the BJP’s opponents to pose a serious challenge to the ruling party at the Centre, including Lalu Prasad Yadav’s “BhaJaPa bhagao, desh bachao” (oust BJP, save the country) rally in Patna, is likely to give the BJP sleepless nights.