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For a lawyer, when his chamber senior passes away, he naturally feels a loss. I am feeling a terrible loss on the passing away of senior advocate Murlidhar C. Bhandare, who lived a long and meaningful life into the mid-nineties.

Irregularities in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), an examination conducted by the National Testing Agency (NTA) for admissions to medical courses, has raised many serious questions. A record number of 67 students obtained the perfect score of 720 out of 23,33,297 who appeared for the test. Never have more than three students got full marks in this test since 2020. Two, scores of candidates reported that they were not given question papers on time or were handed wrong question papers. Three, the Optical Marks Recognition (OMR) sheet of some students was torn and their results were delayed. Four, for no fault of several hundred candidates, their results were blocked.

The CPI(M) and its partners in the Left Front have been almost completely wiped out from the electoral map of West Bengal. Except for a single seat in the Rajya Sabha from this state, it has been a dry run for the Left since the 2021 Assembly elections. The CPI(M)-led Left Front has been yielding ground to Trinamool Congress since the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. The retreat turned into a rout after the BJP emerged as the principal opposition, replacing both the Congress and the Left on the opposition benches in the state Assembly.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has five years to create a capital city out of Amaravati. This is because elections play funny games and one of them is dashing the hopes of sitting governments dreaming of continuity. Who knows Jagan Mohan Reddy might be back with a vengeance after five years of Chandrababu and ‘Amaravati’ not yet Andhra Pradesh capital? Whoever thought Jagan Mohan Reddy would win in 2024 was feeding his bias, just like the supporters of Naveen Patnaik in Odisha and those of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the BJP headquarters.

Assessments by the RSS leaders attribute the BJP's setback in the Lok Sabha elections to the pervasive issue of arrogance among its leaders. This critique points to a critical introspection within the party, suggesting that overconfidence and hubris have significantly contributed to electoral losses. Arrogance, as highlighted, indicates disconnect between the party and the grassroots, potentially alienating voters who perceive such attitudes as elitist or dismissive. The organisation has further suggested the need for the BJP leadership to recalibrate its approach towards governance and public engagement. The emphasis on humility and responsiveness to people's concerns becomes paramount in rebuilding trust and support.

The Union Ministry of Labour and Employment has two tough tasks in hand – employment generation and roll-out of four labour codes that the Modi 2:0 government had been keeping in abeyance for the last four years due to stiff resistance from the joint platform of 10 Central Trade Unions (CTUs).

On June 11, 2024, Reuters published an interview with Mohammad Yunus, the Nobel Peace laureate and founder of Grameen Bank, which has stirred significant political discourse in Bangladesh. Mohammad Yunus, globally renowned for his contributions to microfinance and poverty alleviation, hinted at his imminent entry into Bangladeshi politics, criticizing the current state of political affairs in the country. He stated, "Bangladesh has turned into a 'one-party' state as the ruling party stamps out political competition."

This time, the voter has asked for a humbler government and a more robust Opposition.

In a significant ruling, the Madras High Court has directed the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Puducherry to ensure that an advocate or senior advocate employing the services of junior advocates in major cities of Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai pay them a minimum stipend of ₹20,000 per month. The court also said that in other cities of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry junior advocates must be paid a minimum ₹15,000. The court elucidated that it had arrived at the minimum stipend by taking into consideration the cost of living and current expenditure costs in these cities.

An Israeli parliamentarian and an Israeli journalist slammed their nation’s far-right-wing Benjamin Netanyahu government for conducting a brutal war against Gazans and for censoring the information that reaches the Israeli public and the wider world.