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The recent tragedy, involving collapse of a market building, killing more than seven hundred people and injuring several hundred others with many still missing, in Savar, Bangladesh is particularly heartbreaking because of the fact that unlike the previous cases, this time around the source of the safety concern was identified in time and the previous day of the catastrophe a step was taken to close the market until a detailed safety check and repair were undertaken.

Like Mr Karunanidhi trying to catch up with issues and demands so as not to be outsmarted by AIDMK Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, with a record of success in her valiant struggle to assert the state’s rights, the PMK leader, Dr. Ramadoss, emerged out of shadows to galvanise his support base, mainly the Vanniar community in northern and central districts, at a rally he planned for April 25.

New Delhi: Following the tragic deaths of Sarabjit Singh in Pakistani jail and Sanaullah Ranjay in Indian jail a human rights activist and leader of the National Panthers Party Prof Bhim Singh has demanded immediate release and repatriation of 17 Pakistani prisoners who have completed 15 years sentences in India.

So it is here again: the fever of the Indian Premier League that returns like a clockwork every year around the month of April to sweep the nation off its feet. Being in its sixth edition, IPL obviously tells us a story greater than that of international cricketers forgetting year-old rivalries and joining hands in order to earn insane amount of money, or that of skimpily clad cheer-leaders, essentially white-skinned, dancing around the field or the patriotic Indian cricket crowd suddenly going more global than national and cheering the sixer of one Chris Gayle, once an arch nemesis, even when he is not playing for the local franchise.

The forecast for a normal monsoon may have brought some hopes to the farmers, but has not totally eliminated his worries. This is, particularly, true for states with large tracts of rainfed areas and where there is no assured irrigation.

The predictable outcome in Karnataka does not diminish its value, for it has lessons for both the winner and the loser. To start with the latter, the observation of a BJP spokesman, Rajiv Prasad Rudy, was an indication how badly the party has been rattled by the result. Asked to comment on the BJP’s defeat, Rudy resorted to a counter-question: “so what?”

With few days left for the general elections to elect the 272-member National Assembly (NA) – Pakistan’s Parliament – on 11 May (plus 70 members representing women and religious representatives), Pakistan is confronted with a sanguinary democratic lemma. Will the first successful transition from one democratically elected parliament in the 66-year history of the troubled state witness a free and fair election?

The lightning speed at which the Saradha scandal unfolded in West Bengal was only matched by the collapse of the business group with 120 firms, which has wiped out the savings of an estimated 4 lakh investors in 19 districts, many of them small and poor. Thousands of people have become paupers overnight, including daily wage-labourers, who invested in Saradha’s chits the few thousand rupees they had managed to save over many years. Several have committed suicide.

It was difficult to understand the Chinese objective behind their latest provocation, especially when they finally realised that discretion was the better part of adventurism. As security analysts had noted, this time they pitched their tents in Ladakh and not wandered in and out of Indian territory as before. They might have claimed that they were camping on their side of the border, but why didn’t they do it earlier? And, why now?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The United Democratic Front (UDF) Government’s passion for privatisation has acquired dangerous dimensions.