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As a fallout of French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to India as the Chief Guest at the country’s 75th Republic Day celebrations on January 26 this year, India and France have agreed to bolster their collaboration in the defence and aerospace sectors, finalizing the Indo-French defence industrial roadmap and many other equally strategic agreements. Macron is the fifth French president to be invited as Chief Guest at India’s Republic Day after President François Hollande (2016), Nicolas Sarkozy (2008), Jacques Chirac (1998), Valery Giscard d’Estaing (1980) and Jacques Chirac as PM (1976). This, incidentally, was Macron’s third visit to India, after earlier visits in 2018 and 2023.

The Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) to defeat the BJP has run into choppy seas, losing its cohesive hold and threatening to return to the previously splintered status of the Opposition. Cracks have developed and the INDIA bloc cannot agree on seat-sharing formulas. Common enemy BJP is gung ho watching INDIA look set to implode. Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar, Bhagwant Man, there are plenty of opposition leaders ploughing the ground under the INDIA bloc’s feet.

The Broadcasting Services (Regulation) Bill, 2023, a draft of which was circulated for public comments by the union ministry of information and broadcasting in November 2023, is yet another step by the Modi government to restrict and stifle freedom of expression. It seeks to replace the nearly three-decade-old Cable Television Networks Regulation Act, 1995. Prior to this, the government has brought in the Telecommunications Act of 2023, the Digital Personal Data Protection Act of 2023 and, earlier, the Information Technology (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules, 2021.

With Indian policing system getting excruciatingly communalised under the command of home minister Amit Shah, the Assam police chief G.P. Singh lodging an FIR against Rahul Gandhi and at least six other senior Congress leaders leading the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, has certainly neither been shocking nor disappointing.

Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee’s outbursts against the Congress as ‘discourteous’ and her declaration that her party would go solo in the forthcoming Lok Sabha Election 2024 is being blown out of proportion, to emphasize that INDIA bloc is entirely in disarray, and it would help PM Narendra Modi and his BJP in West Bengal, which is just against the political ground reality.

“The people of India, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a sovereign Democratic republic and to secure to all its citizens Justice, social, economic and political, Liberty of thought, expression, belief, faith and worship, Equality of status and opportunity, and to Promote among them all, Fraternity assuring the this twenty sixth day of November, 1949, do hereby adopt, enact, and give ourselves this Constitution.”

The unemployment situation is worse today than it has ever been in post-independence India. There are two distinct elements that have contributed to this situation. One is the fact that the output recovery from the fall caused by the pandemic-linked lockdown has not been accompanied by a comparable employment recovery. In fact, even though the gross domestic product in 2023-24 is estimated to be larger than in 2019-20 by about 18 per cent, employment has shown zero growth over the last five years according to the Centre for Monitoring the Indian Economy. This fall in the employment-intensity of GDP is because the recovery in output has been much less pronounced in the small and medium scale enterprises than in large-scale ones and the former are much more employment-intensive than the latter.

India is looking to enhance religious tourism after opening a Ram temple in Ayodhya, an ancient city. This is expected to lead to upgrades of other holy sites and boost visitor numbers nationwide.

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Ms. Mamata Banerjee has just publicly rejected an alliance with the state Congress for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, but in truth, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) had decided to shake up the still evolving opposition I.N.D.I.A anti-BJP coalition some days ago. There had been a few disturbing signals — the TMC’s leaders/spokesmen from Guwahati to West Bengal, had been suddenly decrying opposition prospects much too frankly and freely during the last few days.

In a bid to tackle concerns about high tuition fees and student exploitation, Canada is imposing a temporary, two-year cap on new international student visas starting in 2024. This move, expected to reduce new permits by 35% in the first year, primarily targets undergraduate programs while exempting master's, doctoral degrees, and existing permit holders.