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Three incidents of March 21 have significantly altered the political narrative for the Lok Sabha Election 2024 – First, the chief opposition Congress informed the nation that their bank accounts have been frozen; Secondly, under the direction of the Supreme Court of India all details about electoral bonds were published by Election Commission of India; and thirdly, Delhi Chief Minister was detained by Enforcement Directorate (ED). These considerably dented PM Narendra Modi’s image to be just a political don of a film rather than a hero, triggering adverse sentiments against him not only in India but across the world, making him extremely nervous which he is trying to cover with aggressive political campaigns.

Over the last one decade India is witnessing the emergence of oligopolistic market structure. Oligopoly, characterized by a few large firms dominating an industry, has become increasingly prevalent across several sectors in India, including aviation, gas and energy, infrastructure, telecommunication, banking, retail, media, and automotive.

Despite nursing the unpleasant realisation that JD(U) of Nitish Kumar and LJP of Chirag Paswan will not succeed in turning peoples’ disposition in the favour of the saffron ecosystem and help BJP retain its 2019 winning seats, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his lieutenants in the RSS-BJP camp refrained from coaxing the leaders of these parties and conceded the seats demanded by them in Bihar.

Hurling charges of corruption past and present to catch one's political opponent off guard in a poll battle has been a time honoured practice with Krishnanagar Lok Sabha campaign in West Bengal being no exception. But the charge doing the rounds is one whose origins can be traced to a battle in a mango grove of Plassey in 1757 where forces of Bengal's last sovereign ruler Siraj-ud-daula lost owing to treachery to a contingent of English and Indian soldiers in the payroll of traders better known as East India Company.

On last Friday Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Microsoft co-founder, billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, came together at the former’s residence in Delhi in a free-wheeling and insightful exchange on a range of topics that was as diverse as it was intriguing and thought-provoking—the future of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the importance of Digital Public Infrastructure, and the ‘Namo Drone Didi’ scheme.

The Israeli Defense Forces struck a Palestinian Islamic Jihad command center in the courtyard of the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gazan city of Deir al-Balahon Sunday. And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in no mood to listen to US requests to steer clear of Rafah, an enclave on the Egypt-Gaza border, where upwards of a million Gazans have taken up residence in hundreds of tents, and which, Israel says, is the last refuge of the Hamas scoundrels and, therefore, requires an essential and urgent clean-up.

Despite assurances of a more lenient rule following their ascent to power, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, which is also known as Taliban (Pashto for “students”) have intensified restrictions on various aspects of women's lives. Women in Afghanistan face a multitude of constraints, including exclusion from leadership roles, limitations on education and employment opportunities, and restrictions on travel and access to public spaces, such as bathhouses, gyms, and parks, without male accompaniment. They have been barred from accessing restaurants with garden spaces in Herat province.

WASHINGTON: Just two days before instructing his United Nations ambassador to abstain and allow a Security Council ceasefire resolution to pass, President Joe Biden signed a budget package that permanently cut all funding for UNRWA—the organization responsible for distributing most food, water, and shelter aid in Gaza—and simultaneously approved $3.8 billion of fresh cash for the Israeli government.

Extortion from business and corporate by Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government for the ruling BJP has already been exposed recently, after the names of the donors and receiver political parties that were kept secret under Electoral Bond Scheme, had to be published under the direction of the Supreme Court of India. Many of them were found to be intimidated by Central investigating agencies, who under panic, donated huge funds to BJP, and even bought protection from the government which included pardon.

In an unprecedented move, over 600 lawyers penned a letter to the Chief Justice of India, raising alarms about a ‘vested interest group’ allegedly attempting to influence the judiciary’s decisions, particularly in cases involving political figures and corruption. This letter has garnered significant attention, not least because of the Prime Minister’s endorsement, which he framed as a critique of the opposition’s tactics, labelling it as ‘vintage Congress culture’.