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For the opposition INDIA bloc, after a chilling two months of despair and political setbacks following the desertion of Nitish Kumar led JD(U) and Jayant Choudhury led RLD to NDA, the last seven days of February have brought new optimism in the INDIA ranks. The period beginning February 20 when the Supreme Court installed the AAP candidate as the Mayor of Chandigarh Corporation , has witnessed the conclusion of the electoral alliance between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress for the crucial 80 seats for Lok Sabha in Uttar Pradesh and finally AAP-Congress alliance in Delhi, Haryana, Gujarat, Goa and the Chandigarh seat.

Just after publication of Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES: 2022-23) by Nation Sample Survey Office (NSSO), politics on poverty has been initiated on behalf of PM Narendra Modi on the eve of Lok Sabha election 2024 by the top official of the government think tank NITI Aayog, the Chief Executive Officer B. V. R Subrahmanyam. He claimed poverty in the country has come down below 5 per cent, retail inflation has been overstated, and dismissed the narrative that the rural economy is weak and India’s growth story is ‘restricted to a few people’.

The doomsayers had predicted the seat sharing between the partners of the I.N.D.I.A coalition would fail, but they had progressed slowly. The alliance was gradually shaping in some states like Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra. The coalition is striving hard to put up a joint candidate against the B.J.P. in the 2024 polls.

Congress spearhead and INDI-Alliance’s only hope Rahul Gandhi’s hoarse voice is what’s giving hope to those praying Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not get a third term. The Wayanad MP is asking people lining up to receive his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra and listening to his speeches at the halts to “think hard”. He is asking the “low castes and the OBCs” in the electorate to deny Modi “Abki baar 400-paar”.

After the completion of two years of Russia-Ukraine war, Europe is facing a series of strategic issues concerning its relationship with Russia under President Putin. America is becoming less dependable and Europe is not adequately prepared. The problem is clear, but a solution on such a large scale is incomprehensible. The security agreements that emerged from NATO after World War II, which have successfully prevented another major conflict, are deeply rooted in Europe’s foundation. Therefore, reshaping these agreements will be an enormous and challenging task.

Does austerity match with aesthetics? Art house cinema icon, Kumar Shahani who passed away on Sunday at the age of 83placed these two unlikely attributes side by side in his works in celluloid. It was no square peg in round whole existence. A look at the films he directed underscored the point.

The internet has many reports from all around the world proclaiming that journalism is dying or the business of journalism is dying. Those who are part of this industry already know the truth. For several years, journalists stopped getting promotions as newspapers would just do with the minimal and entry level staff. Then, competition became too harsh to maintain the class and dignity of the profession. The good old days of journalism, where accuracy and refinement of language were as important as cross-checking the facts, were left behind. With that, we abandoned the tradition of independent journalism and the legacy of some of the stalwarts in this arena.

India’s defence secretary Giridhar Armane’s outburst at the INDUS-X defence summit against China, last week, on the continuing troop face-offs in the Ladakh region exposed, if anything, the ministry’s frustration in dealing with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The defence secretary described Beijing as a ‘bully” against whom Indian forces are standing firm along the frontier, after China’s rebuff once again of India’s push to defuse the continuing troop face-offs at Depsang and Demchok in eastern Ladakh in the latest round of military talks between the two sides. The PLA reportedly continues to forward deploy around 60,000 troops with heavy weaponry in western (Ladakh) and central sectors (Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh) of the 3,488-km-long LAC and 90,000 soldiers in the eastern part (Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh). India matches them with “mirror military deployments.”

On Saturday, former US President Donald Trump's win over his challenger, Nikki Haley, intensified the American presidential election race. With this win, Trump is moving toward a clear path to the Republican nomination. He dominated the primaries so far, in which voters select a party's nominee who will compete in the presidential election scheduled in November this year.

For the past 10 days, Sonal Singh (name changed), a 20-year-old Engineering student from Ambala, located in the state of Haryana, India, has been overwhelmed with feelings of frustration and anxiety. She is anxiously waiting for news about the reinstatement of internet services in the northern part of India, which has experienced a shutdown ordered by the government of Haryana state due to the farmers' protest that is currently happening. Singh’s lack of access to her Coursera or Engineering Convertor App, an essential tool for Engineering students, has significantly hindered her exam preparation efforts.