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In his political career spanning half a century, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, must not have on any other occasion looked like a dwarf, as he was made to appear by the political youngster in the RJD leader Tejashvi Yadav. The Nitish-sponsored confidence motion in Bihar assembly on Monday was also testimony to the emergence of a more articulate politician in Tejashvi.

According to the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), supported by the United Nations (UN), India has emerged as a key centre for illegal drug trade and trafficking, contributing significantly to the global drug trade, valued at over $650 billion.

Donald Trump as the United States President had people — countries — on both sides of the Atlantic concerned in their cocoons during his first term. Then in 2020, the so-called Jan 6 insurrection happened. Today, a poor array of conservative hopefuls for the Republican ticket, combined with his tremendous popularity, has made it easier for Trump to vie for the Republican presidential nomination, which is his for the taking as of today.

There has not been much love lost between Iran and America ever since the last monarch of the Pahlavi dynasty fled his country which passed to governance of the followers of Ayotollah Khomeini. With politicians like elephants having long memories, the clashes between Iran-backed militia and America continue far away from both the countries pointing to a proxy war with none of the duo showing signs of emerging victorious.

For decades, France’s left was dominated by the French Communist Party (PCF), an organization that built up strong networks of support in working-class France over the twentieth century. Yet from the 1980s onward this mighty organization declined, leaving a vacuum to be filled. The Front National — the far-right party, led by Marine Le Pen, which became the Rassemblement National (RN) in 2018 — was a major beneficiary.

The Indian Navy is currently conducting its largest-ever deployment in the Gulf of Aden and Western Arabian Sea. This mission operates independently of the US-UK military campaign against Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

With China rapidly developing and deploying potent anti-satellite (A-Sat) weapons, India’s defence industry must work on manufacturing similar defence equipment to bolster the country’s counter space capabilities. The issue has been taken up at the highest level of India’s defence management. Last week, the country’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil Chauhan stressed the need for developing indigenous positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) services by strengthening the NavIC constellation while inaugurating a defence satellite (DefSat) seminar in Delhi. The CDS called for the defence industry’s partnership with the armed forces in augmenting the capabilities by developing multi-sensor satellites, launch-on-demand services, and a network of ground stations. Incidentally, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has set up a regional navigation satellite system called ‘Navigation with Indian Constellation’ or NavIC.

Tamil superstar Thalapathy Vijay launched his political party, Thamizhaga Vetri Kazhagam, last week. He declared that his party will only contest the 2026 Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu, not the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. The question is whether he will succeed.

KOLKATA: South-east Asian countries led by Vietnam and India for hi-tech industries and Sri Lanka for the more traditional kind like clothing are engaged in a competition to be recipient of foreign funded capacity being decoupled from China by a growing number of MNCs headquartered mainly in the US and Japan but also in European Union. Capacity and investment migration from the world’s second largest economy which catapulted itself as factory to the globe based on low labour cost and a strong business ecosystem lasting many years was launched in 2013 at the US initiative in 2013 with other countries embracing the strategy of China plus one strategy as years rolled on.

Sunday (February 11, 2024) marks the 45th anniversary of the overthrow of US-supported Iranian King Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (commonly referred to in the Western world as Mohammed Reza Shah) by public revolt, leading to the creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This event greatly changed Iran’s relationship with Moscow.