View Articles

It was very thoughtful on the part of the national government to provide free food grains to over 80 crore people under the poor and low income group in the country during the Covid pandemic season leading to long lockdown periods in 2020-21. The facility was extended twice, the last being on January 1, 2023, for a period of one year. The last extension had probably more to do with the elections in four states — Nagaland, Karnataka, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh — than the need for providing free food grains to feed nearly 60 percent of the country’s population at a cost of around Rs. 15,000 crore, annually. Now, the prime minister says his government’s free ration (food grains) scheme would be extended for five more years that is up to 2028, again for over 80 crore people.

During the election campaigns in November, anyone who can hear heard about “Modi Guarantee” even from the very mouth of PM Narendra Modi about making India a developed country by 2047. It was repeatedly claimed how India is developing fast under PM Modi, and become fifth richest country in the world. The Narrative reached its zenith on November 19, when the invisible rumour machine circulated a false news that India has already become the fourth richest country in the world under PM Modi.

In a big setback to the Left in Latin American region, Far Right outsider Javier Milei defeated the Left coalition’s Peronist economy minister Sergio Massa in a close contest in the Presidential elections held on Sunday November 19. Milei got around 55 per cent of the votes polled as against the Peronist minister and sealed his election as the new President of the second largest country in the Latin American continent.

With the 2024 Lok Sabha elections inching closer, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee elevating party MP Mahua Moitra to the post of organisational district president of Krishna Nagar helped the West Bengal Chief Minister and the Party president reap multiple political dividends. Silencing her critics in the Opposition who were interpreting Banerjee's absence of the leader’s usual reaction as her being cross with Moitra for asking questions in the Lok Sabha which were against the business interests of the Adani group.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Nava Kerala Sadas, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government’s public outreach programme, has got off to a flying start.

During President Biden's high profile summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping last week, his national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, briefed him on an unrelated matter, namely, the escalating tensions in the Middle East.

The workers’ ‘right to strike’ is being dragged to the scaffold to be guillotined, if possible, by 112thSession of the International Labour Conference (ILC) to be held in June 2024. The Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation, being uncomfortable by the dispute brought by its 14 regular Employer members, has to refer it to the International Court of Justice. The workforce and the trade unionism has just been pushed to a crossroad.

In the aftermath of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's significant visit to the United States earlier this year, there was widespread anticipation for a notable strengthening of relations between Delhi and Washington. However, there seems to have been an oversight by key policymakers in India regarding the Biden administration's strategic manoeuvres, which were aimed at leveraging the alliance with the world's largest democracy to serve American geopolitical interests in countering China and solidifying US dominance in the region.

Confidentiality versus anonymity is a central issue in the consideration of the petitions against the electoral bond scheme as it exists today and may well have a bearing on the verdict by the five-member constitution bench under Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, which has reserved the judgement.

The Israeli-Hamas war entered its 43rd day on Saturday as the battle has turned by now one sided with Israeli defence forces going all out in bombing the Gaza strip including the civilian areas and the hospitals in the name of eliminating the Hamas militants who launched the ‘terror’ attack on Israelis including civilians on October 7. As on November 17, the death toll of Palestinians totalled more than 11,400 and the injured around 30,000.