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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is no let-up in the V. D. Satheesan-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government’s penchant for taking controversial decisions.

Performances of Dick Parry, the brilliant saxophone player appears to have somewhat low key response for him. His sax lines were brilliantly crafted. Millions loved it. But they did not know his name. Yet it became one of the most recognizable sounds in rock music history. The Soul Committee, a local band gave him his first professional stage. His death this week has given a big jolt to millions of his fans throughout the world.

LONDON: France holds emergency meetings on the evacuation of Bordeaux, a city of a million, as wildfires sweep ever closer. In Spain families are fleeing the capital, Madrid.

After getting the first demand fulfilled – that is sacking of the Union Minister of Education Dharmendra Pradhan – the Opposition today demanded for Union Home Minister’s accountability on brutality unleashed on students during Cockroach Janata Party’s (CJP’s) March on Parliament on July 20. It caused repeated disruptions and adjournments of the proceedings of both the Houses of the Parliament of India today July 27, 2026.

Youth and student protestors led by the less than three month old Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) have won in their battle with the Narendra Modi led government over the resignation of the education minister Dharmendra Pradhan and the other demands for examination reforms. With the government agreeing to most of the demands of the protestors, the CJP suspended the protests on Saturday and announced its decision to follow up the implementation of the assurances given by the centre after one month. Right now, Protesters are the winners, the all powerful PM is humbled.

With Yemeni Houthis declaring a maritime embargo and naval blockade against Saudi Arabia, India’s bid to mitigate energy and supply chain shocks, following structural disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, by rapidly diversifying trade corridors and maritime protocols faces a big challenge. At a stake is the country’s US$158-billion-plus bilateral trade passing through the region. The naval blockade severely threatens India's foreign trade by constricting energy supplies, inflating logistics costs, and choking key export routes. The crisis specifically inflames the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a vital choke point through which Saudi crude oil reaches south and east Asia. The region represents a vital trade corridor for India.

India's pharmaceutical industry wears two faces. One is celebrated across the world: the country manufactures nearly one in every five generic medicines consumed globally, supplies affordable drugs to more than 200 countries, dominates vaccine production, and has earned the enviable title of "the pharmacy of the world." The other face is visible only to Indian patients standing at pharmacy counters, where the price of a medicine often bears little resemblance to what it costs to manufacture, distribute or even justify through economics. Between these two realities lies one of the country's least examined but most consequential public policy failures—a pricing architecture that has gradually evolved not to maximize public health but to maximize commercial opportunity.

In recent times America's trade policy has become a rolling emergency. Though struck down by the Supreme Court, Trump's tariffs have returned through new legal loopholes, hitting 60 nations under a "forced labour" pretext. The revenue keeps flowing, the chaos keeps compounding - and the world, including India, is left recalculating.

The youth and students protests led by Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) at Jantar Mantar finally achieved their big win on Saturday after the Narendra Modi Government accepted their demands including the resignation of the education minister Dharmendra Pradhan. Within 24 hours, PM announced the setting up of a task force for bringing reforms in the examination system.

How can an agitation for a fair examination system ring such a bell across the country and humble a proud government? To understand I recall today what Dr Manmohan Singh observed in his typical monotonous way after presenting his first budget in 1991-92.