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CPI general secretary D Raja who has been granted his third term at the recently concluded 25th congress of CPI in Chandigarh faces a stupendous task in rejuvenating the stagnating party organisation and steer it with dynamism and vision to play a proper role in building a Left Democratic Alternative to fight the BJP in the coming years. Raja took over the CPI leadership in 2019 after the premature retirement of S. Sudhakar Reddy from the general secretaryship due to health reasons. In the last six years, since 2019, the CPI politically and organisationally has not been able to make much breakthrough under D Raja’s leadership.

Democracy in the land of Bihar, which is in the cusp of Vidhan Sabha general election, has just fallen to a new low with revadis (freebies) and money flowing from the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the voters. There was a time in the 6th century BC, when the Mauryan Empire of Magadha gave rise to the very concept of democracy in the form of Janpadas. PM Narendra Modi has been telling the world with a pride that India has been the mother of democracy and hence no one has right to give the country lessons of democracy. Really. Who can afford to show him the mirror in which he can see the immoral and unethical, though not illegal, conduct of his own in that is nothing less than a bid to purchase votes from the land that is already in the cusp of polls. It is miscarriage of the principle of democracy.

Trump’s tariff aggression against India will indubitably have a contractionary effect on the Indian economy. Even if Trump reduces tariffs from the 50 per cent he is currently levying, this will only be in exchange for India reducing its tariffs on American goods, especially agricultural goods and dairy products, which would mean larger imports from America and the hence reduced incomes in India. What is needed to offset this contractionary effect of the Trump tariffs is to inject additional purchasing power into the Indian economy, which can take three possible forms: one, an increase in the fiscal deficit; two, financing government expenditure through larger taxes on the rich (which converts some of their saving, or non-spending, into government spending); or, three, an increase in credit-financed private consumption expenditure (or equivalently, a reduction in private savings ratio).

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was cracked up to be a parallel conclave to counter the Global Ayyappa Sangamam organized by the Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB). But it ended up kicking up a big controversy and inviting police action against one of the leading participants.

India has marched step by step to fascism since 2014 under the RSS Pariwar union government, while maintaining the trappings of the rule of law based system of constitutional democratic governance. The root of fascism goes back to 2002 Gujarat when the Prime Minister (PM) began his political career as Chief Minister, with a bang. During the last over eleven years, the PM has worked diligently to complete the transformation of India into a fascist nation-state. The history of this mega change has been written in detail by academics, journalists, and defenders of civil rights and democracy, several of whom have been languishing in prisons without bail, without trial, without having been charged with any specific crime, for years, with judiciary and other public institutions, being complicit, having collapsed. Only individual judges outshine in dispensing justice.

The Communist Party of India (CPI) concluded its five day Party Congress at Chandigarh on September 25 reelecting D. Raja as the general secretary of the CPI for another three year term. Raja is the first dalit leader to head the CPI in 2019 after the then party secretary S Sudhakar Reddy sought retirement. Raja was reelected at the 24th Party Congress and now at the 25th party congress, he was granted the third term by giving him a special exemption from the age limit.

As is its wont. The BJP always starts with lament. The latest is about violence in Ladakh, allegedly incited by Congress. Apparently Congress councillor Stanzin Tsepang is behind the violence, which reminds the BJP IT Cell of the unrest that brought about regime change in Bangladesh. Nepal is also copybook or the Tsepang is playbook and whose weapon-laced picture is doing the rounds. The BJP says Wednesday's violence for statehood was Congress's "nefarious design" to create Bangladesh, Nepal and Philippines in India ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, arguably the strongest Prime Minister has had since the days of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, PM Modi's inspiration.

In India, bizarre developments have become so normalised that they no longer shock people as they once did. This is striking, given that after the adoption of our Republican Constitution, Article 19 was alive and vibrant, safeguarding the citizen’s right to freedom of expression. India’s Constitution was celebrated worldwide for enshrining citizens’ rights, earning the country the epithet of the world’s largest democracy. But that is no longer the case today. The assumption of office by the RSS-spearheaded BJP government has brought about a paradigm shift – particularly in the media landscape.

Tokenised securities, which are supported by real-world assets and are stored on distributed ledgers, have become a talking point among many around the world. India's financial system is seeing a growing need for blockchain applications within capital markets. The market of tokenized security in India presents many opportunities. Driven by expanding digital infrastructure, a vibrant fintech industry and the tech-savvy population, it’s expected that the market of tokenized security will touch the $30 billion mark by 2030. The size of the Indian real estate market itself is valued at over $1 trillion, presenting a big opportunity for tokenized security.

India’s South Asia diplomacy is proving a disaster as the neighbouring countries of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) are discussing in details the issue of the revival of SAARC which has been lying inactive in the political arena since 2016 due to India’s decision not to deal with Pakistan in this regional body for its assistance to the terrorist activities against India. India and Pakistan are the two biggest countries of SAARC and naturally, India, with its largest population in the globe and fourth biggest economy in the world, is considered a leader. So, no interaction between the two major members, has kept the regional body politically inactive with no summit being held after 2014.