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As Finance Minister presents her interim budget for 2024-25 on February 1 this year, she has to keep in mind that this year promises to be a watershed year for India’s space exploration! The year, 2024, has been marked as ‘The Year of Gaganyaan’ by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief S Somanath, who elaborated on the Gaganyaan timeline.

The latest moves of the far right forces in a number of countries in Europe have finally awakened the common liberal masses leading many of them to join the protest demonstrations against the continuing campaign of the right wing forces. Germany is the latest example where massive demonstrations were held on Saturday and Sunday against the activities of the far right AfD.

Democratic governance, backed by popular mandate is the sole path towards political stability, rule of law and much needed reforms. It is a contention none has any quarrel with.

India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar may disagree, but the country has failed to use its import trade muscle to improve its diplomatic relations with China. His recent statement on Sino-India relations at a gathering in Nagpur earlier this month that “a strife-torn border and good business can’t go together” lacks clarity and goes against the factual position with regard to the country’s growing imports from China despite the latter’s growing military postures along India’s land and maritime borders. The trade with China has been practically one-sided with India importing more and more from China and exporting less and less due to rigorous Chinese restrictions. India has failed to react. India continues to feed China and its economy with billions of dollars of imports every year helping the Chinese industry and trade keep millions of their people employed at India’s cost. This is irrespective of increasing Chinese military threats along India’s borders.

January 22, 2024 has just become an epoch-making date in Indian History. Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi led the rituals with Rashtriya Swayamsevak chief Mohan Bhagwat by his side and inaugurated the new Ram Temple at Ayodhya. Since Sunday, every nook and corner of the country under RSS clan’s influence saw the frenzy of whipped up religious passions. On January 22 Deepavali was observed across the country. However, the history will remember the occasion only as controversial, when brute political power was on show overwhelming the country in the name of religion.

It is a historical attainment for RSS. On January 22, it succeeded in striding one stable step towards altering the character and identity of India, from being a secular, socialist country to a theological Hindu Rashtra.

LUCKNOW: Terming the Ram Mandir inauguration as BJP-RSS-VHP event, the opposition parties of Uttar Pradesh have maintained distance from the program. Realising that BJP will take political benefits of the grand event to mobilise Hindu votes during forthcoming Lok Sabha polls, the opposition parties also want to be seen as Ram bhaktas.

A recent report published by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) claims that technology in the form of Artificial Intelligence (AI) is set to affect nearly 40% of all jobs. What is more worrisome is that AI is going to impact the low-skilled jobs, that is, the income of people in the low-income bracket, further accentuating the already skewed income distribution. This may be a cause of concern for a young age-populated country like India. Every year around 10 million people enter the labour market, looking for jobs. Most of these jobs are low-skilled gig-type, and urban construction labour types jobs. This also explains why India, despite being the fifth largest economy (in terms of nominal GDP), continues to rank lowly in terms of per-capita income.

On February 1, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting not the final Union Budget, but an interim one, since the Lok Sabha elections in the country are scheduled to be held in April/ May this year. Sitharaman was unequivocal that there will be no ‘big announcements’ this time around, meaning that this year’s Budget will be passed only as an end to meet expenses until the financial year. The allocation for the defence sector in Budget 2024-’25 could take a hit because of the elections. This could impact India’s deterrence posture.

It remains debatable whether or not Assam Chief Minister Mr Himanta Biswa Sarma is the most corrupt chief minister in India, as claimed by top Congress leader Mr Rahul Gandhi. What cannot be denied as of now, is Mr Sarma’s unflinching adherence to pursue what his opponents allege to be an all out ‘Hindutva’ agenda.