View Articles

The successful second conclave of Opposition parties in Bengaluru and the emergence of a new coalition with the acronym INDIA have clearly rattled the Modi regime. The desperation to put up a parallel 'alliance' show in Delhi on the same day by discovering and manufacturing new parties from all corners of India showed the growing nervousness of the regime.

Spain, an important member of the European Union is witnessing a tumultuous national elections next Sunday July 23 the outcome of which will decide whether this country which suffered fascism under President Franco, will once again be governed by a coalition consisting of the late dictator’s supporters.

In 2009, the Swedish car company Volkswagen ran a unique ad campaign to promote its newly launched fuel-efficient car. They hired the ad agency DDB Stockholm and transformed the standard staircase of the Stockholm metro station into a ‘piano staircase’ which produced musical sounds when stepped in. People responded to this environmentally friendly energy-saving 'fun' signal, although it meant more hard work. They started avoiding using the escalator adjacent to the piano stairway.

Asian Development Outlook of July 2023 maintains India’s economic growth forecast at 6.4 per cent for the FY 2023, the same level of its earlier forecast made three months ago in April. However, it is risk ridden, since it assumes normal weather conditions and no geopolitical shocks, which is surprising. India has already suffered heat wave conditions during the summer, and heavy monsoon rains causing floods during the monsoon that has damaged its crops.

A crisis is also an opportunity. Likewise, every adversity can be turned to account if the will is there. Can the party turn the sad demise of Congress stalwart Oommen Chandy to account? Can the Congress measure up to the challenge? These are the questions that agitate Congress minds not only in Kerala but across the country.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was in Paris on official visit on the Bastille Day this year .It was July 14, 1789. Thirty four years after the discovery of steam power that the storm on Bastille happened. Feudalism was in tatters and the age of capitalism was ushering in. Bourgeoisie was in the grip of deep discontent for not having a share in power; hegemony was still in the hands of the royalties. Workers were dissatisfied as the price of bread was ninety percent of their wages. They could not afford any other essentials like clothes and shelter or health and education. Peasants were sick of the shackles they were chained in to follow every whim of the feudal lords.

The NATO summit meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, registered a new level of aggressiveness of the western military alliance led by the United States. Though the central issue of the summit was the war in Ukraine, the declaration of the summit goes much beyond and expresses its interests in other parts of the world outside Europe and makes clear its intent to pursue global domination.

Even prior to his inauguration, there was talk that Joe Biden’s administration would mark a break with the neoliberal orthodoxy that has dominated both parties since the Ronald Reagan era. During the height of the pandemic, the president claimed that the “blinders have been taken off,” and his administration would have to address challenges that “may not dwarf but eclipse what FDR faced.”

The existence of a film like Oppenheimer shows just how necessary it is to teach history in all of its complexities and nuance. When tackled in a way that is not sanitized, it can open up a true exploration of our past and its influence on our present and future. This biopic explores the life of the “father of the atomic bomb,” Julius Robert Oppenheimer, portrayed on screen by Cillian Murphy. The film masterfully creates an engrossing and dramatic thriller that intertwines history and questions of morality. It takes a deep dive into the Atomic Age of the 1940s and forces viewers to grapple with questions of how the period forever changed the course of human history. It is a heavy three hours to sit through, but well worth the viewing.

TB can cause a million deaths by 2035, warns UN health innovation initiative Unitaid, if the world fail to implement tuberculosis contact tracing and prevention.