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The latest Employment Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) data reveals the great distress in which Indian labour market is presently undergoing. It shows that the formal job creation has been declining sharply, a ground reality, which is in sharp contrast to the PM Narendra Modi’s claim in Rozgar Melas that his government has been distributing jobs and appointment letters and creating large number of job opportunities through appropriate policies.

Integrity of the state is one of the most sensitive issues in West Bengal politics. Yet after the issue of a separate state out of West Bengal has been raised by some BJP legislators earlier, when a resolution was passed in the state Assembly recently against another state being carved out of already partitioned West Bengal, these MLAs found their leadership speaking against them.

At a time when the Indian left has been in a state of stupor and the sympathisers and supporters were looking for some impetus, the 11th Congress of the CPI(ML) Liberation gave a big boost to the left and democratic forces of the country to take on the BJP unitedly in the coming battle, both in elections and outside.

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav has directed his party workers to corner BJP on the issue of caste census and launch state-wide agitation. Samajwadi Party national President himself raised the issue of caste census during current session of Uttar Pradesh Assembly and said it was required for inclusive growth.

The party name ‘Shiv Sena’. The party election symbol bow & arrow. Both have gone to the Eknath Shinde Group in this fight to the finish. Now, the ‘Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Shiv Sena’ wants the Election Commission dissolved. And, why not? After all, it was the Election Commission which gave away ‘Shiv Sena’ to the Shinde Group unmindful of Uddhav Thackeray’s objections. The scales of justice are not favouring the ‘Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray Shiv Sena’. The Uddhav-led faction has challenged the EC decision in the Supreme Court. The court will also hear petitions related to the political fallout of the split in the Shiv Sena.

The Congress is holding its three-day plenary session at Raipur beginning February 24. This conclave is going to be crucial for the party in framing its strategy for the coming Lok Sabha elections in April-May 2024 that are barely 13 months away. In the current round of the state assembly elections in 2023, the Congress has taken a cavalier attitude to the three northeastern states – Tripura, Meghalaya and Nagaland – where polling will be over by February 27.The three state Congress units are upset that the party high command has let them down by not offering the much-needed assistance in terms of resources, including cash and organisational support.

Come every budget, there is always questions raised if the union government is doing enough for the poorer states and particularly the hilly and bordering states in north-east India. This is a valid question and right from independence every government had claimed that its focus is to develop the backward regions but the growth and development has remained uneven. The concerns are genuine but the blame has to be certainly shared by central government, state governments, polity and to some extent people for not taking the initiatives to developing skills and wherewithal.

The German film "All Quiet on the Western Front'' won seven prizes, including best picture, at the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) on Sunday. This was expected as the anti-war theme of the film had its echo among the BAFTA members during the current raging war in Ukraine and the threats of using nuclear weapons by some powers.

This is the highest order of double talk. Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju who in the past had on several occasions raised the issue of judicial accountability and transparency and had accused the Supreme Court of not following the ethics of transparency and probity in public life, has ventured to flout the basic tenet of transparency by sending the government stand on Adani to the apex court in sealed cover. He had even said “I just want to point out that there are loopholes and there is no accountability. It lacks transparency”.

If putting an end to Narendra Modi’s rule for the “democratic revival” of India is the Opposition’s goal for 2024, then billionaire George Soros should be kept at a couple of oceans’ length. Soros might come with a certain reputation, but laying India on the mat is a different ballgame, Narendra Modi or no Narendra Modi at the helm. Allegations of "foreign hand" will flood the media and that will be the death of the Opposition's gameplan.