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The ground on which the conspiracy charge has been thrown out in the in the appeal filed by Zakia Jafri in the Supreme Court challenging the clean chit given by the SIT to Narendra Modi and 63 other state functionaries in the Gujarat riots case leaves no scope for ambiguity, but some of the arguments used to arrive at the conclusion are liable to be conveniently interpreted by governments as condoning inaction.

Battle lines for coming Presidential election have been drawn. The ruling NDA has set up, former Jharkhand Governor Droupadi Murmu as its presidential candidate. Murmu is a tribal and this would be for the first time a tribal and woman would be elected President as NDA has comfortable majority majority in the electoral college with the support of the outsiders like BJD and YSRCP.

The recent invocation of the phrase ‘uncooperative federalism’ by the Supreme Court in its judgment last month in Union of India &Anr. versus M/s Mohit Minerals Pvt. Ltd. Through Director marks an important moment in the study of Indian federalism. This also adds value to literature across the globe that suggests that there is no one model of federalism, and that innovative methods could be adopted to explain different federal arrangements and understand disputes. Specifically, in the Indian context, this invocation can be understood as a novel addition to the vocabulary of Indian federalism.

For the past three years India’s economy had to face the worst pandemic and Ukraine-Russia war which impacted global production and prices. These external shocks however only exacerbated the ailments that existed before the pandemic contributed by the unwary internal shocks of demonetisation and the imposition of the GST regime. The denial of the protracted impact of the pandemic and the consequent contraction of the economy required instead targeted strategies for revival of the eroded output and employment.

The UNAIDs executive director, Winnie Byanyima had appealed before the 12th WTO Ministerial of WTO in Geneva that the world would face a grim future if patent waivers did not take place. At a press conference, Byanyima had said, "In a pandemic, sharing technology is life or death, and we are choosing death," In the 12th Ministerial of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), which ended on June 17th, the rich countries did precisely that. They blocked almost all possibilities of providing cheap vaccines, anti-virals and diagnostics for the world. After two years in WTO of "postponing"—or blocking—the India-South Africa proposal for a waiver on patents for Covid-19vaccines and medicines, the club of the rich countries—the European Union, the US and the UK—ensured that no worthwhile patent waiver measure was passed. The profits of big pharma once again trumped the lives and health of the people. As it had done during the AIDS epidemic.

India is now at the cusp of getting back to high economic growth with positive signs witnessed in overall revival of the economy after two years of difficult covid times. One important and critical factor in evolving the economic strategy is to ensure that India’s foreign trade grows leaps and bounds. Basically trade is the X-factor in ensuring India sustained the high growth path for at least a decade or so. For this many macro economists have advocated the need to push free trade agreements, both bilateral and regional. The economists include former Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog Arvind Panagariya and Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian. The response from the Indian government had been lukewarm to this proposal in the past few years. But now with India’s exports looking up after being stagnant in last few year, there appears to be a growing realization that protectionism even for geo-political considerations did no good to the economy.

Despite a few stray incidents, the bypolls for the four assembly seats in the northeastern state of Tripura have seen a voter turnout of more than 78%. The four seats where bypolls were held are — Agartala, Town Bardowali, Jubarajnagar and Surma (SC).

Now, there is one more reason why the Muslim minority will not trust the Supreme Court of India. Earlier, there was Afzal Guru, as cited by Afreen Javed, Prayagraj riots kingpin Muhammad Javed’s daughter. June 23, the apex court should have thought twice before it upheld the “clean chit” given to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by the Gujarat High Court in the “larger conspiracy” case slapped against him by Zakia Jafri whose husband Ehsan Jafri met a brutal end in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The Agnipath scheme, which makes a radical departure in the nature of recruitment of soldiers to the armed forces, has met with widespread opposition from the youth and ex-servicemen of all categories. Despite this fierce opposition, the government has directed the armed forces to go ahead with the new recruitment programme.

There are reports, released by Oxfam a few months back, to be exact, on January 23, 2022, that reveal that seventy percent of the national wealth is in the hands of select ten per cent. For the rest, it is thirst, hunger and a bleak present. Dragging themselves towards the end of the road, they find the myth of the promise, the ‘Atma Nirbhar Bharat’. A mirage with a name under which the government has spelt out its economic policies, offering more concern than succour.