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It is a matter of serious concern that India’s public debt level is among the highest in emerging economies while the country’s debt affordability is among the weakest. Generally, the average threshold limit prescribed for public debt-to-GDP ratio is 77 percent with each additional percentage point of debt costs 0.017 percentage points of annual real growth. The effect is even more pronounced in emerging markets where the threshold for debt-to-GDP ratio is preferred at 64 percent. India recorded a government debt-to-GDP ratio at 73.95 percent in 2020. According to Moody’s Investor Service, “with the exception of Chile, most of the 11 emerging markets have weak government effectiveness, suggesting potential risks executing fiscal reforms or consolidation plans.” The global rating agency further states that India’s (rated Baa3 negative) debt affordably is among the weakest alongside Ghana. Across the 11 emerging markets, India, South Africa and Ghana have the highest public debt and weakest debt affordability,” the agency added.

The Bhima Koregaon case prisoners complete four years of their arrests in jails on June 6, 2022 and on this very day, the jailed activists issued an open letter to the people of the country and those who still love freedom for human rights activities. In this poignant statement, they have asserted that their suffering is nothing compared to many other prisoners who have spent years together with a smile on their face.

Narendra Modi government has just completed 8 years in power that PM Narendra Modi has referred to as the years of great achievements. While inaugurating the iconic week (June 6-11) celebrations of the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Corporate affairs on June 6, he even said, “A large part of the world expects India to solve problems. This is possible because in the last 8 years we have trusted the wisdom of the common Indian.” However, the SDG data shows his claims are misleading, and India actually lost 8 precious years and went out of track in achieving SDG targets even in the next 8 year by 2030.

Do the Adani Group’s recent acquisitions of cement (63.19 per cent stake in Ambuja Cements and 54.5 per cent in its subsidiary ACC) and media (49 per cent stake in Quintillion Business Media) companies raise concerns for the Competition Commission of India (‘CCI’)? Media reports have said that they are unlikely to raise any competition issues. Nevertheless, how the CCI views these acquisitions is of critical importance to India’s economy and the competitiveness of its markets.

RSS ‘sarsangchalak’ Mohan Bhagwat thinks he speaks for the Hindus of India, and AIMIM solo head Asaduddin Owaisi wouldn’t be given a chair to sit by the vast majority of Muslims. But Bhagwat can’t get it round his head, and the AIMIM head refuses to heed his head that Muslims look on him as a maverick best left to his own devices. So, Bhagwat has asked Hindus to not go looking for a “shivling” under every mosque, and Owaisi has termed Bhagwat’s intervention “incendiary”, and totally “unacceptable”.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is celebration time for the Congress and the party-led united Democratic front (UDF) after a long drought of election victories. The Congress has just scored a spectacular victory in the Thrikkakara assembly by-election with its candidate Uma Thomas defeating CPI(M)’s Dr Jo Joseph by a record margin of 25,016 votes. The by-election held on May 31 was necessitated by the death of Congress MLA P T Thomas.. The results were announced on June 3.

The world believes that the success of western sanctions against Putin’s Russia depends on just two countries: India and China. On the face of it, it would appear to be a straightforward positioning. For, much of the Russian oil that has been made redundant by the sanctions is expected to flow to these two countries.

In the absence of adequate social security for migrant workers, their rural households of largely left-behind women supported millions of migrant workers when they returned after the COVID-19 pandemic struck the country and induced a severe recession that also rendered small traders and operators of microenterprises destitute and reduced the incomes of small-scale farmers. It did not only highlight the weakness in state policy and lack of resources, but also resulted in temporary loss of income, increased inequality, and strengthened oligopoly structure of the Indian economy.

Whether as commoners or experts, people engaged in making political predictions are usually in a high-risk, error-prone business: Yet judging by initial public reactions after the unfortunate death of highly popular singer Krishnakumar Kunnath or KK in Kolkata on May 31 it seems safe to conclude that West Bengal as a state may find it hard to live down the toxic notoriety billing it has begun to receive.

For the last two-three days, Indian media is running a story that says a Bangladeshi woman crossed the swampy Sundarban forests, also home to Royal Bengal Tigers, and then swam for an hour to cross a river and meet her Indian boyfriend. The 22-year-old Krishna Mandal had met her boyfriend Abhik Mandal on Facebook. The couple got married at Kolkata’s famous Kalighat temple before their love story got viral and the lady was arrested for illegally entering India. In her defense, she said she had no passport so she took the easier way to meet and marry her man.