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Narendra Modi government’s calling off disinvestment of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) and the statement issued in relating to it thereafter is indicative of a disturbing undercurrent in the Indian Economy that should be a matter of great concern since what we are seeing might be only the tip of an iceberg because it is the third strategic disinvestment proposal to be called off in the current fiscal.

China’s fast growing strategic and economic ties with Russia are becoming a major concern for India. Facing the heat of increasing Western financial sanctions on the country apart from large supplies of military and monetary aid from the US-led NATO countries to Ukraine, Russia is fast getting closer to China, the world’s second largest economy and a major defence power. The China-Russia joint military drill, first since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, sending bombers near Japan at a time when the heads of the US, Japan, India and Australia together were busy holding the Tokyo summit of QUAD (quadrilateral security dialogue) served a clear warning by the two military powers to the QUAD participants without hiding their intentions. The joint China-Russia military exercise, showing off Russian TU-95 strategic bombers along with China’s Xian H-6 jets, lasted 13 hours. Russia needs China to thwart NATO’s expansion to the east. China needs military superpower Russia to support its hegemonistic expansion in the Asia-Pacific region and strategic containment of India, which is billed to be the world’s second largest economy overtaking the US by 2050.

Admitting that it has lost total connect with the people of India that led to party’s repeated humiliating electoral drubbing, the Congress has resolved to bring changes in the 30-year old neo-liberal economic policy of the country that the party had initiated in 1991 finding it as only way out to regain faith among down-trodden and marginalized section of the country.

The Government, worried about the inflation rapidly inching up month after month, has finally become pro-active. The steps announced are designed to lower the prices of basics like diesel, steel, cement and plastics. Wholesale Price Index (‘WPI’) has risen at more than ten per cent for more than a year, and in April 2022, it was at 15.08 per cent – a level not seen in more than a decade. Consumer Price Index (‘CPI’) has risen 7.8 per cent, well above the Reserve Bank of India (‘RBI’)’s target of four per cent plus minus two per cent for the fourth consecutive month.

Actually, it shouldn’t have been breaking news. The clean chit to Aryan Khan was on expected lines. Nothing on earth could have overturned the outcome. The only two questions remaining were ‘Who in his sound mind chose to slam-dunk Aryan Khan s/o Shahrukh Khan with a narcotics charge?

Even before Narendra Modi and Amit Shah along with the Sangh leadership could strike at the root of Mamata government and her party, Mamata Banerjee as the retaliatory incursion has struck hard with the West Bengal cabinet deciding to amend law to make her Chancellor of state-run universities. Modi government has been resorting to all sorts of machinations to destabilise the Mamata government and make her exit from the political scene. Nevertheless the latest move of Mamata Banerjee heralds a direct war against Narendra Modi using the Governor, Jagdeep Dhankar as a proxy target. The decision was taken by the state cabinet on May 26.

With Assembly elections only eight months away, the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) in Tripura is not yet a united house. The central BJP leadership may have sought to combat negative anti incumbency trends among common voters by replacing Mr Biplab Deb as Chief Minister by his colleague Mr Manik Saha., but that has not helped the saffrons much upto now.

Car companies in India are already creating waves about the launch of electric vehicles, with nearly a dozen brands expected to hit the road in a year’s time. Joining the EV bandwagon are all major automakers, including Hyundai, Tata, Mahindra, Mercedes etc.

With the world waking up to the possibility of the temple-mosque disputes in India becoming yet another religious flashpoint, as the BBC has said, the worst fears of the country’s well-wishers are coming true.

The Supreme Court order of May 20, transferring the suit on the Gyanvapi masjid dispute from the civil judge (senior division) Varanasi to the district judge casts aspersions, though unintended, on the competence of civil judges in general.