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In mid-December this year, foreign exchange reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan’s (SBP) dropped to $6.1 billion, the lowest level since April 2014, meaning that the SBP had reserves, just enough to meet five weeks of imports needed. The reserves of commercial banks declined by $14 million to $5.9 billion. For the coalition federal government of the Pakistan Democratic Movement with Mian Shehbaz Sharif of the Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) as the Prime Minister, the financial crisis is too severe to confront with confidence the political uncertainty in the New Year. To a great extent the situation was created by the main opposition party, Tehreek-i-Insaaf, headed by the erstwhile Prime Minister Imran Khan Niazi.

The hegemony of imperialism is invariably associated with an agrarian crisis in countries of the global south; in fact agrarian crisis is just the other side of the ascendancy of imperialism. This is evident from the case of Indian agriculture. The colonial period saw a more or less perpetual agrarian crisis, whose starkest manifestation was in the form of recurring famines. Colonial rule in India began with the East India Company acquiring the revenue-collecting rights over Bengal from the Mughal Emperor Shah Alam in 1765.Within five years, in 1770, Bengal was devastated by famine, perhaps the worst famine ever in world history, in which according to Company officials themselves, 10 million people out of a total population in Bengal of 30 million, died. British rule ended once more with a massive famine in 1943-44, in which at least 3 million people in Bengal are estimated to have perished.

LUCKNOW: Mishandling of backwards quota issue for civic polls by BJP has given an issue to opposition to corner BJP and boost the morale of leaders like Akhilesh Yadav, Jayant Choudhry and Priyanka Gandhi. The only exception is BSP national president Mayawati who is seen giving advice to BJP and becoming more critical of Samajwadi Party and Congress.

Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu’s far-right, Jewish nationalist, ultra-conservative coalition government threatens to put the Jewish state on a collision course with Jewish Diaspora Jewry and could weaken or undermine a pillar of Israeli national security: unquestioned US support.

The AK Antony panel constituted by Sonia Gandhi to look into the 2014 Congress debacle blamed BJP’s Hindu communalism for the Congress defeat and concluded that Hindu votes mattered to win elections. Regardless, the Congress lost in 2019. Now, after eight and a half years, AK Antony has come out of semi-retirement and reiterated that along with Muslim votes, Hindu votes also mattered if the Congress wanted to “defeat Modi”.

Micro, Small and Medium enterprises in India struggled for revival in 2022, gained a little momentum, but could not realise its full potential, due to a range of hurdles they faced, including in accessing public finance, rising prices and high inflation increasing input costs, hike in interest rates making the investment costly, declining margins of profit, and continued crisis of demand.

Chennai: Bengaluru riders Alimon Saidalavi and Hemanth Muddappa recorded big wins in their respective superbike categories in the third round of the Indian National Motorcycle Drag Racing Championship at the Madras International Circuit, here on Thursday.

New Delhi: For Indian Junior (Men and Women) hockey teams, 2022 turned out to be a memorable year as Men squad won the Sultan of Johor Cup. while Women side, though finishing fourth, gave fancied England a close run for their money in the Bronze Medal match , in the World Cup in Potchefstroom, South Africa.

As the pre-election campaign for state assembly polls in Tripura and Meghalaya warms up, new entrant Bengal-based Trinamool Congress (TMC) faces unexpected challenges. For a state-based party still chasing a ‘national’ status, the first priority for the Mamata Banerjee-led outfit is to win a respectable number of seats in both States.

Why should it surprise anybody if Telugu Desam Party supremo Chandrababu Naidu wants his son Nara Lokesh to replace him at the head of the TDP table? CBN is doing nothing that is unusual. Besides, it is classic Congress. Nara Lokesh will also undertake a ‘padayatra’, just like Gandhi family scion Rahul Gandhi’s ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, but only limited to Andhra Pradesh.