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BHOPAL: Supreme Court’s direction to hold local bodies elections without reservation for OBCs has created serious dilemma for the BJP led Madhya Pradesh Government. The BJP was very keen that seats in local bodies should be reserved for OBCs. It is the considered opinion of the BJP that OBCs constitute solid base for the party.

It was Rabindranath Tagore, the myriad-minded poet, thinker and staunch internationalist who stood up openly at a public meeting in 1897 at the historic Town Hall of Calcutta, then India’s capital in protest against the infamous sedition act, the day before it was first used –Section 124A of Indian Penal Code. It was the first protestation against the Sedition Act which was introduced in 1870. The British rulers at that time booked Bal Gangadhar Tilak for sedition—Queen Empress vs. Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1897).

Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das said recently it will spill over to next decade for the Indian economy to recover the losses that had resulted to the economy as a result of the Covid Pandemic during the last two odd years. Now the economy has started recovering not only in India but also globally even though the pace is uneven. It has also posed new dangers to macro-economic fundamentals particularly Inflation which has, strangely, become both demand and supply driven. But one area where not much attention has been given is the impact of covid on education particularly school education. Extremism ruins couple of generations as it impacts working age group.

India has topped Internet shutdowns in the world for the fourth consecutive years ending December 2021, a latest report by tech policy think tank Access Now revealed. During 2021, 106 of the 182 internet shutdowns reported globally were in India. Of the total internet shutdowns in the country in 2021, Jammu and Kashmir faced intermittent internet clampdown despite the longest ever shutdowns there were already lifted in February 2021. Last five years from 2016 to 2021, India faced varying Internet shutdowns in 567 cases, more than half of the 931 Internet shutdowns recorded globally.Global count of Internet shutdowns dipped in 2020 because of the pandemic. It rose in 2021.

Around eight years ago, when he was Brigadier, Manoj Pande was posted in the headquarters of Eastern Command as the Brigadier General Staff (Operations), one of the most important positions there. His immediate boss was the late General Bipin Rawat who was Major General Staff. Rawat’s boss at that time was General Dalbir Singh Suhag, as the Eastern Army Commander.

Revival of the Congress Parliamentary Board (CPB), granting only one ticket per family, a mandatory three-year cooling off period for office bearers of the AICC, PCC and DCC after completing their first full-term of 3-4 years and pruning the Jumbo Congress committee panels are likely to come up for deliberation at the Congress Chintan Shivir in Udaipur slated for May 13-15. Ideas like setting up a separate wing to manage elections are also on the agenda.

The Narendra Modi government has received a real snub from the Supreme Court, which has overruled the Centres’ objections and stayed all proceedings in sedition cases. A bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana also directed on Wednesday that all pending cases, appeals and proceedings with respect to charges framed for sedition be kept in abeyance. Those who have been booked under the law or are in jail can now seek bail from the appropriate courts.

Two hundred and thirty years back, noted British-American author, political theorist and philosopher Thomas Paine was charged with sedition for publishing his treatise the Rights of Man in England. Rights of Man severely criticized the monarchy, hereditary government and advocated social welfare measures for the poor. Paine’s criticism of the monarchy and the nobility and his belief in the sovereignty of the individual irked the ruling classes. He was sentenced for execution by hanging in abstentia for seditious libel.

It is not the past glory revisiting Indian Real Estate with the sudden rise of price in almost all the segments. It is neither the upsurge of the demand nor the limited supply of inventories. Rather something unprecedented has taken place. It’s the huge rise in the construction cost of around a whooping increase about 30 percent in last one year. The situation has become graver in last 2-3 months due to high inflation resulting in double digit growth in whole sale price index due to rising price of crude oil, cement, steel, metals like copper and zinc, and other construction materials. Repercussions of Russia –Ukraine Conflict is now directly felt, at least in Indian Real Estate market. The main casualty would be Affordable and Mid-Income housing segment of India. The coveted dream of Government “Housing for All by 2022” seems hit a road block as the rising commodity costs and crude will not be a short-term affair.

Over the last year, multiple individuals and organizations moved the Supreme Court challenging the constitutional validity of Section 124A of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), that is, the offence of sedition. The Union Government earlier today informed the Supreme Court that it had decided to re-examine and reconsider section 124A as part of an ongoing process of reviewing colonial laws, and requested the court to await the outcome of the reconsideration before it proceeds to decide on the validity of section 124A.