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Foreign contributions to individuals, associations and companies are regulated by the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (‘FCRA’). The central aim of the Act is to prohibit foreign contributions, the utilisation of which may be for activities detrimental to the national interest. The FCRA was amended by the Parliament in 2020 to prohibit sub-transfer of foreign contributions to any other person, reduce the use of foreign contributions for administrative activities to 20 per cent from the existing 50 per cent, mandate that foreign contributions could be received at the State Bank of India’s (‘SBI’) New Delhi branch, and registration or renewal of registration would require Aadhaar as proof — among other things. Clubbed together, these have primarily impacted Non-Governmental Organisations (‘NGOs’).

There is no mistaking it. The drastic decline in migrant remittances over the last few years has affected Kerala’s fiscal health.

The BJP juggernaut is on the roll. As the second half of the 2022 calendar year begins, the opposition parties remain toothless and rudderless. Right now, BJP has begun its three-day national executive session at Hyderabad. The buoyant leadership is focusing on the next assembly elections in Karnataka due early next year. The coup d’état against the Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance government in Maharashtra is now complete, with the regime change on June 30 following resignation of the Shiv Sena Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray. Uddhav was emerging as a capable leader of the anti-BJP forces. His downfall is a big setback to the MVA in the state, as also the overall opposition at national level.

The Joint Forum of Trade Unions and Associations in the public sector general insurance companies, having around 58,000 employees and officers, have unanimously rejected the offers given by the General Insurers Public Sector Associations of India (GIPSA) management.

The military recruitment drives are ‘festive times’ in some of the states in north India. Village elders bless the youth going for the tests. Women folk would send the sons (now daughters too) with tilak and best wishes. In some of the families it is the third or fourth generation that is now aspiring for ‘Vardi’ (coveted uniform). ‘Fauj’ (military) is almost like their second religion. Many movies of Bollywood reflect these sentiments. Army men brought not only honour to their villages but also prosperity and development. Somewhat similar culture prevails in some of the areas down south from where regular recruitment for the army takes place.

Indian media’s unwillingness to question the rulers, the people in power and also its reluctance to uphold the cause of the common people is a deliberate move to conceal the illegal scheming of the capitalist economy and the manoeuvring of the RSS and Modi government to trample democracy and crush democratic institutions.

We never had experience of loss of democracy...Living in our multiplicity, nobody has ever forced us to violate the cultural limits. We have never been isolated from the other, in fact it never had a separate identity. Yet, in the third decade of the twentieth century, there was the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, born in 1925. Those in the West, like Gobineau, Rosenberg and few others, as early as in the nineteenth century, trying to find ways to bring the ideology and culture of racialism in a wider domain, were busy trying to establish ‘Aryan’ theory, in an effort to create space for the writings of Manu Smriti, keeping up the traditions of a racialist script.

Once more, there is confirmation of the familiar public plaint that in their zeal to nestle ever closer to the ‘supreme ‘leader of the moment by using barefaced flattery, practicing politicians often cross all limits. Mostly the outcome is amusing, even as the glorified bigwigs squirm in embarrassment while people enjoy a hearty laugh!

After the three-pronged Maha Vikas Aghadi government, it’s the turn of the ‘Double-engine’ Shinde-Fadnavis regime to rule Maharashtra. The Opposition called the new alliance ‘Maha Vinaash Aghadi’, and as if approving the nomenclature, within a couple of hours of Eknath Shinde and Devendra Fadnavis taking the oath for Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively, the Shinde cabinet straightaway overturned the MVA government’s decision to put a halt to the metro-carshed construction project in Aarey forest.

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party national President Akhilesh Yadav blamed BJP government gross misuse of official machinery and breakdown of democratic institutions to win Azamgarh and Rampur Lok Sabha by-elections. Akhilesh Yadav said that voters of Azamgarh and Rampur we're in favour of Samajwadi Party but BJP government used all possible methods to win the elections. Samajwadi Party national President alleged that voters were not allowed to cast their votes by the official machinery in Azamgarh and Rampur by creating terror.