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With Narendra Modi‘s archetypal Hindutva political edifice developing cracks and the party device finding it incapable to withstand the onslaught of Congress Party’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, the BJP top leaders have preferred to adopt a more virulent and belligerent posture against Rahul Gandhi. Adopting aggressive stance is the best mechanism for both the leaders to save their political future and survive the onslaught.

Actor Paresh Rawal might be mistaken for a pomfret. Rawal’s wisecrack about ‘Fish & Bengali’ has landed him in shark-infested waters. He should have stuck to ‘Fish & Chips’. And, if Rawal ever strays into the Bengali hemisphere, (Bangladesh included), he had better look out for Hilsa; it will not bite him! The actor was caught fishing in troubled waters, trying to do one better than Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who loves his fish as much as West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee does hers. Rawal is the sort who flows with the current, and he is now caught in a viral controversy with his remarks on Bengalis and fish.

India’s former chief economic adviser Arvind Subramaniam had flagged in his economic survey some years ago that India faced a major economic issue – twin balance sheet problem wherein Indian banks suffered huge debts as corporates, which had overleveraged banks were suffering huge losses resulting in defaults. This piquant situation occurred as the corporate sector over-expanded during boom period leaving them with obligations that they cannot pay. This resulted in surging non-performing assets of banks choking their ability to lend. This had come to be known as twin-balance sheet problem meaning the balance sheets of both banks and corporates had gone awry.

Is the collegium system of choosing judges perfect? That’s what former Chief Justice of India, U U Lalit, has claimed in recent interviews. Indeed he has even suggested that it’s intrinsic to the basic structure of the Constitution. But is he right on either counter? Let us see what research reveals.

December begins with two very bad news – first, the warning by the Global Wage Report 2022-23 by International Labour Organisation (ILO)of rising inflation that has caused a striking decline in real monthly wages highlighting the urgent need for policies to prevent further poverty, inequality and social unrest, and secondly the November data by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) data which shows rise in unemployment in India for the third consecutive month since September 2022 that reached 8 per cent.

The price cap of $60 for Russian crude is coming into force full steam, with EU countries joining the G-7 and American punitive measure aimed at squeezing out Moscow’s financial resources so as to force it abandon the Ukraine war. A few countries, such as Poland, had initially refused to toe the line, but were prevailed over in the collective drive.

New Delhi: India was assured of five medals after top seed Unnati Hooda, Gnana Dattu, Anish Thoppani and two doubles pairs marched into the semi-finals of the Badminton Asia Junior Championships in Nonthaburi, Thailand on Friday.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched the central bank digital currency (CBDC), nicknamed e-rupee or digital rupee, for the retail segment on December 1. It released Rs 1.71 crore in e-rupee format to four participating banks to roll out its use. As of now four banks and four cities have been selected for the rollout of e-rupee. Right now, it is a pilot project which will have multiple stages as per RBI’s plan to introduce the CBDC in a graded manner so that it doesn’t disrupt the existing payments and settlement systems.

The new avatar of the Indian Data Protection Bill 2022 is not simply the rebirth of the earlier 2019 one. The objective of the earlier Data Protection Bill 2019 was to give a legal framework for the Supreme Court's Puttuswamy judgement of privacy as a fundamental right. The 2022 Bill has a different purpose. This version proclaims the citizen's right to privacy but allows the government to override this right at its will. The other objective of the new Bill is to enable big business—Indian and foreign—to use our data for their benefit. In other words, the intent of the Bill is the opposite of what it claims: it is not to protect privacy but create the architecture of a surveillance state and build surveillance capitalism.

The post-second world war period had seen a spate of welfare state measures in the advanced capitalist countries, especially in Europe, in emulation of what the Soviet Union was effecting. Capitalism had to accept these measures, notwithstanding its hostility to them, because it was in the midst of an existential crisis, weakened by the war, shaken by the upsurge in working-class anger, and terrified by the spread of socialism in Eastern Europe.