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Time was when politics in West Bengal was studded by luminaries Kiran Shankar Roy and Hiren Mukherjee known for their erudition and courtesy towards their political opponents who were never considered to be enemies. The tradition eroded over the years as politeness took a back seat and bitter words were exchanged in the political arena.

Former US Vice President Mike Pence is back, armed with a memoir with which he wills to conquer the future—Pence wants to be the spotlight in 2024 even as Donald Trump announced he’s gonna give himself another chance in the glare of the White House. Asked what he thought of that, Pence said there are “alternative choices” to Trump who had always kept Pence in the shadows of his own shadow! 'Vice President’ Mike Pence and ‘President’ Donald Trump fell out on January 6, 2020, when the so-called Capitol Hill insurrection upended Trump, and Pence let it be known that two can play the game, one ‘Judas’, and the other Mike Pence!

The judgment of the Madras High Court on November 14 in the case of Sunitha versus Additional Chief Secretary to Government & Ors. is of increased significance for two reasons. Firstly, it acknowledges the transformation of the welfare State into a police State that has scant regard for personal liberties of citizens, and believes in slapping preventive detention laws in a manner as to shock the conscience of the ordinary citizen; secondly, it admits the further manner in which the citizen is wronged by the courtroom delays that only seem to rub salt into injury instead of redressing it forthwith.

Like other incongruities, the Narendra Modi government once again has resorted to the same tactics and made Reserve Bank of India answerable for implementing the Prime Minister’s personal decision to demonetise the currency. Only three days back Modi government virtually in an act of renunciation of PM’s responsibility told the Supreme Court that the step was taken after extensive consultation with the RBI and advance preparations were made before the note ban was enforced.

Outcome of CoP27 makes a history in agreeing on setting up a loss and damage fund to help the developing countries, but failed to agree on greater actions to successfully deal with the rising temperature of the Earth, that the Paris Agreement of 2015 has set to limit to 1.5 degree Celsius. The world finally settled for a very weak agreement on preventing the climate crisis.

Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee has done it again. His third book' The Song of the Cell' published this year has once again mesmerized the doctors, scientists and the common readers much more than the impact he had with his first two books 'The Emperors of all Maladies' and 'The Gene'. Mukherjee has come out in this trilogy once more as a great story teller who can combine the history of the medical investigations with personal anecdotes and thereby imparting a bigger dimension to his exploration of the root causes of the diseases. The New Yorker has rightly said in its review that 'it is hard to think of many authors who have rendered any areas of modern science and technology with such intelligence, accessibility and compassion'.

The government may disagree, India’s economic performance in the last eight years has proved to be rather lacklustre. It has been facing a real challenge from the ever expanding black economy, substantially eating up the revenue income of both the national and state governments. Unaccounted money with the rich is hurting the government and the common man. It is a major contributor to the price inflation. The government’s demonetisation and digitisation measures have had little impact on the dark economy’s growth. The failure to contain the black economy is hurting the entire society. The government appears to be clueless about the size of the black economy in the absence of a reliable assessment of the situation. However, the rectification of the system may prove to be an uphill task as it will call for policing on politicians in power, the police and government officials who are behind the black economy’s prosperity.

Hyderabad: Amid high drama, Raghul Rangasamy (MSport) and Sandeep Kumar (Dark Don Racing) quickly dispensed with pole sitter, Tijil Rao and fought tooth and nail for the first three laps before the red flag was brought out due to the failure of championship leader, Ashwin Dutta's car. at the LGB Formula 4 of the 25th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship at the Hyderabad Street Circuit on Sunday.

New Delhi: Asian Youth Champions Vishwanath Suresh and Vanshaj along with six other Indians chalked out impressive victories and moved into the quarter-final on the fifth day of the Youth Men and Women’s World Boxing Championships in La Nucia, Spain.

Digboi: Chandigarh’s Yuvraj Sandhu fired stunning eight-under 64, to retain his title with a two-shot win at the Rs. 75 lakh IndianOil SERVO Masters at the Digboi Golf Links on Saturday.