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The Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 (FCRA), originally enacted in 1976, mandates for all NGOs, associations or groups which intend to receive foreign funding, to obtain a certificate of registration under FCRA. Recently, it was reported that nearly 6,000 organisations including Jamia Millia Islamia, Indian Institute of Technology – Delhi and Oxfam India lost their FCRA licence. It was either because they did not apply for the licence renewal, or their application was rejected by the Union Home Affairs Ministry (MHA). In the case of Missionaries of Charity, which made the news recently for MHA’s refusal to renew its registration, the uproar it led to has apparently forced a rethink, as the MHA eventually renewed the same till 2026. As of January 7, there are 16,908 active or alive FCRA organisations in the country, according to the MHA.

Political parties have been told by the Punjab Pollution Control Board to keep the noise level to the permissible limit. Notices have been issued to a few bombastic politicians. That said, the PPCB diktat matches Navjot Singh Sidhu’s frame of mind. The volatile Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee chief has been quiet after Rahul Gandhi named Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi the chief ministerial face of the Congress. The state ruled by the Congress now is going for polling on February 20 with the big question who is the next CM of this border state Channi or the AAP nominee Bhagwant Mann. Can PM NarenfraModi spring a surprise?

LUCKNOW: Although Samajwadi Party and alliance will get the benefit of trend set in its favour during first two phases of polls in Uttar Pradesh, but Akhilesh Yadav is facing tough challenge from BJP in Yadav land and Bundelkhand in third phase of polling on February 20.

Constitutional culture may be understood as the interactions between the citizens and officials of a State concerning the meaning of the Constitution. It refers to the belief that the exercise of State power is limited by the Constitution, a document which derives its legitimacy from the will of the people. Legal challenges to legislation – such as public interest litigations – and public engagement with the legislative process through petitions and protests may all be considered as examples of constitutional culture. The Supreme Court has noted that “mere existence of a Constitution … does not ensure constitutionalism or a constitutional culture. It is the political maturity and traditions of a people that import meaning to a Constitution, which otherwise merely embodies political hopes and ideals.”

Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekara Rao is emerging as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nemesis, not the soft-spoken Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray nor the fire-breathing West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee—‘KCR’, as he is called, is an adversary with the ability to get under the skin.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s stand for a stronger Centre is well known by now, and also how these are undermining and weakening the very provision of federalism in the Constitution of India, both in letter and spirit. We also have examples when the Modi government was not able to legally undermine the elected opposition led state government, it changed the very definition of the ‘government’ against the spirit of the Constitution of India. The proposed Chief Ministers meet by the Chief Minister of Bengal Mamata Banerjee to be held in Delhi soon is thus significant.

The social media tweets and Instagram/Facebook posts sent out by dealers and outlets of some top order multinational consumer brands in Pakistan in support of ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ and ‘Right to Freedom’ are simply shocking and deserve universal condemnation. Such posts by dealers of those popular MNC brands expose, if anything, their thoughtless marketing misadventure in business extremism. They mock at the 21st century’s most famous marketing strategy ‘think local, act local’ promoted by Coca-Cola’s former global CEO Douglas Daft in 2000 AD and management thinker Theodore Levitt’s provocative classic ‘The Globalisation of Markets’ published in Harvard Business Review so many years ago.

New Delhi: Rattled by Saturday's shock defeat to France, India pumped in all their pent up frustration on South Africa thrashing the hosts 10-2 for the second time in the FIH Hockey Pro League on Sunday at Potchefstroom.

Chennai: Agra teenager Shahan Ali Mohsin clinched the premier MRF F1600 category title in Indian National Car Racing Championship at the MMRT, here on Sunday.

The first fully democratic nation with assured independence for living and for pursuit of religious beliefs is now caught in a torrent political controversy only because few conservatives in the political group of young pretending to be serving the old religious norms are insisting on denial of independence to few. India was hailed in 1950 with her constitution assuring full freedom and voting rights to all regardless of their gender or economic status. Even America had not granted voting rights to women or economically not independents though accepted as citizens for 450 years.