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Many participants among 200-plus at the very recently held international conference on innovation in the social sciences and humanity, hosted by Ton DucThang University, Ho-chi Minh City were epistemologically surprised to learn that Karl Marx deeply studied the concept of ‘nothingness’ of Gautama Buddha in a paper and in another that contemporary transnational capital aims at full spectrum which covers a vast panorama including multilateral agencies mediating global and local governance. Further, the investment of charity capital in the contemporary business of social work is as wide as dominance over the entire political economy of our planet as envisaged by Marx but couldn’t reach out to them in his life time. Both the papers were authored by Kolkata-based Marx scholar and polymath Pradip Baksi.

There is little to be excited about the government’s latest announcement of a comprehensive strategy to put India firmly on the world map of semiconductor manufacturers at a time when the global industry is silently cerebrating its diamond jubilee of existence. The world’s first semiconductor maker, Fairchild Semiconductor Corporation, was founded in Santa Clara, California, in 1957. Since then nearly 50 large semiconductor firms have come up in over a dozen countries. Last week, the Narendra Modi government finally unfolded a US$10-billion (Rs.760 million) package to boost semiconductor and display manufacturing.

In Assam the illegal smuggling of cows will get more difficult: The Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled State Government has decided to ban the transporting of cattle to any district that shares the international border with Bangladesh. This is the main feature of the new Cow Protection Bill whose details have just been announced by Chief Minister Mr Himanta Biswa Sarma.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The people of Kerala woke up to this Sunday soaked with blood. The recrudescence of murder politics – two killings in 12 hours – has given a rude jolt to the state.

Completion of two years of anti-CAA movement by protesters at Shaheenbagh on December 15, 2019, which the March 24, 2020 nationwide lockdown to contain COVID-19 outbreak forced to an end, could not erase the anti-CAA sentiment among the people. Rather, the movement like this is showing signs of resurrection across India. Protests were organized to mark the second anniversary across the country. Moreover, as the election to the legislative assembly of Uttar Pradesh is approaching, which is due in early next year, politics hots up with communal frenzy around CAA-NRC-NPR, threatening turning the whole state into Shaheenbaghs.

Jamshedpur: On a day of dramatic twists, Pune based Udayan Mane returned a gritty last round of three-under 69 to clinch the PGTI’s season-ending TATA Steel Tour Championship by one-shot here on Sunday.

Jamshedpur: Shubhankar Sharma set the Golmuri Golf Course ablaze with a nine-under, 63 that catapulted him into the joint lead along with Udayan Mane, who returned a fighting 67, in round three of the Rs. 1.5 crore TATA Steel Tour Championship here on Saturday.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee that studied the personal data protection bill, introduced two years ago, has for all practical purposes endorsed the bill’s draconian features, while shedding copious tears about the sanctity of privacy. The bill in a way takes away the fundamental right of the citizen to privacy and puts it in the hands of the government. As such, there will be two orders with regard to privacy, one which is applicable to everything other than the domain of the government and the other for the government. And in the process, puts the onus of enforcing the fundamental right to privacy with the government which is often the violator rather than the protector of fundamental rights.

“How can we expect polls to be impartial?” asked Mallikarjuna Kharge, Congress Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Rightly, his question is for the Election Commission, but the EC no longer has the courage—not under this dispensation which has been chipping away at the democratic edifice of the Republic with a vengeance.

What lesson can we learn from the farm laws episode for navigating reforms in the future? The Prime Minister himself alluded to one big lesson when he admitted in his concession speech that his government failed to disseminate the benefits of the proposed reforms. He was spot on.