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When Donald. J. Trump, the former president of USA, left the White House after his defeat in 2020 election and shifted to his Florida residence at Mar - a- Lago, he took with him boxes of official documents which had to be handed to the National Archives Authority, under the Presidential Records Act of 1978. The Archives authority announced in February ,22 that it has recovered 15 boxes of documents, after prolonged persuasion, many of which are labelled classified or top secret and some of them are torn or damaged. They reported that there are more documents of importance still held by Trump. They were asking the FBI to determine if criminal charges are warranted under the Records Act, as by its provisions such records must be turned over to National Archives when a president leaves office. If that law is breached, the offender could be prosecuted criminally and if convicted could get a prison term of 5 years along with fines.

The change in the world of work has been accelerating, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic struck the country and India was put under lockdown since March 24, 2020. Barring those who were working in government, public sector, and in essential services, the majority of the workforce rendered jobless without social security coverage. Job market has been distorted, recovery is still too slow to accommodate the jobless, and many of those who are able to get employment are subjected to exploitation and non-payment of wages for months, such as MGNREGA labours, amounting to ‘forced labour’ as the Supreme Court of India has commented in case for MGNREGA workers. No trade union is strong enough to protect the interest of workers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi turned his eagerly awaited address on the 75th Independenceanniversary, more an electoral plank for 2024 while throwing up a 25-year agenda for the nation to be rid of all ills plaguing it at present. He put Corruption and Nepotism as major challenges while arguing for support to causes like safety of women and freer opportunities for the widening talent pool in India. His approach seems designed to cover up failures on these fronts. The Prime Minister Modi, however, claimed his Government had entered an "effective phase" in the fight against corruption.

India takes over presidency of G-20 at a critical juncture when geo politics is at cross roads and global economy difficult and sagging. This is significant as it takes over leadership at a time when there is need to strengthen multilateralism and that India is ideally suited because of it being among the few countries that are fit to play the balancing act to this increasingly multi-polar world. India is deeply committed to multilateralism and democracy and G-20 presidency would be very significant for India’s history.

The acrimony between political parties, particularly Modi’s BJP and Kejriwal’s AAP, over freebies notwithstanding, it may be an appropriate occasion for a full-fledged debate on the issue as the nation celebrates 75 years of Independence. But the cold fact is that every interested party is running away from such a constructive debate.

Since independence our country has progressed in many fields. The British colonial rulers squeezed our economy and left the nation with poor education and health status. According to Sanjay P Zodpey and Preeti H Negandhi as per the 1951 Census, India’s population was 36.1 crores. Only 18.33% of the total population was literate then, of which female literacy was 8.86%; only one out of every 11 women were able to read and write. The overall life expectancy was 32 years. The infant mortality rate (IMR) was 145.6/1000 live births. Maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in the 1940s was 2000/100,000 live births, which apparently came down to 1000 in the 1950s. There were only 50,000 doctors across the country. The number of primary health-care centers in the country was only 725.

Friday August 5 was the third anniversary of the nullification of Article 370. It was also the date on which Hamin Ast? a Biography of the Article 370 published by Vidhi Centre for legal policy. was released. The book could create an enormous stir because it argues that “nullification of Article 370 is legally unsound”. It has four authors--- Jinaly Dani, Pranay Modi, Kilvin James and Arghya Sengupta, the founder and research scholar director of the Centre.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday hailed the Indian athletes for their superb performances in the just concluded Commonwealth Games, saying that “ It is a matter of pride that due to the splendid hard work of the sportspersons; the country is entering into the Azadi Ka Amrit Kaal with an inspiring achievement.”

Two headlines stood out. One in an Israeli newspaper, ‘No one will any longer dare offend Islam: The 1989 fatwa against Salman Rushdie’. And the other in a New York daily, ‘NJ man, Hadi Matar, with sympathies toward Iranian government ID’d as suspect in Salman Rushdie stabbing’. The second emphasized on the first. Not only will no one dare offend Islam, those ‘no one’ will also not dare link the killer with Islam.

THIRUVANTHAPURAM: For once, the central investigating agency Enforcement Directorate(ED) finds itself at the receiving end. The ED suffered a legal setback when the Kerala High Court adjourned to August 17 the hearing on a writ petition filed by former Kerala finance minister Thomas Isaac challenging the summons asking him to appear before the Enforcement Directorate to explain his role in the issue of masala bonds by the Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board (KIIFB).