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The big surge in global oil prices, especially through the second half of the current year, has been a big cause of concern for large oil importers across the world, including India. This comes at a time when the world is preparing itself to restore economic growth after its massive decline in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately, India, which is 85 percent import dependent on oil, has become the worst sufferer. The pandemic had badly compressed India’s economy in 2020. The country’s GDP contracted substantially. In 2020-21, India’s GDP shrank 7.3 per cent to Rs.135.13 trillion from Rs.145.69 trillion in 2019-20. During this fiscal, economists expected the country’s GDP would improve to a level higher than 2019-20 GDP. But, it now appears that this is practically impossible to achieve. High domestic oil and petroleum products prices, compounded by hefty government levies, are impacting the country’s economic growth despite the signs of a strong demand surge across industry. The current high oil prices will also affect the global economic growth, which lost 4.5 per cent in 2020.

Recent orders passed by the Supreme Court in Sonadhar vs. State of Chhattisgarh, offer a glimmer of hope for convicts languishing in jails for a considerable period of time.

South Africa’s 2021 local government elections will go down in history as the moment that Africa’s oldest liberation movement saw its share of the vote slip below 50 per cent for the first time since the end of apartheid. The African National Congress’s (ANC) share of the vote fell from 53.91 per cent in 2016 to 46 per cent. This collapse was accompanied by the lowest turnout in South African electoral history. Voters opted to register their preferences with their feet rather than ballot: Only about 45.93 per cent (12,035,293 voters) bothered to vote this time around, compared to 58.07 per cent (15,290,820 voters) in 2016.

Trend is your friend until the trend comes to an end. So this has been a fabulous year to own US equities and I have surfed the Big Board/Nasdaq wave for high stakes with even occasional high octane leverage to bet on the right puppy. I am now paranoid about the risk of a major market selloff in November. After all, as Dr. Henry Kissinger noted, even paranoid people have real enemies. So where are the enemies for the bull market at this time?

During the British colonial era, religion always played a catalytic role to achieve political power in the Indian Sub-continent. The colonizers subdued the natives to rule using religious division. Even the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 was commenced in the guise of the politics of communalism. In recent days, the incidents of violence in Ramu (2010), Nasirnagar (2016), Rangpur (2017), Bola (2019), and Cumilla (2021) exhibited an almost similar trend of regional communal politics. We must delve deeper to unearth the core cause, which is eclipsing communal harmony in Bangladesh.

Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent three-day visit to J&K was overdue. That it came over two years after the historic decision to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcate the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories of Ladakh and J&K, reflects the extraordinary times we have lived through because of the Covid-19 pandemic rather than any reluctance to visit the newly-created UT.

The rather surprise cut in the central tax on diesel and petrol by the Modi government has turned out to be a deft political move. The timing of the announcement itself has been political. The cut came within 24 hours of the by-elections results in 11 states, the results of which were not entirely to the liking of the ruling party. Although it brought some face saving wins in some seats, the unexpected loss in the Lok Sabha seat in Himachal Pradesh has rung alarm bells and already a blame game is on to fix responsibility.

New Delhi: "We have been totally focused and preparing hard for the Junior Hockey World Cup scheduled to be played at Bhubneshwar from 24 November to 5 December," said Indian goalkeeper Pawan adding that "the team is looking to work through the final stage of their preparation before the marquee competition."

New Delhi: Akash Kumar's bid for a place in the final was thwarted by Kazakhstan’s Makhmud Sabyrkhan and India had to be content with only a bronze medal at the AIBA World Boxing Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.

The big defeat of the Democratic Party in the latest Governor’s elections in Virginia and the erosion of its base in the strongholds of New Jersey and New York have ominous portent for the President Joe Biden and his party colleagues for the coming midterm elections in November 2022.President’s popularity is now at lower level compared to Trump in the latest opinion polls. The Republicans are charged as their propaganda machinery has succeeded in confusing a good section of supporters of the base of their rivals in the Virginia polls.