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After significant gains during the last quarter of 2021, the number of hours worked globally dropped in the first quarter of 2022, to 3.8 per cent below the pre-crisis benchmark in the fourth quarter of 2019. This is equivalent to a deficit of 112 million full-time jobs, which represents a significant downgrading of figures published by the ILO in January 2022.

The Consumer Price Index (General) measuring retail headline inflation shows a year on year growth of 7.8 per cent in the month of April 2022, which is the highest in the past eight years. Actually, the CPI (General) was higher than 6 per cent in the month of May and June last year and then the prices seem to moderate till September 2021. Since then, there has been a sharp rise in prices reaching close to 8 per cent in April this year. It is also important that core inflation which excludes food group and fuel and clothing also reached 7 per cent year on year growth in April 2022.

On May 27, 1964 at 1.44 PM, India's first Prime Minister and one of the best chroniclers of this great nation's history breathed his last at his residence Teen Murti Bhavan. Nehru along with Indira Gandhi came back to Delhi on May 26 afternoon after a three day holiday in Dehradun. Nehru had not been keeping well since his last stroke at the Bhubaneswar session of AICC in January of 1964. After a short rest, the 74 year old Prime Minister, took to his normal schedule despite the requests by his panel of doctors to go slow. For Nehru, work was worship, and when he was not doing official work, he was reading.

During the Ramjanmabhoomi agitation, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and other Hindutva outfits had raised the slogan “Ayodhya sirf ek jhanki hai, Mathura or Kashi baaki hai”. This translated means “Ayodhya is just the beginning, Mathura and Kashi are left”.

The scale of Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr’s victory in the Philippine presidential election on May 9, where he gained a record 58.74 per cent of the votes cast, has stunned many observers. By contrast, his closest rival Leni Robredo, current vice-president and the main hope of the political and economic establishment, could manage only 27.99 per cent.

On May 18 UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres sounded the alarm. For him “the spectre of a global food shortage” looms and he fears “this dangerous situation could tip into catastrophe.” “It threatens to tip tens of millions of people over the edge into food insecurity, followed by malnutrition, mass hunger and famine, in a crisis that could last for years.”

Peace and Harmony helped in development and growth in the human society most of the time; there have however been incidents of violence against others from time to time which have hampered socio-economic growth. Such incidents do not occur spontaneously. Studies have shown that most of the time they are instigated by some vested interests with political, economic, social and cultural motives.

There is a 95 per cent chance that the number of people facing food insecurity will rise in the range between 142 million and 243 million by November, from roughly 1.6 billion in mid-May. Moreover, the upward pressure on food prices due to export bans by several countries including India may make the humanitarian toll much worse.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Campaign in the prestigious Thrikkakara Assembly by-election has entered the last lap with both the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-headed United Democratic Front (UDF) pulling out all stops to ensure victory.

Eight years of Narendra Modi, and the lament is “there are still two more to go.” May 26, 2014 Narendra Modi stuck his thumb out at the naysayers and took oath. From that day on, the people of India haven’t been given reason to forget that the man rules their lives. And, if anybody should take responsibility for the lurking disappointment, it’s as much the Opposition as it is the man himself.