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Chennai: Spotlights will be on teenagers Bengaluru’s Chirag Ghorpade (153 points, 2 wins) and Agra’s Shahan Ali Mohsin (140, 4 wins) in the premier MRF Formula 1600 category at the fourth and final round of National Car Racing Championship to be held at the MMRT here from February 11 to 13.

Even though the manifestoes of political parties in India released before elections have lost their old values and integrity due to general experience of broken promises, these still offer windows through which one can see what actually has been changing between the two elections. BJP’s manifesto of 2022 is also not an exception in which one can clearly see how the party has degenerated in Uttar Pradesh since 2017 under Yogi Adityanath and ultimately stricken with panic under fear of losing reins of power.

Between an article, ‘A letter from Prime Minister of Pakistan: Pakistan and China, iron brothers and strategic partners – today and forever’ published in Global Times, state-run English daily in Beijing on 30 January 2021 and the forthcoming visit of Imran Khan Niazi to Russia next week, the trapeze of a new bend of diplomacy of ‘miltablishment-dictated government of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf is more than visible and keenly watched.

Indians have ingrained democratic spirit and tolerance in their being from time immemorial. Their religion had given them choices of million gods and goddesses to adopt from as their deity and taught them tolerance with respect for choices of others unlike four single god religions without tolerances for differing concepts like four religions, emerged in the Middle East since 600 BC. Indians were also taught not to care for wealth or the political authority and worry only for their chosen deity. It led to develop the concept or the self ruled villages or vocation bound communities.

If the diplomatic events of Monday showed us anything, they indicated with striking clarity that old assumptions about how European security is to be achieved will not, if they ever did, work and that NATO is incapable of bringing the people of Europe the peace they so desperately want and need.

Hindustani classical vocalist, Prabha Atre, 90, who was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian award, continues to challenge ideologies of a rigid system and make classical music approachable to all.

The chickens are coming home to roost—the half-hearted implementation of the Partition of India’s fruits. Across the Wagah border, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir tweeted his support for Muskan, the Indian college-girl who shouted ‘Allahu Akbar’ to the ‘Jai Shri Rams’ thrown at her in a Karnataka college. For the Pakistanis, she is lioness to the slavering saffron-hued curs snapping at her heels.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front(LDF) Government is breathing easy with Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan shedding his reservations and signing the ordinance seeking to amend the Kerala Lok Ayukta Act, 1999. The ordinance has averted a looming political crisis which threatened to overtake the Kerala Government.

The much-hyped general budget is over and rightly it had avoided populism ahead of assembly elections including Uttar Pradesh. This is refreshing as it is deviation from the past as budgets had more populism, big ticket announcements and less substance. But has the budget done enough to kick-start the economy, the answer is not clear yet.. This is because world over, the management of the economy is largely driven by the idea of dealing with crisis and how to manage and tackle crisis rather than bringing about long-term stability to the economy.

In the wake of cryptocurrencies gaining legitimacy with the imposition of 30 percent sin tax on the transactions, it may now be considered the next logical step to similarly recognise gambling and betting too as legitimate sporting activity. Revenue to the government has been a compelling argument in both cases.