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India on the 72nd Republic Day presents a very grim picture with its secular constitutional pluralistic democracy not working. Country has changed politically, socially and economically. Current regime in the Centre has actively participated and aided communal and divisive forces in vitiating the harmony among religious and social groups for the ruling party to reap the electoral dividends. Media and judiciary have caved-in to government pressure, instead of holding the executive (government) to account.

The world is fearful of possible war once again. This time the hotspot is Ukraine, with the accompanying crisis there and the fact that two of the adversaries, the U.S. and Russia, are the two largest nuclear powers on Earth.

Bangladesh has not gone the way of 35 other low/middle income countries in the world that have run into debt traps, while accepting funds for China-sponsored development projects. Unlike other governments, Bangladesh authorities have not shrunk from scrapping major Chinese road/rail infra projects on grounds of apparently inflated costs and corruption in recent times.

Almost two years has been lost since the pandemic struck, schools in India are yet to open causing great damage to entire generation of students. Loss is worse than expected, according to several studies, and yet we could not open schools and educational institutions. We are now reeling under the third wave of COVID-19, and uncertainties are likely to continue, while about 70 per cent of students are unable to access online education.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray’s spine is fine. He is also breathing fire, singe-ing erstwhile partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party, right where it hurts. The two political chums broke up after 25 years in the same bed. Today, there is no love lost between the Shiv Sena and the BJP. So much so, Uddhav Thackeray says the Shiv Sena "wasted 25 years" in the company of the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Needless to say that health and education form the basis of development of any society. Investment in these two sectors is an asset for the present as well as future. Unfortunately the successive governments have ignored these two sectors. Public health spending is far from the required, thus causing serious impact on the health of the people of our country. Whereas the first National Health Policy 1983 emphasized on promotive, preventive curative and rehabilitative services, the latest National Health Policy shifted its emphasis towards the provision of health care through private sector and opening up secondary and tertiary level health care for private investment. As a result the spirit and principles of Primary health care was compromised. This resulted in a setback to the equitable distribution of healthcare. All this was a reflection of neo-liberal economic model adopted by our country and the World Trade Organisation after it was founded on 1st January 1995.

The second session of Unpaused - A Naya Safar released in the OTT platform Amazon Prime Video last week has offered the viewers the package of five short films like the first one, focusing on different areas of the society hit by the second wave of covid. The directors have chosen themes of varying nature but there is an underlying theme on how inequality is widening impacting the majority of the Indian population.

For almost two years in a row, the country’s economy faced with an uncertain situation. The Covid-19 pandemic, the Delta variant and the omicron wave are sweeping India as also other parts of the world. The situation brought the worst effect on the country’s job market and general demand-supply position. Millions lost job. New opportunities are rare. Simultaneously, healthcare costs are rising. So are the commodity costs and inflation. They are becoming unbearable to ordinary citizens. Though the general sentiment in India still continues to be positive, the primary challenge before the government and Finance Minister NirmalaSitaraman is to tackle the twin attack of unemployment and inflation on the people and economy as she prepares to present the annual budget for 2022-23 in Parliament next month. The government must try to restore the public confidence by setting up large state-funded long-term projects that will create millions of new jobs across India. Joblessness and job losses are driving people to frustration.

At 8:30 am every day, 3000-odd labourers begin their work at a hot rolling steel plant in Jind, a small dusty town in Haryana. Hot rolling steel is used as an intermediary for making steel utensils. Although, the large steel plants have become mechanized, the hot rolling steel plant such as the one in Jind is categorized as micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). There are many such other similar plants and they have been a source of employment for thousands of people, both skilled and unskilled. Labourers, technical people, engineers and other professional people work for this industry. Government data estimate that there are 6.63 crore MSMEs in India, out of which 99.47 per cent are categorized as micro enterprises, 0.52 per cent as small, and remaining 0.01 per cent categorized as medium enterprises. MSME sectors contribute around 30 per cent of India’s GDP, with a share of 40 per cent in exports, and employing around 11 crore people.

Lately, Punjab politics has been making headlines, not always for the right reasons. The security lapse during the prime minister’s visit and the infighting within political parties signal that all is not well in the state. At the same time, all parties have made the betterment of the farming community their campaign plank in the upcoming assembly elections. The agitating farmers have launched their own party. It is no secret that Punjab, once the frontrunner of Indian agriculture, is struggling to retain its dynamism. While Punjab ranked at the top of major Indian states in terms of per capita income during 1967-68 to 2002-03, it has slipped below the 13th position and will keep falling in this ranking if business as usual continues.