View Articles

Saonli Mitra, a legend in Bengali theatre who mesmerized the audience for more than three decades, passed away in Kolkata on Sunday after a prolonged illness. She was the daughter of the theatre icons of Bengal Sambhu Mitra and Tripti Mitra, but Saonli created her own space and produced two plays with epical dimensions.

There are lots of people, mostly Punjab Congress MLAs, rooting for Charanjit Singh Channi, clamouring that the Congress high command name Channi the chief ministerial face of the Congress; promise that he’ll not be replaced when Congress retains the government-ship of the border state on March 10. Above all Channi has the wholehearted support of actor and help-everybody-from-Kashmir-to-Kanyakumari Sonu Sood whose villainous demeanor is limited only to the silver-screen.

The World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda 2022 was intended to bring world leaders together to address the ‘state of the world’ and to share their visions for the year ahead. On the very first day, the world has head the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi, singing for himself, what his government have done for India and the world, and thus failing the country in presenting its real ethos, its record, and its will for ultimate welfare of the world. Greed for money and self-interest can be seen everywhere in his speech for which India never stood for. India stood for emancipation of all, freedom from all tribulations whatsoever, and that spirit was absent from India’s PM’s address. However, that spirit was surprisingly present in the address of António Guterres, the Secretary General of the United Nations.

The Narendra Modi Government is in mess once again over its proposed valuation of the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the blue chip Life Insurance Corporation. Earlier also there were allegations about the official valuation of some other leading public sector enterprises, but the LIC valuation and the process of disinvestment have exposed the anti- public sector face of the BJP government once again.

Former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav have emerged as the primary challenger to the BJP. in the February Assembly polls now that the poll scene is explicit. The polls will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7. March 10 will reveal who becomes the victor.

The Oxfam inequality report released coinciding with the virtual meeting of the World Economic Forum on Davos Agenda, has exposed in a candid manner how the two year pandemic has widened the inequality in the Globe including India. Specifically for India, the situation is grimmer as the present Government lacks the social security system to protect the poor and the distressed resulting in further deterioration in the livelihood of the poor.

New Delhi: The great struggle of the older people during the COVID-19 crisis continues with spike in the present third wave, but 81 per cent of the elderly are optimistic about the forthcoming budget and believe that the Modi government will consider issues concerning them, finds the Agewell Foundation survey conducted this month across the country.

It is high time that the people of India could see, rather must see, through the grim reality under Modi rule, especially since the outbreak of the COVID-19, during which 84 per cent of the households of the country suffered significant decline in income with tremendous loss of lives and livelihoods, while the billionaires prospered and enjoyed their combine fortunes becoming more than double. Not only that the number of billionaires also grew by 39 per cent from 102 in 2020 to 142 in 2021. This was also the year when the share of the bottom 50 per cent of the population in national wealth was a mere 6 per cent.

When Pope Francis granted Spain’s left-wing deputy prime minister Yolanda Díaz an official audience before Christmas, the opposition Partido Popular branded the meeting a “communist summit.” It seems that even for the mainstream right, the head of the Catholic Church is now part of the “anti-Spain” bloc determined to undermine the nation. Francis had already come under attack last September when he apologized for the Church’s role in the Spanish conquest of the Americas; his meeting with Díaz, a lifelong member of the Communist Party of Spain (Partido Comunista de España, PCE), only reinforced the Right’s animosity.

Portugal’s ruling Socialist Party led by the present Prime Minister Antonio Costa is leading in the current opinion polls as against the main opposition Social Democratic Party for the national elections scheduled on January 30 this year. The other parties, Left Bloc and the Communist Party which were part of the coalition led by Costa before his ministry fell, are expected to get less votes.