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There are many examples like Mahender Kumar, an autorickaw owner in Delhi. He has grown some 20 varieties of medicinal plants on the roof of his vehicle. He says it is his contribution to the efforts to improve Delhi’s air quality and weather. It also keeps the vehicle cool during summer.

In West Bengal, the ongoing tirade against the Border Security Force (BSF) coming from the ruling Trinamool Congress(TMC) is essentially old wine in new bottle.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) Member of Parliament Keshava Rao sat to the right of Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, who had a Covid-19 mask on. As far as the TRS was concerned, all masks were off, Keshava Rao was at the Opposition MPs’ meeting in Parliament with instructions from TRS chief K Chandrashekhar Rao to dump the BJP and join the Opposition ranks.

It is another instance of the diabolic game of giving by the left hand and taking by the right, the Modi government has played a prank on people by raising LPG prices. After all the hype and hoopla about the excise duty cut, though negligible in terms of the total tax, by the Centre, following by much sermonising to the states to follow suit, the price of the LPG gas meant for commercial use has been hiked by Rs 100 per cylinder. This is the second price increase in the space of a month.

Indian Railways (IR) has been mobilizing resources from freight traffic, passenger services, sundry sources, market borrowings, budgetary and extra budgetary support from the General Exchequer for its expansion, upgradation and modernisation. Borrowing arm of IR in the Ministry of Railways is Indian Railways Finance Corporation (IRFC). In addition, Ministry of Railways also mobilises loans from the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, bilateral and multilateral funding agencies with the approval of Finance Ministry. During the first half of the current fiscal year 2021-22 ending September 2021, IRFC has mobilized Rs.38,917 crore out of a total target of Rs.65,258 crore. Remaining amount of Rs.26, 341 crore will be mobilized in the second half of the current financial year. With this, total borrowings till September end 2021 raised by IRFC stand at Rs.3, 42,697 crore over the corresponding period ending September 2020 at Rs. 2,45,349.32 crore, up by 40 per cent. Assets under management leased by IRFC to the Railways are worth Rs.3,82,17, as on September 30, 2021.

Spanish Communist leader Yolanda Diaz presently serves as minister of labor and social economy in the coalition government of Spain headed by Pablo Sanchez’s Socialist Party (PSOE). It includes the United Podemos (UP) formation, with which Díaz’s own Communist Party of Spain (PCE) is associated. (Podemos is “Yes, we can!)

Recently, the Chief Minister of Punjab, Charanjit Singh Channi announced that his government will soon bring a law to ensure that jobs in Punjab are reserved for Punjabis. Punjab will become the fifth state to join the “75 per cent reservation for locals” bloc. Earlier, Andhra Pradesh and, Haryana had also enacted laws for domicile-based reservations in the private sector. Jharkhand has introduced a similar Bill, while Karnataka has been promising to introduce a 100 per cent reservation for Kannadigas in blue collar jobs since 2016.

Jack Dorsey, 45, on Monday announced his resignation as the CEO of social media giant Twitter he co-founded in 2005. His resignation came almost abruptly although a media report had hinted at the possibility recently. Dorsey has been acting as the CEO of both Twitter and the electronic payments company Square.

If there is an Indian who can give coronavirus a run for its money, it is farmers’ leader Rakesh Tikait. Now, in its Omicron avatar, coronavirus, with 53 spike proteins—meaning 53 mutations—is ‘stubborner’ than a mule, and Tikait a week and a half ago, unseated Prime Minister Narendra Modi from that exalted seat. The Tikait trait Omicron and its predecessors share is ‘stubbornness’. Till the morning Prime Minister Narendra Modi accepted his “mistake” and declared he would repeal the three “black” laws, there was no doubt in anybody’s mind that Modi was by far the most obstinate man in the ‘I Will Not Bend’ racket.

The state run Central Electronics Limited (CEL) has become the second victim of Modi government’s selling spree of public sector companies this year. It was sold damn cheap at only Rs 210 crore to Nandal Finance, a company which has no expertise to run the business successfully, apart from its low capital base, jeopardizing the very objective for which it was established in 1974 as a public sector company.