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“First step outside Maharashtra, giant leap towards Delhi via Dadra Nagar Haveli!”, Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut, Neil Armstrong-like, tweeted, soon after the Sena’s newly minted candidate, Kalaben Delkar, won the Dadra and Nagar Haveli (DNH) bypoll. Kalaben defeated the BJP’s Mahesh Gavit and Congress candidate Mahesh Dhodi. Both the Maheshs couldn’t have imagined in their worst nightmares that a complete rookie would worst them without even a ‘May I?’

By winning both the assembly seats – Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur – in Bihar that went to by-polls on October 30, the JD(U) has reaffirmed its advantage over the RJD, under three major conditions. First, JD(U) contested in alliance with BJP, voters turnout was less than 50 per cent, and RJD contested on its own. Needless to say, the conditions were advantageous for the ruling combine, which are most likely to change soon, and hence the cause of worry.

Few events can be cited in human history that have altered our understanding of human society to the extent of the Russian Revolution (October 25, 1917, as per new calendar November 7). While the French Revolution fuelled the revolutionary aspirations of the masses but fell prey to Bonapartism later, it was the Russian Revolution that succeeded in establishing a workers’ state for the first time. Many visionaries and philosophers have tried to imagine a society free of exploitations, inequalities and injustices, but it was the great Lenin, under whose leadership, the people of Russia brought Soviets on the world map following the emancipatory ideology of Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels.

New Delhi: Putting up a fearless and attacking display Akash Kumar stunned Rio Olympic silver medallist Yoel Finol of Venezuela 5-0 in the 54 Kg category quarter-final and confirmed a medal for India at the AIBA Boxing world championships in Belgrade, Serbia on Tuesday.

The Supreme Court’s decision constituting a committee headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice R.V. Raveendran to examine whether Israeli software Pegasus was used to target citizens is indeed significant for it, inter alia recognizes that the right to privacy and freedom of speech are alleged to have been impacted by such targeting of the citizen and that it could potentially have a chilling effect on the exercise of such right.

The 4-0 victory with big margins by the All India Trinamool Congress defeating the BharatiyaJanata Party in the bye-elections to the West Bengal Legislative Assembly has sent a clear message to the political parties and all concerned that the people of West Bengal stoutly reject the narrow politics of communal polarisation which the BJP leaders tried to cash in on although in vain. The second and no less significant factor that went against the saffron party and its politics is the awkward rise in fuel prices from petrol to cooking gas, As a result, the BJP candidates had to struggle hard to prevent forfeiture of deposit money.

Shiv Sena spokesperson Kishore Tiwari sported an angry demeanour when the ‘debate’ turned to ex-Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh’s ‘grilling’ at the hands of the Enforcement Directorate. He did not like that ED sleuths weren’t thinking of Deshmukh’s advanced age. Tiwari kept his frustration writ large on his disapproving face for the entire evening.

India’s much awaited announcement to achieve net-zero status was finally made by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi in COP26 in Glasgow. The pledge of net-zero by 2070 has cheered his constituency at home, but disappointed the world that has been making all efforts to get pledges from every country for net-zero by 2050. In this sense, it is a delay by 20 years. However, the other four pledges for considerable increase in targets by 2030 have kindled great hope for the world. Given the spectacular performance on past pledges, India can do a magic even by overachieving on its new pledges and shortening the delay, but this magic would be possible only if it could be supported by sufficient climate finance.

In economics, there is a concept of intra-industry trade, which is trading in similar items. For example, China exports Lenovo computers to Japan and in return imports Sony computers. When countries trade in similar technology-intensive items, trade becomes mutually beneficial. And trading partners get access to each other’s market, leading to availability of a bigger variety of products to their consumers. To top it all, they don’t have to incur a huge trade deficit making trade sustainable. The problem arises when trade involves low- and high-technology intensive products.

Sudan is the exception to the rule in the United Arab Emirates’ counterrevolutionary playbook. In contrast to Egypt or Yemen, where it went out of its way to help roll back the achievements of popular revolts, the UAE was happy to see the back of Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir.