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Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in India have been dying for a long time even before the outbreak of COVID-19 resulting in large number of job losses. The lockdown announced on March 24, 2020 and the containment measures aggravated the situation further. Announcement of government support by Modi government failed to stem the rot. The second wave of COVID-19 beginning from February 2021 peaking up in May brought further deterioration. About 15 lakh jobs were lost in a single month of May chiefly due to shutting down of MSMEs or scaling down of their operation. We have yet again some further announcement of support by the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), while last years’ announcements are yet hardly half-implemented, and the fate of the present announcements are buried in future.

On June 26, the dayafter Indira Gandhi had imposed emergency 46 years ago, the farmers’ movement entered into its 8th month of survival. Though yesterday Narendra Modi took to twits to recollect the tyrannies “he had to face” during the Emergency days, he did not mention about his resolve to destroy democracy and smash the democratic institutions in the country. His recurrent reference to imposition of emergency however forcefully threw open a question that why he was averse to respect the democratic aspirations of the crores of farmers and sit across with them to listen to their arguments for scraping of the three black farm laws. Indira Gandhi used emergency not to listen to the democratic voices, while Modi in a shrewd manner used the state machinery to deny the farmers of their rights.

The BJP’s “walk back” on Kashmir – to use a polite term for “retreat – must have made it appreciate the difficulty of implementing a religion-based agenda in a democracy.

There is little business or commercial reason behind the government’s move to dismantle the age-old Kolkata-based raw materials division (RMD) of public sector Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). The move appears to be totally political and engineered by the national government. The division has done very well over the last three decades. In fact, it needs to be strengthened by linking to SAIL’s coking coal import. The country imports about 56 million tonnes of metallurgical (coking) coal, worth around Rs. 72,000 crore. SAIL is the largest single importer. Surprisingly, this is handled by SAIL’s commercial office in Delhi and not its RMD in Kolkata. Like Tata Steel, SAIL should also have its commercial office in Kolkata and not in Delhi. The SAIL board is unlikely to take such a crucial decision as shutting down the decades old RMD in Kolkata and distribute its function to its two steel plants, Rourkela and Bokaro, without the government support and provocation.

New Delhi: Sajan Prakash became the first Indian swimmer to make the 'A' qualifying time for the Tokyo Olympics recording the fastest time ever clocked by an Indian in 200m butterfly as he touched pads at 1:56.38 in Sette Colli, Rome - a FINA accredited meet. The 'qualifying standard was 1:56.48.

New Delhi: Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary lost to the Russian pair of Vitalina Batsarashkina and Artem Chernousov 12-16 to settle for a silver in the in 10M Air Pistol Mixed Team event at the Shooting World Cup medal in Osijek, Croatia.

New Delhi: Former captain Gurbux Singh feels that the current Indian hockey team is a potential podium finisher at the Tokyo Olympics.

The United Nations General Assembly on June 23 overwhelmingly approved a Cuban resolution condemning the U.S. economic, commercial, and financial blockade of Cuba, in place for 60 years. The Assembly has done precisely that every year since 1992, except for 2020, when the vote was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The vote this time was: 184 nations approving; two opposing, Israel and the United States; and three abstaining, Colombia, Ukraine, and Brazil.

Kashmiri leaders who till recently were identified as the Gupkar gang need not be euphoric at their June 24 meeting with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. An insight into the deliberations the Kashmiri leaders had with Modi makes it explicit that his design wrapped in the cliché of Naya Kashmir was primarily aimed to serving the interest of the international players and also to entrap the Kashmiri leaders.

Farmers’ sit-in protest against the three farm laws at Delhi borders completes seven months today. The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella organization of as many as 40 farmers’ unions leading the agitation, is knocking at Rajbhavans across the country in form of demonstration to mark the occasion as “Kheti Bachao, Loktantra Bachao Diwas” (Save Agriculture, Save Democracy Day). Under these events that meet the eyes is its immense political significance that may spill over even beyond the five states going to polls early next year, including Punjab and Uttar Pradesh where majority of the agitating farmers had come from, hundreds of them even lost their lives, thousands of them braved the biting cold, scorching sun, and heavy rains during the protests, and still staging the protest.