IPA Staff
16492 stories by IPA Staff
Kerala’s Tiny Lifeline: How A 10-Month-Old Became A Beacon Of Hope
By T N Ashok On a quiet Sunday afternoon in Mallappally of Pathanamthitta district in Kerala, the tiny white coffin of 10-month-old Aalin Sherin Abraham was lowered into the earth to the sound of muffled sobs and whispered prayers. Hundreds gathered — neighbours, strangers, officials — not merely to...
Former PM Imran Khan’s Health In Jail Speaks Of Failing Democracy In Pakistan
By Tirthankar Mitra Things are not going well for Pakistan’s former prime minister and front ranking Opposition leader Imran Khan and democratic process of this country. Imprisonment of the former prime minister not dominating the political debate in a country which espouses democracy; this is an aberration. The deeper...
Madhya Pradesh Assembly’s Budget Session Begins Amidst Big Protests By Congress
By Raju Kumar BHOPAL: The budget session of the Madhya Pradesh Legislative Assembly has begun. This time, there are several issues in the state on which the opposition is expected to corner the government. Whether it is the deaths of children linked to substandard cough syrup or the fatalities...
Rubio’s Manifesto Means Total Imperialist Subjugation Of The World
By Ben Chacko LONDON: Marco Rubio has laid down the battle lines, and it is time for every socialist and anti-racist on the planet to recognise the danger the United States poses to the world. The Donald Trump regime is imperialism unmasked: shorn of the usual guff disguising military...
Indo-US Trade Deal Has A Most Unlikely Winner: Rahul Gandhi
By K Raveendran The unfolding political narrative around the Indo-US trade treaty has done more than spark debate on tariffs, market access and diplomatic alignment: it has reshaped the contours of India’s domestic political landscape, particularly by elevating Rahul Gandhi’s stature as the principal opposition leader. The Modi government...
Growth Trajectory Of AI Is Highly Uncertain Through 2030
By Dr. Gyan Pathak As India AI Impact Summit 2026, branded as the first-ever such event in the Global South, scheduled to be held in New Delhi next week from February 16 to February 20, many claims of AI’s growth and impact, often contradictory, are making headlines. However, a...
Boasting About Big Rural Developmental Plans In Budget Has Little Basis
By R. Suryamurthy There is something almost theatrical about the rural development numbers this year. Rs 1,97,023 crore allocated for 2026–27. An expanded employment guarantee of 125 days. A near 70% jump in rural housing outlay. A 73% rise in spending for rural roads. If budgets were judged by...
Bhumjaithai Party Wins Landslide Victory In Thailand Stunning Its Rivals
By Tirthankar Mitra Dramatic turnaround of a political party is not unheard of in electoral politics. But not often does a political outfit rise from 13 per cent of national vote cast in an election to forming a government in the subsequent one as Bhumjaithai Party (BP), a pro-monarchy...
Supreme Court Calls Digital Arrest Frauds “Robbery And Dacoity”
By Akhil Yadav The Supreme Court on Monday February 9 heard the suo motu case on digital arrest scams. The Court sharply questioned banks over their failure to flag suspicious transactions and pressed the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on regulatory oversight, even as it issued binding directions to...
Economists Expect Retail Inflation To Be 35-50 Basis Points Lower In New CPI Series
MUMBAI: Economists expect FY27 headline inflation to be 35-50 bps lower than the RBI forecast in FY27 due to the higher weight given to core inflation and the marginally lower weight given to the food basket, which in the old series had the highest weight of over 42%, in...
RBI Draft Mandates 60% C/D Ratio For Rural And Semi-Urban Branches
MUMBAI: Banks have been mandated to have a credit-deposit (CD) ratio of 60 per cent for their rural and semi-urban branches in the country, according to the regulator’s draft revised guidelines on the lead bank scheme (LBS). The norms, laid down by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), have...
Electronics Sector Must Shift From Assembling To Component Manufacturing: NITI Aayog
NEW DELHI: India’s electronics strategy must transition from assembly-led gains to component-led manufacturing, a Niti Aayog report released on Friday said. In its quarterly Trade Watch report, the government think-tank said that in order to transition to the next level of manufacturing, incentives to the sector needs to be...
April-December Inflation At 1.83% Under New CPI Series, Only Modestly Higher
NEW DELHI: The average annual retail inflation for April-December of the current fiscal year would be 1.83% under the new consumer price index (CPI) series, just 11 basis points higher than measured under the old series. The old series used 2012 as the base year, while the new one,...
India Looks For ‘Big Oil Moment’ In Andaman
NEW DELHI: For decades, India’s hydrocarbon map barely moved. Exploration stayed confined to familiar provinces while nearly a million square kilometres of sedimentary basin lay locked behind regulatory barriers. That inertia is now breaking — and the Andaman Sea is at the centre of the shift. After opening up...
BNP’s Landslide Victory In Bangladesh Elections Is A Good Omen
By Nitya Chakraborty The landslide win of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in the national elections in Bangladesh held on February 12 is a positive development in the geopolitics of not only South Asia, but also augurs well for the bilateral relationship between India and its eastern neighbour. BNP...
When Workers Were On Strike, Government Amended Industrial Relations Code
By Dr. Gyan Pathak When the workers of India were on general strike on February 12 and protesting against the four controversial labour codes and demanding their withdrawal, the Union Government got the Industrial Relations Code (Amendment) Bill 2026 passed in both the Houses of Parliament by voice votes....
Can India’s Opposition Leader Be Expelled For Foreign Associations?
By T N Ashok NEW DELHI: India’s Parliament faces a constitutional and political confrontation after BJP MP Nishikant Dubey signalled his intent to seek the expulsion of Rahul Gandhi, Leader of the Opposition, over alleged associations with the Open Society Foundations and questions about his international travel. The controversy...
Bangladesh’s PM Designate Tarique Rahman Has To Revive A Battered Economy
By T N Ashok After 17 years in London exile, Tarique Rahman is poised to become Bangladesh’s next prime minister following his Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s decisive victory in Thursday’s elections — a watershed moment that ends nearly two decades of political tumult and sets the stage for a complex...
