By Prabir Purkayastha The incompetence of the Modi government is starkly visible in its handling of the current crisis. It fares even worse on the vaccine front. Its belief in the ideology of free-market capitalism is that the market will magically produce whatever we need. This is why it...
By Nantoo Banerjee Lockdown may be a temporary solution to contain the spread of coronavirus, but it’s time for the government and society to consider other measures to prevent the virus expansion. For the poor and daily wage earners, lockdown means no income and no food. Even a good...
The second wave of COVID-19 beginning from February 2021 has been not only severely impacting the economic recovery in India, but has also threatened a contraction in its GDP and consequently a sharp spike in unemployment. S&P’s moderate and sever downside scenario has estimated a hit of 1.2 –...
By Amulya Ganguli The belief that the RSS-BJP has scored an ideological victory over the secular forces by forcing their leaders to visit temples at election time or give voice to the Chandi incantation is only partially true. Hindus have always been expressive about their faith as the four-day...
By Subrata Majumder The uproarious West Bengal poll is over. Nudging out the highly speculative hung government, West Bengal witnessed the return of TMC (Trinamool Congress) led by Mamata Banerjee, with a massive victory for a third term. This sends a new message to Modi’s political satraps, who were...
By Subodh Varma Last year, the Central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi appeared to be directing the fight against COVID-19 directly, imposing a two-month long lockdown starting March 25, 2020, announcing various schemes and policies to buoy the economy, funding private companies for vaccine development and other...
By Harihar Swarup The outcome of the assembly elections is a setback to both national parties and will result in more assertive states. It is also now time for all the new governments to focus on Covid-19. Swear in the new chief ministers immediately, don’t fight over cabinet berths,...
By K Raveendran “This government has lost its mind. They talk of being a superpower, but what kind of superpower that can’t even find oxygen for its people?” This quote from a Meerut man who lost his niece to Covid, has been carried by The Economist to show the...
By Gyan Pathak The ferocious rise in COVID-19 infection and its continuing spread from the urban to rural India has put the government and the people under fear of difficult days ahead. People are worried about fall in their income and rise in inflation, while the government has become...
By Anjan Roy In the midst of a pandemic, the economic scenario is looking dismal. To break the chain of infection, we are isolating ourselves and that is bringing the level of activity to a minimum; demand is hibernating; investment is better not mentioned. Prices of manufactured goods are...
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The nine-day total lockdown, which has come into force from this Saturday, has been welcomed by one and all. It has been put in place as the partial lockdown has failed to prevent a deterioration in the covid situation. But there is a perception that...
By Arun Srivastava Labour’s humiliating byelection defeat in Hartlepool marks the disastrous end to the first year of Keir Starmer’s leadership, which was supposed to begin a new era for Labour. Keir had replaced Jeremy Corbyn with the promise to salvage the situation and give a completely new dynamics...
By Ibad Mushtaq This perhaps may not be the best of times to ponder upon the question of hope. Engulfed by death, disease and desolation, India, and along with it the entire world, is going through a time unparalleled and not witnessed by most of us alive. Scenes of...
By Rahil Nora Chopra After becoming the chief minister of West Bengal for the third term, Mamata Banerjee now has become the face of opposition leader for the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 and she is expected to launch a United Front against the BJP at the national level....
By Binoy Viswam While the propaganda machinery of the Sangh Parivar was singing glory for the Modi magic during Covid, the people of five Indian states have written a different story. They came out with their verdict. These states represent the south, east and northeast regions of the country....
By Prabhat Patnaik Of all the decisions taken by the Modi government the most mindless has been the so-called “liberalisation” of vaccine distribution. Originally, the central government was the sole buyer from the two producing firms at a fixed price of Rs 150 per dose, and then, while itself...
By Sagarneel Sinha Putting an end to the endless speculations of the skeptics, who weren’t sure about the saffron party’s victory, the BJP led NDA returned to power with a comfortable majority. This is the first time in the history of Assam that a non-Congress party returned to power...
By Arun Srivastava While the Union home ministry is busy building a strong case for imposition of President’s rule in Bengal and proceed against Mamata government for its failure to check the eruption of large scale post-poll violence in the state, Mamata Banerjee announced no one, even a union...