IPA Staff
16505 stories by IPA Staff
Task Cut Out For LDF In Kerala After Local Bodies Polls Setback
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is no denying that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) has suffered a setback in the local bodies elections. The Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) is certainly on a comeback trail with an excellent victory. As for the BJP, but for the win in Thiruvananthapuram...
Hollywood Legend Rob Reiner’s Tragic Death Is A Big Loss For World Cinema
By T N Ashok NEW YORK: Rob Reiner 78, and his wife Michele Singer Reiner 68, died in a tragic homicide at their doorstep in Brentwood in Hollywood home in Los Angeles, after sustaining multiple stab wounds from an unknown assailant. Investigations are on to apprehend the culprit. Reiner...
America’s Democratic Socialists Are On A Winning Spree At All Levels
By Branko Marcetic NEW YORK: Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win in New York forced many political observers to think, for the first time, of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as a serious and potentially formidable force in American political life. For the more than one hundred DSA members who assembled...
2025 Is Ending With Wars In Different Parts Of The World And Conflicts Rising
By Ben Chacko LONDON: The world appears to be facing one of its most dangerous moments for many years. In the Middle East Israel menaces Lebanon and Syria and pushes forward its genocidal project across Palestine. In Sudan and DR Congo proxy wars continue — as they do also...
Budget May Unveil Next Round Of PSB Reforms
NEW DELHI: The government is considering a two-pronged strategy to further consolidate public sector banks (PSBs) – merging smaller lenders to create scale and gradually diluting its ownership closer to 51% to enable the banks to raise growth capital independently. According to sources familiar with the discussions on the...
Centre Identifies 300 Products To Narrow Trade Gap With Russia
NEW DELHI: As India and Russia pursue a $100 billion bilateral trade target by 2030 and seek to make exchanges more balanced, the government has identified about 300 products across sectors such as engineering, pharmaceuticals, chemicals and agriculture to help bridge the gap between current trade levels and the...
Trade Imbalances Slow Adoption Of Rupee Oil Payments
NEW DELHI: Oil companies in India are increasingly engaging with suppliers to negotiate crude oil settlements in Indian rupees (INR), but foreign suppliers remain hesitant to accept the currency, citing trade imbalances, according to the ministry of petroleum and natural gas. The ministry’s statement comes in response to a...
Growth-Stage Funding Consolidates As Investors Seek Quality
BENGALURU: After years of muted activity in India’s growth-stage funding market, Series B and C rounds are showing strong signs of capital consolidation this year, even as overall funding continues to dip. Data from Tracxn shows that while deal volumes are shrinking across stages, cheque sizes are rising primarily...
Recent Investments In India From US Firms Highlight Scale Of Bilateral Tech & Economic Engagement
NEW DELHI: Three marquee U.S. investments totalling USD 67.5 billion have recently been announced in India, highlighting the scale and depth of India–U.S. technology and economic engagement. Google has unveiled a USD 15 billion investment to build a 1GW AI-powered data centre campus in Visakhapatnam—its largest outside the United...
Kerala Local Polls Result Is A Wake Up Call For LDF Three Months Before Assembly Polls
By Nitya Chakraborty The results of the local polls in Kerala covering corporations, municipalities as also gram panchayats declared on Saturday December 13 are a firm indication of the massive erosion of the support base of the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) headed by the CPI(M) in both rural...
A Cultural Symbol Developing Into A Polarising Element In Dravidian Land
By K Raveendran Thiruparankundram, a rocky hill on the outskirts of Madurai, has long stood as a lived metaphor for Tamil Nadu’s layered religiosity. The hill hosts the Subramaniya Swamy temple dedicated to Lord Muruga, revered across Tamil society, and the Sikandar Badusha dargah, associated with Sufi traditions that...
Labour Codes To Push Majority Of MSME Workers Into Informal Employment
By Dr. Gyan Pathak India is transitioning from old labour laws to new labour code regime. Union Government expects the new labour codes will be fully implemented from April 1, 2026, that is from the beginning of the new financial year 2026-27. The impact is very difficult to assess...
Venezuela And Honduras First Targets Of Trump’s New Security Strategy
By W. T. Whitney, Jr. WASHINGTON DC: The National Security Strategy (NSS) is a document setting U.S. foreign policy goals that the Executive Branch periodically sends to Congress. Commenting on the NSS released on Dec. 5, Rebecca Lissner, associated with the establishment-oriented Council on Foreign Relations, indicated that, “The...
Robinson’s ‘Christianity’ Reflects US Leadership Of The Global Far Right
By Ben Chacko LONDON: Anti-racists, many of them Christians, will challenge far-right agitator “Tommy Robinson” over his attempt to identify Christianity with his message of hatred this weekend. Robinson (real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon) hosting a carol service is a surreal contrast to his normal routine of bigoted rants and...
Cabinet Clears Bill To Hike FDI In Insurance To 100 Per Cent
NEW DELHI: In a bid to expand insurance penetration in the country, the Union Cabinet on Friday approved a Bill to raise foreign direct investment in the insurance sector to 100 per cent, according to sources. The Bill may be introduced in the ongoing Winter session of Parliament, which...
Government Notifies New Petroleum And Natural Gas Rules, 2025
NEW DELHI: The government has notified the new Petroleum and Natural Gas Rules, 2025, bringing into force a modern regulatory framework aimed at attracting investment and improving ease of doing business in the oil and gas sector. The rules, issued under the recently approved Oilfields (Regulation and Development) Amendment...
Retail Inflation Rises To 0.71 Per Cent In November On Higher Food Prices
NEW DELHI: The consumer price index (CPI) based retail inflation inched up to 0.71 per cent in November from a record low of 0.25 per cent in October, thanks to the fading of favourable base effect and the narrowing deflation in food basket on account of seasonal rise in...
New Bank Group Norms Strengthen Lenders Balance-Sheets: Crisil
MUMBAI: The Reserve Bank’s final guidelines on the non-banking financial services businesses of banks provide flexibility on overlapping lending activities within major bank groups, helping as many 12 bank groups not radically restructure their lending businesses. The October 2024 draft guidelines had proposed that only one bank group entity...
