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By Tirthankar Mitra One of the first tasks of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi on assuming office for the third consecutive occasion was to sign a file awarding the 17th instalment of the Kisan Samman Nidhi. The act assumes significance as the BJP-led NDA government had been on an almost...
By Devasis Chattopadhyay Narendra Damodardas Modi became the Prime Minister of India for the third term day before yesterday, and equalled Jawaharlal Nehru’s tenure, statistically. However, did he earn the respect of the citizens of India that was equivalent to what Nehru had earned? Since the time Modi took...
By C.J. Atkins Massive street protests erupted worldwide after the Israeli military killed 274 Palestinians in the Nuseirat refugee camp as part of a “hostage rescue operation” in Gaza. Four Israeli captives taken prisoner by Hamas on Oct. 7 were recovered in the manoeuvre, amounting to 68 people killed...
By David Broder Would Giorgia Meloni prefer to partner with the “mainstream pro-European” Emmanuel Macron, or else the “far-right outsider” Marine Le Pen? Ahead of this weekend’s elections to the European Union’s parliament, much punditry on the EU’s future speculated on the next moves by the Italian prime minister...
By Sushil Kutty Narendra Modi is now Prime Minister of India for the third time. He took the oath of office Sunday evening at the Rashtrapati Bhavan. As many as 30 cabinet ministers, 36 ministers of state (MoS) and 5 MoS (independent charge) were also sworn in along with...
By Kalyani Shankar The NDA coalition government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has just taken office, and it’s too early to predict how it will perform, even whether it will run its five-year term. It is common knowledge that India has a messy history of multi-party governments. Late...
By Nantoo Banerjee The country’s industrial outlook for the current year as well as the next few years will depend on the stability of the new government and how the Bharatiya Janata Party deals with its alliance partners and the opposition, which will have a formidable presence in the...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak India, under Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna, has been giving free foodgrains to 80 crore poor people who are dependent for food on government, because they don’t earn enough to support their needs for food. Their number remained the same for the last 10...
By Ashis Biswas At the end of the bitterest general elections in recent times, it is only in Assam that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the main opposition, the Congress, are broadly satisfied with the outcome. The BJP won 11 out of 14 Lok Sabha seats while...
By Kumar Ritwik The economic liberalisation of the 1990s brought with it malls and shopping arcades. However, the timeless allure of traditional marketplaces, deeply ingrained in the collective consciousness of Indian society, persists. A significant part of that allure is individuals who earn a living vending goods, spices, vegetables,...
By Amol Singh Punjab with a population of 27 million, the majority of which is Sikh, has in recent times, has given rise to an important movement that seeks to organize the Dalits, who comprise the poorest and most downtrodden section of rural society in the state. More than...
By James M Dorsey The coming week or two could determine Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s political fate and reshape the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s Gaza war. That is, if Netanyahu fails to comply with war cabinet member Benny Gantz’s demand that the prime minister produce a plan for...
By K Raveendran Fuel consumers would do well to be ready to loosen their purse strings and face the post-election nuanced reality after they enjoyed a Rs 2 per litre cut in prices before the Lok Sabha elections. There has been a pattern in the price behaviour during and...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has now decided to go ahead alone and has started reviewing relationship with INDIA bloc. The party’s path ahead is already embattled with legal battles, with its three key leaders – CM Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, and Satyendra Kumar Jain –...
By Sushil Kutty It is the same old story. The boringly repetitive drama of Congress leaders imploring Rahul Gandhi to take on a plum post – this time that of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The two sides never tire of the game. On one side, Congress...
By Arun Srivastava It might have been far-fetched, but even then the Trinamool Congress’s Young Turk Abhishek Banerjee took pains to fly to Mumbai to meet the Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray and his son Aditya Thackeray, for exploring opportunity for a third front government to take over in...
By Harihar Swarup Forty-four seat and 19.3% of the votes in 2014: 52 seat and 19.49% of the votes in 2019: and 99 seats and 21.26% of the vote in 2024. One of the stories of these elections has been turnaround of the Indian National Congress, one made all...
By Tirthankar Mitra Influence of Indian Secular Front (ISF), the “one legislator party” in the West Bengal Assembly is not to be judged by its representation. It contested on its own in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and cut into the support bases of Congress and several Left Front...