By Anjan Roy Any discussion on a state budget must take into account the current fiscal regime of the country as a whole. For the introduction of the GST system and setting up GST Council meant the states’ giving up their right to tax their main source of revenue,...
By Dr. Arun Mitra A fire at a coaching centre in Lucknow left several students injured. Earlier, in Kota, which has now become a major coaching hub, reports of student suicides have surfaced year after year. These are extremely tragic and heartbreaking incidents that require serious reflection by society...
By Ben Chacko LONDON: Socialists both inside and outside the Labour Party need to be intervening to help shape the political atmosphere around the impending change in government. It now seems certain that former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham will become the next Prime Minister, most likely without a contest....
By Nitya Chakraborty The opposition INDIA bloc which completed its three years on June 23 is passing through a critical period when the very foundation of this alliance, the strong regional parties, are shattered by defections and splits backed by the ruling party BJP. Mamata Banerjee who gave the...
By Arun Srivastava British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s exit was forced by a massive mutiny, spearheaded by the leftist and Marxist factions within his Labour Party as his tenure was defined by a decisive shift to the political right and the systematic abandoning of the party’s socialist base....
By C.J. Atkins NEW YORK: State capitalism, socialist market economy, New Economic Policy—whatever term supporters or critics of the Cuban Revolution want to use, it’s clear that the emergency reforms being proposed in the island nation under seize by the U.S. through economic blockade, will bring major changes to...
By T N Ashok For decades, Bollywood operated on a simple formula. Cast a superstar, spend lavishly on songs and action sequences, release the film across thousands of screens, and wait for the cash registers to ring. The bigger the budget, the bigger the expected success. That formula is...
By Tirthankar Mitra The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for MBBS and BDS courses was held on June 21. About 20 lakh students appeared in it which was a re-test held a few weeks after allegations of leakage of questions led to the cancellation of the first examination....
By Ashis Biswas A major outbreak of dengue fever is sweeping over South Asian countries this year; in India, the reduced rainfall during the current weak monsoon season has emerged as a negative factor. While the number of affected persons and dengue-related deaths are significantly higher in India in...
By Satyaki Chakraborty Low-tech, low-cost strategies could prevent 400 million falls at home, 8.5 million new type 2 diabetes cases and 2.4 million dementia cases by 2040, while unlocking $5.8 trillion in healthcare savings and $645 billion in productivity gains. Yet much of that opportunity remains unrealized because governments...
By Nantoo Banerjee It is surprising that the government took over three months’ time to issue a directive to Indian shipping companies to restrict operation through conflict-stricken waters in the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz following lethal US attacks on a foreign vessel causing the death of three...
By Kalyani Shankar The Indian Opposition is facing considerable political challenges due to ongoing conflicts within its parties. This complex political landscape, where party switching and defections have become common, is understandably worrying for many. Such actions can erode trust, weaken accountability, and put our democratic stability at risk....
By Nitya Chakraborty Pro-Trump far right billionaire lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella won the Presidential elections run off on Sunday defeating the candidate of the ruling Left coalition Ivan Cepeda by a narrow margin. Espriella got 49.66 per cent of the votes while Cepeda got 48.7 per cent. The...
By Arun Srivastava Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 20 at Tarkeshwar near Kolkata spun a fresh yarn, promising to create a “New Bengal” (Viksit Bangla), as he christened the day “Paschimbanga Divas” (West Bengal Day), since it was on this day that BJP/RSS icon Syama Prasad Mookerjee, who...
By T N Ashok Few issues in contemporary Indian politics carry consequences as profound as the impending delimitation exercise. While elections dominate headlines every few months, delimitation has the potential to alter the balance of political power for decades. It is not merely about drawing constituency boundaries. It is...
By Tirthankar Mitra KOLKATA: It is political theatre of absurd in Bengal as the former Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo is witnessing the desertions of TMC leaders close to her and reports coming in from the districts of the state of the closure of the party offices or...
By T N Ashok When Prime Minister Narendra Modi says India must “build arms and not just buy them,” he is articulating perhaps the most important shift in Indian defence policy since economic liberalization in 1991. The statement is not merely about weapons. It is about sovereignty, technology, strategic...
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A budget that proclaims from the housetop out and out privatization for all the problems plaguing Kerala. That is the best description for the maiden budget presented last week by Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan who is also the Finance Minister. To put it in...