IPA Special
Unannounced Internet Outages In J&K Disrupting Civil Life In A Big Way
By Gulzar Bhat Sporting a scraggly beard, Mudasir Ahmad Bhat has his eyes hooked to his mobile screen, trying to open a website. Suddenly the data services vanish, and he has to rush to a nearby locality to get his phone connected to the internet. Bhat, a student from...
Master Political Games Being Played Around Fuel Taxes
By K Raveendran The rather surprise cut in the central tax on diesel and petrol by the Modi government has turned out to be a deft political move. The timing of the announcement itself has been political. The cut came within 24 hours of the by-elections results in 11...
J&K Narrative Changes From Violence To Development
By Harihar Swarup Home Minister Amit Shah’s recent three-day visit to J&K was overdue. That it came over two years after the historic decision to abrogate Article 370 and bifurcate the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union territories of Ladakh and J&K, reflects the extraordinary times...
State’s Apathy Towards Remission Pleas Of Convicts Causes Concern
By Nikhil Parikshith Recent orders passed by the Supreme Court in Sonadhar vs. State of Chhattisgarh, offer a glimmer of hope for convicts languishing in jails for a considerable period of time. The orders passed in this case reveal the institutional apathy of the competent authorities in States towards...
View From Dhaka – Dynamics Of Subcontinental Communal Politics
By M A Hossain During the British colonial era, religion always played a catalytic role to achieve political power in the Indian Sub-continent. The colonizers subdued the natives to rule using religious division. Even the partition of the subcontinent in 1947 was commenced in the guise of the politics...
Wall Street View – Beware Of A November Market Sell-Off Waiting In The Wings
By Matein Khalid Trend is your friend until the trend comes to an end. So this has been a fabulous year to own US equities and I have surfed the Big Board/Nasdaq wave for high stakes with even occasional high octane leverage to bet on the right puppy. I...
African National Congress Is Losing Its Dominant Role In South African Politics
By Benjamin Fogel South Africa’s 2021 local government elections will go down in history as the moment that Africa’s oldest liberation movement saw its share of the vote slip below 50 per cent for the first time since the end of apartheid. The African National Congress’s (ANC) share of...
Corporate Encroachment On Peasant Agriculture Is A Matter Of Concern For All
By Prabhat Patnaik There are a number of misconceptions about Indian agriculture which, if not removed forthwith, can have potentially adverse effects on the ongoing kisan agitation against the three farm laws. The first of these is the belief that corporate encroachment on peasant agriculture is a matter concerning...
Prime Minister Has To Make Necessary Corrections In His Climate Programme
By Binoy Viswam Global warming is the biggest challenge humanity faces today. No country can afford to ignore its impact on the national and international levels. The Kyoto protocol in 1997 was a landmark initiative where 84 countries came together to address the menace of global warming. In the...
October Labour Market Deterioration Is Baffling
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Even the festival season has failed to brighten the labour market. Employment rate fell to 37.3 per cent in October as against 37.9 per cent in September, the labour participation rate (LPR) to 40.4 per cent from 40.7 per cent, while unemployment rate rose to...
Facebook’s Rebranded Meta Bracing For A Dystopian Future?
By Prabir Purkayastha Last week, Zuckerberg at Connect 2021 launched a new company brand Meta. According to Facebook, “…brings together our apps and technologies under one new company brand. Meta’s focus will be to bring the metaverse to life and help people connect, find communities and grow businesses.” Is...
Akhilesh Yadav’s SP Gaining Ground In Uttar Pradesh To Challenge BJP
By Pradeep Kapoor LUCKNOW: Much significance is being attached to the statement of Samajwadi Party national president and former chief minister Akhilesh Yadav that he would not contest assembly polls. Akhilesh Yadav, who is MP from Azamgarh, will now concentrate on campaigning for his party rather than looking after...
Congress Re-Energised By Impressive By-Poll Victories
By Rahil Nora Chopra After the by-polls to 29 assembly and three Lok Sabha seats where Congress scored a surprise victory in Himachal Pradesh, and notable wins in Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka, senior Congress leader Randeep Surjewala tweeted: “BJP has lost 2 out of 3 Lok Sabha seats. In...
Imran’s Surrender To Radicals Poses Grave Danger To Pak Society
By James M Dorsey Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan may have averted for now further violence by caving in to demands of a militant, supremacist religious group. But in doing so, Khan is allowing radical ultra-conservatism to fester, undermining social cohesion, threatening economic development, and giving militants a say...
Defeat In Virginia Rings Alarm Bells For Democrats As Mid-Term Poll Approaches
By C.J. Atkins The big defeat of the Democratic Party in the latest Governor’s elections in Virginia and the erosion of its base in the strongholds of New Jersey and New York have ominous portent for the President Joe Biden and his party colleagues for the coming midterm elections...
BJP’s Task Gets More Tougher In Coming Assembly Elections
By Nitya Chakraborty The results of the by polls of thirty assembly constituencies and three Lok Sabha seats announced on November 2 make it clear that the BJP’s days of supremacy in Indian politics have been reversed. The Congress has staged a significant come back while the regional parties, ...
Pre-Poll Petroleum Price Game Between Govt, Oil Firms On Its Way
By K Raveendran The behaviour of fuel prices in India is falling into a regular pattern. Three distinct patterns emerge, relative to elections in the country in the price movement of petroleum products. These phases fall into pre-election, election and post-election scenarios. The pattern has been repeating itself ad...
India Will Be A Loser By Joining A Sort Of Quad For West Asia
By Prakash Karat The part-virtual and part-person meeting of the foreign ministers of four countries – the United States, Israel, India and United Arab Emirates – on October 18 saw the emergence of a new grouping in West Asia. It is significant that the meeting took place when the...
