By Asad Mirza The ink on the Islamabad Memorandum was barely dry when missiles and drones began flying again across the Persian Gulf. A week of tit-for-tat strikes between Washington and Tehran, compounded by Israel’s relentless pounding of Lebanon, has exposed the US-Iran ceasefire of June 2026 as a...
By Dr. Arun Mitra In the just concluded G7 Summit, in addition to the seven member states, several other countries—including India, Brazil, South Korea, Kenya, Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)—were invited to participate. This may reflect a growing realization among the G7 powers that...
By Tirthankar Mitra KOLKATA:A tug-of-war between Trinamool Congress and Congress to observe July 21 as Martyr’s Day is an annual event in the political calendar of West Bengal. But what used to be an unequal contest between two political outfits has been joined by another political entity this year....
By T N Ashok History is littered with ceasefires that ended one war only to ignite another. That is why the Trilateral Framework signed by the United States, Israel and Lebanon may ultimately prove more significant than the ceasefire that preceded it. For months, diplomacy in the Middle East...
By Amarjeet Kaur The General Council meeting of the All India Trade Union Congress was held at Thrissur, Kerala, from 1–3 June 2026. The meeting was attended by 246 delegates representing 22 states and various industrial federations and unions. During the session, a seminar on “Anti-Imperialism, Anti-War and World...
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANTHAPURAM: The abject surrender of the VD Satheesan-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government to the Sangh Parivar which began the day the Government was sworn in, is complete. That is the conclusion inevitable from the manner in which the UDF Government is facilitating the growth of...
By T N Ashok For decades, India’s rise as an economic power has been measured by the number of aircraft it buys rather than the number it builds. The country has become one of the world’s fastest-growing aviation markets, one of the largest importers of military hardware and, increasingly,...
By K Raveendran India’s decision to initiate an anti-dumping investigation into cheap steel imports marks more than another defensive trade action. It is a reminder that globalisation, which New Delhi has often invoked when Indian exports face barriers abroad, becomes far more complicated when the pressure arrives at home....
By Arun Srivastava Within a week of the accusation by the Karnataka Home Minister Priyank Kharge that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) was an unregistered and unconstitutional organisation and should face legal actions, the right-wing Hindu exclusionary body suffered a shattering jolt that its senior leaders managing the affairs...
By Subrata Majumder India is a vast country. It has long border stretching over the eastern region, which can act gateway to South East Asia. West Bengal has the longest international border, connecting the eastern region. West Bengal is better placed compared to Assam in acting as the gateway...
By Kunal Bose The country has two major stocks exchanges, namely, the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Between them, they have a daily turnover of around Rs4 lakh crore across the cash and derivative segments. Though NSE arrived decades after BSE, which prides itself...
By Krishna Jha Manipur, a remote eastern state of our country, is in the grip of continual ethnic violence for more than three years. For every moment, deadly ambushes, abductions and protest marches have become the realities of the region and making the violence into a way of life...
By Tirthankar Mitra KOLKATA: Kolkata’s streets are not just thoroughfares. They are living chronicles of the city’s souls. Kolkata or Calcutta as it was known then may have been “chance erected, chance directed”, but its streets are not named thus. The city father’s of yore have had a wide...
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress is sharply divided over the low alcohol tax rate cut unilaterally announced by Chief Minister V. D. Satheesan. Resentment over Satheesan’s one-man show is growing not only within the Congress but also among the allies. Satheesan has angered both by announcing without consultations...
By Rahil Nora Chopra After Union home minister Amit Shah and PM Narendra Modi’s interaction with the President Droupadi Murmu, speculation over a possible reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers has gathered pace. BJP has also announced an organisational revamp in its Uttar Pradesh unit ahead of the...
By Ashis Biswas A section of the BNP-led establishment in Bangladesh appears keen to prolong the controversy generated recently over the refusal of an invited diplomat to attend an India-hosted regional conference. The Dhaka-based official Dr. Zahedur Rahman, Information Adviser to Prime Minister Mr. Tarique Rahman had complained of...
By Anjan Roy There are central bankers and central bankers. But Alan Greenspan, who died at the age of 100 four days back, was the central banker’s central banker. The chairman of the US Federal Reserve is always much more than the head of any such institution by virtue...
By Sobhanlal Datta Gupta The Eighteenth West Bengal Legislative Assembly which was formed in the wake of the poll results in 2026 has catapulted the BJP into power on a scale which is unprecedented, but not totally unsurprising. It has been a verdict by default, a furious act of...