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By Amulya Ganguli The series of by-election defeats suffered by the BJP in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar along with its failure to form a government in Karnataka and the party’s uncertain prospects in the three assembly elections this winter cannot but have made the saffron...
By Nilanjan Banik and Pierto Paganini We are passing through an interesting time. There is a likelihood that trade war between two of the world’s biggest economies – China and USA – may blow out of proportion. The consequence may be another economic downturn in the offing....
By Kalyani Shankar The BJP is getting poll ready, going by the aggressive statements of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party chief Amit Shah. Also the media advertisements indicate a “Modi shining” mood, ahead of the 2019 polls. Shah, known for his micro-management, has already started working...
Sushil Kutty The problem is June 25 falls every year. There is no avoiding the date. And nobody wants a repeat of June 25, 1975. It rhymes, rolls off the tongue like ball-bearings released from their slot. The Congress wants to forget but the BJP keeps reminding the...
By Aditya Aamir Ajay Singh Bisht says the Dalit should get reservation in Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia. A Thakur calling for reservation for the Dalit is laudable. But Ajay Singh Bisht happens to be chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. So, it smacks politics. To...
By Pradeep Kapoor LUCKNOW: Shocked by the loss of three Lok Sabha and one assembly seats in the by-elections, BJP is invoking both Kandal and Mandal to retain the 73 seats it won in 2014 in the coming Lok Sabha elections. The BJP leadership is now talking...
By G. Srinivasan The central bankers’ central bank, the Basel-based Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has sounded the bugle of manifest vulnerabilities in the global financial system in particular and the world economy in general even as the near-term prospects remain ‘bright’. In its Annual Report, released...
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: One step forward, two steps backward. That seems to be the pattern governing Kerala’s relations with the Modi-led Central Government. While the recent outbreak of the Nipah virus saw the Centre and the state handling the situation in perfect coordination – it was...
By Gyan Pathak Cyber risk has emerged as a key threat to financial stability around the world. The recent trend of attacks on financial institutions indicates that aggregate losses for the financial sector across a variety of scenarios may be ranging from 10 to 30 per cent of...
By Sushil Kutty The day is Monday, June 25, 2018. Sunrise was at 5.24 am and sunset at 7.22 pm in New Delhi. Daylight for 13 hours and 57 minutes, time enough to make headlines. And making off to a flying start was BJP’s Karnal MP Ashwani Chopra....
By Nantoo Banerjee The constant downward journey this year of Indian Rupee compared to major world currencies — fully or partially convertible — should be a major cause of concern. On January 1, this year, the spot inter-bank market saw the US Dollar opening at $1 = Rs...
BY C.J. Atkins Vietnam and Cuba, two countries that often receive a lot of flak in the mainstream corporate press (especially when it comes to conversations around human rights and political liberties) have been inching down the road toward LGBTQ equality lately. Like most modern societies, both...
By S Sethuraman It takes two finance ministers, original Arun Jaitley, convalescing after surgery, and “interim” minister Piyush Goyal (who is digging deeper and taking total command), rivalling each other to tell us that the economy is growing nicely, fiscal targets would be met and the crisis in...
By K Raveendran Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s warning that petrol and diesel prices in the country have to stay high as long as Indians don’t pay their taxes smacks of arrogance and his tone is that of a British viceroy sermonising to the natives about the virtues of honesty...
By Harihar Swarup Jammu and Kashmir has been placed under Governor’s rule for a record 8th time last week. On March 25, 1977, for the first time, Governor’s rule was imposed on the state after the Congress withdrew support to Sheikh Abdulla’s National Conference government which came...
By Sushil Kutty Shifting the goalposts is to bang the drums and make a din loud enough to catch the attention of the world, draw sympathy and, then, when the other side relents, kick the can further down the road and declare ‘okay, here’s the new spot for...
By Conn Hallinan As the Socialist-led government takes over in Spain, newly minted Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez faces at least two daunting tasks: cleaning up the wreckage wrought by years of European Union-enforced austerity and resolving the Catalan crisis exacerbated by Madrid’s violent reaction to last fall’s independence...
By Dr Arun Mitra & Dr GS Grewal Admission to medical colleges has been a contentious issue for quite some time. At one time medical education in our country used to be within the reach of students from ordinary families too. This was the time when medical colleges...