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By K Raveendran Predictions that Facebook will go out of business in the not too distant future appear more realistic than ever before, with the once darling of social media increasingly getting into trouble with regulators for its unsustainable business model. There have been a number of forecasts...
By Aditya Aamir The just-concluded Rajya Sabha elections have made some changes to the seating arrangements in the Upper House. Maybe some weeping of tears and gnashing of teeth, too. But ‘Bua Mayawati’ must not be among those weeping tears. She is the gnashing of teeth sort. ‘Bhatija...
By Anjan Roy Now that US President Donald Trump has imposed tariffs on a host of Chinese goods worth some $60 billion and kicked off responses the world over, unpredictability has given way to some vague predictability. One can safely say that countries will react, currencies will...
By Harihar Swarup Each plenary session of the Congress has sent a message for the people. Perhaps, the most important one was when the Congress completed 100 years of its existence. The centenary plenum was held in Bombay in June, 1985 where Rajiv Gandhi, who headed the Congress...
By Victor Grossman After nearly six months of haggling, the three-party German coalition puck is in the goal box. The suspense is over. For the fourth time in a row the country will again be run by Angela Merkel. Not a few feathers have been ruffled....
By Mike Phipps and Liz Davies Nearly three years since Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader, his standing has drastically changed. His opponents in the parliamentary party are a lot quieter. The Labour Party apparatus is at last being reshaped to match the new reality. Recent polls indicate Labour...
By Sushil Kutty Is it possible to fix Indian elections using data from Facebook? It depends funnily enough on who wins, and which party loses! Post-2014, chances that Facebook data helped was certain; post-Bihar gatbandhan, the view was the opposite – ‘no, hardly likely’. Post-Donald Trump’s election,...
By John Wojcik The steady stream of Trump administration and campaign crimes worsens by the day, with the latest Cambridge Analytica controversy exposing to the world that the Trump campaign hired a company that stole and manipulated data from up to 50 million American Facebook users in an...
By Rahil Nora Chopra The 84th plenary session of Congress saw for the first time in the party’s 133-year old history a change in the seating arrangements. In earlier sessions the senior leaders used to sit on the dais and the workers on the floor. This time, however,...
By Sankar Ray Enthronement of Maryam Nawaz, daughter of deposed Pak premier Nawaz Sharif, as his political heir apparent – as chief of Pakistan Muslim League (Navajo) – has peeled factional wrangling inside the ruling party. Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has stated openly that the right to dissent...
By Aditya Aamir Congress President Rahul Gandhi has an objective-type question for the people of India. It is regarding China and its desire to occupy Doklam. Reports are that China is opening up a new route to reach south Doklam and put India and Bhutan in jeopardy. The...
By Sushil Kutty A Facebook ‘friend’ who deactivated from the Social Media platform is back on board. Wonder why when there is a hashtag #DeleteFacebook gone viral with ordinary and extraordinary men and women taking the bus out of ‘Zuck Town’. Asked ‘Why?’ the Facebook ‘friend’ said he...
Finance minister Arun Jaitley had recently revised the fiscal deficit target for 2017-18 to 3.5% of GDP from the original 3.2%. Photo: Pradeep Gaur/Mint As the Indian economy navigates through the consequences of the banking crisis, evident in the mounting pile of bad loans and severe governance issues...
India’s water issues are frightening and complex. The ‘sarkaar’ and the ‘bazaar’ deal with these in their own framework. Photo: Priyanka Parashar/Mint India’s water challenges are intractable, messy and perennial. While citizens wait for the state to deliver on its obligations, they also scramble for their own solutions,...
Whether privacy concerns will compel a change in digital business models will depend in the end on the market and consumer choice. Illustration: Jayachandran/MInt The 1928 US presidential elections were a lively affair. Democratic Party nominee Alfred Smith may well have wished they were less so. Backers of...
By Nick Wright A young Ho Chi Minh serving pastries on the Newhaven-Dieppe ferry, a pretty Rosa Luxemburg in a velvet dress, the bold young Stalin expropriating banks in the Caucasus, the earnest law student Ulyanov — what is it that is so beguiling about the early lives...
By Sushil Kutty The Chinese girl looked him in the eye and declared, “China Ver Beeg; China Ver Strong.” Stung by her dismissing tone, he retorted: “India Also Ver Beeg; India Also Ver Strong.” That brought a faint smile on her inscrutable face and she exchanged a knowing...
By Aditya Aamir Finally, it is confirmed that all 39 Indians gone missing, believed abducted by ISIS, in Mosul in Iraq were killed by ISIS and buried in a mass grave there. Told this news, opposition MPs in the Lok Sabha did not let External Affairs Minister Sushma...