By Nantoo Banerjee India’s commerce department seems to be out of touch with the government’s intentional tax deals — bilateral or multilateral. In recent times, India has lost all tax cases against MNCs in international courts and tribunals. It also lost large undisclosed sums in fighting these hopeless litigations...
By Kalyani Shankar The Gandhi family has established its claim over the Congress party at the CWC meeting on October 16 as seen by Sonia Gandhi’s assertive speech. Her message to the Party in simple words is that “we are the Gandhis, and we rule as long as we...
By Sushil Kutty There is a growing realization and appreciation in large swathes of the country that Priyanka Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi have together been leading a resurgence in Congress fortunes in recent days and weeks; Priyanka Gandhi in particular, especially after MoS (Home) Ajay Kumar Mishra ‘Teni’ and...
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A fierce debate is raging over the Silverline rail corridor project connecting Kasaragod and Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala state. The Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) led by the Congress has strongly opposed the project on the ground that it is economically and environmentally unviable. The main...
By Nilabhra Bhattacharya Recently, the food delivery apps Swiggy and Zomato have come under severe criticism over social media over the plight of food delivery workers. It has been alleged that these workers are not only severely underpaid, but are also not getting the minimum job security that they...
By Hadas Thier Ten years after Occupy Wall Street movement took over a small park in downtown Manhattan, the new left that was birthed there continues to develop and grow. The occupation of Zuccotti Park — and the numerous other occupations that it inspired — was short-lived, but it...
By K Raveendran It is a classic case of killing the messenger when the content of the message is unpalatable. Faced with the ignominy of being ranked behind Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal in the 2021 Global Hunger Index at 101 out of a worst possible 116, the...
By Nitya Chakraborty I have just finished seeing the nine episode South Korean social drama ‘Squid Game” released in Netflix on September 17 this year. Already it has become the biggest hit of Netflix productions in 90 countries covering 111 million viewers. My experience of viewing the film has...
By C N Deshmukh An electric power crisis is being predicted in India. And at a time when the installed generation capacity is more than the maximum demand. The reason can be traced to the policies pursued by the Government since1990. Today, 75 per cent of the total generation...
By Harihar Swarup Unprecedented. Unpredictable. A “perfect storm” of high demand, high global prices, and extended monsoons. All of these are common descriptors of how India came to have just four days of coal supplies left at power plants. These are all convenient but incomplete explanations. More than plain...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak On the yardstick of Hunger, Modi Government is performing worse than its predecessors, neighbouring countries, and majority of the countries of the world. One can see it through the data of Global Hunger Indices for several years in succession that contradict all the tall claims...
By K R Sudhaman The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) controversy between Tamil Nadu and the centre is yet another example of deteriorating centre-state relations and to polarise politics. There are merits and demerits in centralised common entrance test for joining a medical course just as having common...
By Rahil Nora Chopra Ahead of the Uttar Pradesh assembly election, the Samajwadi Party (SP) on Tuesday speeded up its campaign for the 2022 assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh with a “Vijay Yatra” from Kanpur. Thisyatra will be rigorously continued till the elections all across the state. Akhilesh Yadav...
By Prakash Karat The Modi government has been undermining all the institutions under the Constitution and denuding them of their essence. This was on display in the event to observe the 28th foundation day of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). The anniversary meeting was attended by both the...
By Binoy Viswam Modi’s Atmanirbhar Bharat has earned one more feather in its crown. India’s national air carrier, Air India has been handed over to a private corporate, the Tata’s. Thus, the frenzied moves to sell off Air India have been successfully completed. Air India and its 125 aircrafts...
By Prabhat Patnaik Unlike in the advanced capitalist countries, a reduction in employment opportunities in India takes the form not of a larger proportion of the work-force being shut out of employment, but of almost everyone having lesser number of days of work. This is a reflection of the...
By Sushil Kutty October 12 marked 16 years of the RTI Act. The Act supposedly empowered “we the people” with the right to seek information so that governments could be held accountable. The baseline property was that “all citizens shall have the right to information.” Did the Act guarantee...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Increasing trade finance gap has been impeding growth, jobs, and poverty reduction across the globe. The COVID-19 impact widened the gap by 15 per cent in 2020 in comparison to 2018. Moreover, despite various measures to support the Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), the...