By W. T. Whitney Jr. Delegates of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power on December 22, 2018 unanimously approved extensive revisions proposed for Cuba’s Constitution of 1976. The Assembly authorized a national referendum on acceptance or not of what is in effect a new constitution. That vote takes...
By Anjan Roy On the New Year’s Day the Reserve Bank of India put in place a mechanism for restructuring the stressed assets of the medium and small scale sector. Individual banks have been advised to take up stressed loans of these units and work out schemes which...
By B. Sivaraman It is a spring back moment for the global Left. It might not have reached a point of renascence yet. But the Left revival, though inconspicuous and asymmetrical across countries, is unmistakable. It is a bouncy aftereffect of the all too common right wing surge...
By Nitya Chakraborty Prime Minister Narendra Modi has broken his mounabrata by giving an extensive interview on New Year’s Day to ANI which elaborates in a big way his strategy to fight the Lok Sabha polls in April/May 2019. Three things are clear. First, the Prime Minister will...
Kumbh Mela is just a fortnight ahead and amid such time the much hyped renaming of Allahabad has been approved by the Centre. As sought by the Uttar Pradesh government, the city will now be called as Prayagraj. The Yogi Adityanath cabinet took the decision of renaming the historically...
By Arun Srivastava Nitin Gadkari has been training his guns against the leadership of the Modi-Amit Shah duo. It began with the revelation that the election promise of Rs15 lakh being deposited into the account of every Indian out of the proceeds of black money seizures was made...
By Aayomi Sharma It has been 13 years since Sohrabuddin Anwarhussain Sheikh died. He was killed in an “encounter” with the Gujarat police, which is widely believed to be a case of “fake encounter”. He died on November 26, 2005 and since then his brother Rubabuddin has fought for...
By Nitya Chakraborty Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in a recent statement has blamed to a great extent the officers of the public sector banks for delinquency in dealing with NPA accounts. He has mentioned that 6049 officers have been held responsible on account of staff delinquency in NPA accounts...
By Kalyani Shankar The Triple Talaq Bill is in focus once again with the Lok Sabha okaying it last week. It was not difficult for the Modi government to push it through with the BJP’s majority in the house but the trouble will start when it comes to...
By Barun Das Gupta In the general elections held in Bangladesh on December 30, the Awami League-led Jatiya Oikya Front won a massive victory. So massive, indeed, that it has raised many eyebrows. In a 300 member parliament, elections were held for 299 seats. The Jatiya Oikya Front won...
By Aditya Aamir Actor-writer Kader Khan passed away in Canada. The sun set on his life, 6 pm, December 31, 2018, six hours short of 2019. That was neat. Same cannot be said of politics, which confounds with the intermittent, mainly because of different natures of the personalities involved....
By Sushil Kutty Mr. Incidental Prime Minister your record in fulfilling 2014 general election promises stinks to high heaven. The Rs 15 lakh in every man’s bank account is a pipe-dream Pied Piper sold. All the people got was Jan Dhan bank slips showing little or no money. You...
Easing of agrarian distress is highly important for the Bharatiya Janata Party before India goes into polls. The government is learned, through people familiar with the matter and seeks to remain anonymous, to be weighing options like cash handout for farmers, monthly income support program for them and revamped...
By Sushil Kutty People are talking of the film ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’ on Dr. Manmohan Singh. When he was prime minister, Dr Singh was mocked for being allegedly remote-controlled and sentenced to silence by the ‘family behind the throne’. Sanjay Baru, his media advisor, broke the silence...
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala is all set to witness a unique event, which could make it to the Guinness Book. The dawn of the New Year in the state will see the ‘construction’ of a historic 550-km women’s wall, the first of its kind not only in...
By Amulya Ganguli Three decades after the BJP began using the Ram temple issue via the party’s Palampur resolution as a political gambit, it is again hoping to cross the hurdle of the forthcoming general election by exploiting Hindu religious sentiments. To do this, the party will...
By Nantoo Banerjee The government’s privatisation bid in defence equipment production is most welcome. Considering the country’s total annual hi-tech armament requirement, India needs at least half a dozen strong defence manufacturing companies which can initially work as partners of original equipment suppliers. Hi-tech defence manufacturing is not...
Ram Janambhoomi cases to be heard in January – The Supreme Court bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice S K Kaul will be hearing the Ram Janambhoomi cases on January 4, 2019. As many as 14 appeals have been filed against the Allahabad High Court judgment, which...