June 2020

FIRMS MAY BE ASKED TO RESCUE FY21 DIVESTMENT PLAN The pressure on lockdown-hit central public sector enterprises (PSEs) to finance the government’s growing expenditure on fighting Covid-19 pandemic resulting in large budget deficit is…

BJP FOLLOWERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR CREATING THIS MESS After the Israeli historian, Yuval Noah Harari, voiced concern over the emergence of the “inner demons” of hate, greed and ignorance among people in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic,…

COVID-19 COULD CAUSE FAMINE IN ABOUT THREE DOZEN COUNTRIES The head of World Food Program David Beasley cautioned the UN Security Council last week of the hunger pandemic that the world was facing. He warned that this could push the global…

LOCKDOWN, RISK-BASED ZONING HAS SAVED LIVES Current data seems to indicate that India is entering a safe zone as far as the Covid-19 pandemic is concerned. As of April 19, ICMR reported a Test Positivity Rate (TPR) of 4.4 per cent…

What is this life, if full of care, there is no time to stand and stare What is it that you want from life? This question is variedly answered by most of us, but every answer sums up to one simple word – Happiness. What is a life’s worth…

IT REMAINS TO BE SEEN IF MODI STIMULUS CAN TOUCH THEM The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed the existence of the Other India, which has always been in existence, but remained invisible all along. The Other India comprises millions of migrant…

ON HIS 203RD BIRTHDAY, KARL MARX IS THE RADICAL THINKER WE NEED Two centuries later since the birth of Karl Marx, the teachings of the Communist Manifesto are being further underlined by the coming of the coronavirus pandemic and its…

TALIBAN-DRUG MAFIA NEXUS THRIVES IN SOUTHERN PART OF COUNTRY Amidst the awkward and disturbing coronavirus pandemic, Afghan farmers who gave up poppy cultivation in the southern province of Kandahar are feared to go back into poppy…

BROADBASED PI WILL FIGHT NEO-LIBERALISM AND AUTHORITARIANISM IN POST-COVID ERA A coalition of leading left wing intellectuals and political leaders led by Noam Chomsky, Bernie Sanders, Yanis Varoufakis and Naomi Klein officially launched…

WORLD CAN NOT AFFORD A FRACTIOUS RELATIONSHIP AT THIS HOUR The war of words, so far, between the US and China is fast spurning out of control into full scale diplomatic spat. President Donald Trump took the verbal bomb to its furthest…

COMBATIVE GANDHIS HAVE BEEN AT THE FOREFRONT, ASKING QUESTIONS While there was disappointment within the Congress party that interim president Sonia Gandhi was not very active and former chief Rahul Gandhi was indifferent to politics, the…

CONSTANT TIFFS HURTING INDIA’S CONSTITUTIONAL FEDERALISM Should the governors and elected chief ministers confront each other even at the time of facing a pandemic? Do we need activist governors or are they mere ornamental and figureheads?…

SAFFRONS HAVE TO TAKE A CALL AFTER NORMALCY IS RESTORED Even as the BJP feels relieved that the protests against the citizenship law ended after the onset of the coronavirus menace, the party continues to perform a delicate balancing act…

BUT PULITZER BOARD HAS MYOPIC VISION ON INDIA The last week saw considerable international interest in matters India with ‘foreign bodies’ such as the Pulitzer taking a hand in “needling” India, giving credence to claims of the decades old…

AAROGYA SETU APP IS AN ARBITRARY INTRUSION INTO PRIVACY The Centre introduced the Aarogya Setu app last month ostensibly to keep track of corona virus infectees. It was clarified that the uploading of it in mobile phones was voluntary.…

The current pandemic has disrupted almost all industries and sectors. Thus, the following three concerns would probably top everyone’s mind today: 1. When will the pandemic be over? Pervasive lockdowns have slowed the virus, but a…

STATES PUT BRAKE ON POOR, CORONA SOCIAL CRISIS HITS SDG Even as some state governments like Karnataka suppresses the informal sector worker, the UN has raised the red flag of growing modern slavery, suppression of information and hitting…

INDIAN STIMULUS SHORT OF NEEDS The devastation caused by pandemic ensued lockdown may take ten long years to recover and the world economy may continue to be in severe crisis till 2030, forecasts UN report. In 2020, global economy would…