Opinion

Ashok Mahapatra No country is entirely self-sufficient, and every country relies on maritime trade to sell what it has and buy what it needs. Shipping helps ensure that the benefits of trade and commerce are more evenly spread. However, it is a pity that the...

Jayati Ghosh One of the most significant socioeconomic changes accelerated by Covid-19 must surely be the rise of digital labour platforms. Of course, platform-based employment had already been growing exponentially before the pandemic. But the combination of lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, and the consequent greater...

Melvin Durai My wife loves music and decided many years ago that it would be wise for us to invest in a piano and pay for weekly lessons for our three children. This has worked well for two of our kids, who may never play...

Piyush Ranjan Rout Exactly a year ago lockdown was imposed in most of the world’s urban areas and Bhubaneswar was no exception. During the period, people took up many activities at their homes to keep themselves engaged. Thousands of Bhubaneswar residents planted ‘lockdown gardens’ in...

Bighneswar Swain Gun control is one of the most divisive issues in American politics. With each mass shooting — defined as four or more victims having been killed indiscriminately — antagonism grows between both sides of the gun control argument. Proponents of stricter gun regulations...

Dasarathi Mishra Bridging the infrastructure deficit is a major challenge for India. In the past, between 1948 and 1964, three financial institutions were established to provide long-term finance — the Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI), the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI)...

Anil Singh With four phases of the eight-phased election for 294-seat West Bengal Assembly having been over, both major contenders – TMC and BJP– are hoping of wresting power in the state. The bumper voting exceeding 80% in almost every phase thus far with large...

PSM Rao Why does the government of India want to sell the Public Sector Banks? Are they not serving the public purpose anymore? Will their profitability surely increase under private ownership, and who will apportion that profit?  Will the depositor’s money be safer under private...

Melvin Durai A couple of weeks ago, BBC News sent out a tweet that announced the death of a legendary American actress. “Emmy award-winning US actress Mary Tyler Moore dies aged 80, her publicist says,” BBC tweeted from its “Breaking News” account. When I saw...

Dhanada K Mishra Two years ago I moved into the household of my current hosts - an Italian and Chinese husband-wife couple in Hong Kong. I found them using AirBNB - a service that allows people to host complete strangers as paying guests in their...