Opinion

Rup Narayan Das The recent development in Pondicherry Legislative Assembly has once again brought to the fore the lacunae in the anti-defection law which needs to be fixed. In a democratic parliamentary polity changing party affiliation on part of the legislator who is elected from...

Shivaji Sarkar The country is in a quandary about the privatisation of public sector banks. Amendments to the Banking Companies (Acquisition and Transfer of Undertakings) 1970 and 1980 are on the cards. The two laws led to bank nationalisation in two phases. Finance Minister Nirmala...

Prof. SN Misra The Union Budget 2021-22 has come in the backdrop of a severe economic crisis induced by Covid-19 pandemic. The Indian economy, whose growth was already decelerating in 2019-20, seems to be witnessing a major contraction of by 7.7%, as assessed by the...

Kaushik Basu India’s three new farm laws, enacted in September 2020 with little public or parliamentary debate, have attracted enormous global interest. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government described the measures as a gift to farmers, but farmers in several Indian states, led by smallholders in...

Melvin Durai Airports have been both a source of joy and sadness for me. The sadness has come when I’ve had to bid farewell to members of my family. It usually means being away from them for weeks, months or even years. It also means...

Anadi Naik The American drama of “Donald Trump’s impeachment” is over and he is acquitted. He is no longer the President. Therefore, the US Senate decided it has no authority to convict him. In a way the whole thing was more of a political drama...

Gordon Brown & Mark Lowcock Today, 270 million people – equivalent to the combined population of Germany, the United Kingdom, France and Italy – are on the brink of starvation. This number has doubled over the last 12 months. And it is the world’s children...

Rup Narayan Das At a time when disparity and inequality among and within the nations is rising with the rich becoming richer and poor becoming poorer, it is imperative to recall the contributions of socialism and its protagonists the world over and also in India,...

Bhaskar Nath Biswal The much-awaited decision in Budget 2021 to hike FDI in insurance sector from 49 per cent to 74 per cent was well received by international payers and it is expected that the country can see investment by MNCs of around Rs 20000...

Melvin Durai Monkeys are a nuisance in many parts of India and the rest of the world, partly because they have a propensity to steal food and other objects. Monkeys are the gangsters of the animal world. Not all monkeys, of course, but the ones...