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As a host of an international sporting event, Beijing was expected to rise above bilateral tensions
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The Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order staying the Haryana government’s law on quota for locals in private sector jobs is a welcome development. It’s an apt judicial intervention to correct a flawed policy. According to the Haryana State Employment of Local Candidates Act, 2020, private companies are required to reserve 75% of the jobs, […]
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Displaying an unabashed streak of hegemony and territorial ambitions, China has been quite aggressive over the last few years in building infrastructure along the border while India has a lot to catch up. The ‘Vibrant Villages’ Programme, announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her Budget speech, will hopefully help New Delhi effectively counter the […]
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The NDA government’s decision to tax crypto assets without first creating a regulatory framework for their transactions is baffling. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s announcement, in her Budget presentation, that any income from transfer of any virtual digital asset would be taxed at the rate of 30% reflects the Centre’s eagerness to dip into the digital […]
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Neglecting progressive States like Telangana once again demonstrates that Modi’s catchphrase “Team India” is just a slogan
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The first India-Central Asia Summit, hosted against the backdrop of developments in Afghanistan and the changing geopolitical dynamics, demonstrates India’s growing role as a stabilising force in the volatile region. With Pakistan trying to fish in troubled waters and China flexing its muscles in pursuit of its hegemonic ambitions, India has a historic opportunity to […]
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The latest revelations raise disturbing questions over the conduct of government agencies in the entire episode
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It’s a sort of ‘Ghar Wapsi’ for Air India to return to the Tata Group nearly seven decades after it was nationalised, capping years of struggle by the government to sell the struggling airline that became a burden on taxpayers. Successive governments had pumped in $15 billion to keep the ailing airline flying. The handover […]
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While the Indian economy is on the path of overall recovery from the worst hit it took at the start of the pandemic, the situation remains volatile in the face of the rapid surge of the Omicron variant and the informal sector continues to be in the red. Quite a few international agencies have downgraded […]
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A new era in space exploration has just begun with NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the most sophisticated space laboratory ever built, successfully reaching its destination — a gravitational parking spot in an orbit around the Sun nearly 1.50 million miles from Earth. There are several fascinating scientific possibilities arising out of this extraordinarily complex […]
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The dividing line between two Indias — the haves and have-nots — has now become too sharp and stark to ignore. The pandemic has widened the gulf between the rich and the poor in ways that the country never experienced in the past. The top and bottom of the pyramid absorbed the pandemic shock in […]
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At a time when global concerns are growing over climate change and man-made environmental degradation, the NDA government’s move to incentivise the States, through a star rating system, for speedy green clearance to projects appears flawed and ill-conceived. Any attempt to unduly hasten up clearances is bound to lead to dilution of the environment protection […]
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Never in the recent past the threat to federalism was as serious as it is now. The BJP-led NDA government at the Centre has been systematically undermining the spirit of federalism by usurping the rights of the States and taking unilateral and arbitrary decisions. On every issue with federal ramifications, it has been arbitrary and […]
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Even as nations are grappling with the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic, another public health crisis is looming large over the world: bacterial infections that are resistant to existing antibiotic drugs. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is the new threat to public health that warrants urgent global action to save lives. Hundreds of thousands of deaths […]
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The most important lesson that India needs to learn from the devastating coronavirus pandemic is the urgent need to overhaul the public healthcare infrastructure. The pandemic has exposed the country’s creaky health infrastructure, a sector where things cannot be expected to improve overnight. However, there seems to be no urgency on the part of the […]
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The fresh bout of aggressive statements emanating from Nepal on the border row with India is quite uncalled for. The objections being raised by the Nepalese politicians over India’s plan to expand the road in the Lipulekh region of Uttarakhand are baseless. It must be pointed out that India has been in effective possession of […]
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While the opinion may be divided on legitimising cryptocurrency, a blanket ban could be counter-productive, given the global trends in the growth of the virtual currency market. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call for a collective and synchronised global policymaking around the blockchain-backed digital currencies must be seen against the backdrop of conflicting policy formulations floating […]
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Economic inequality is an unfortunate truth the world has to live with. What is more disturbing is the widening gulf between the rich and the poor, despite a surfeit of welfare models being experimented across the world. The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has made the world more unequal, with wealth distribution becoming more skewed than ever […]
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Pakistan’s National Security Policy (NSP), touted as the country’s first strategy document, follows a familiar trope of blaming India for the stalemate in the bilateral relations and setting resolution of the Kashmir issue as a precondition for the resumption of talks. By reiterating its moral, diplomatic, political and legal support to the people of Kashmir, […]
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The change in the shareholding pattern in Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL), with the Central government becoming the largest shareholder with 35.8% equity, may have come as a rescuing act for the ailing telecom company but sends confusing signals. There are unanswered questions regarding the future role of the government in the company. One wonders what […]
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The BJP is getting a taste of its own medicine. A party that revels in engineering defections in rival parties to shore up its numbers is now facing desertions from its own ranks in the poll-bound Uttar Pradesh. A string of exits, including some senior Ministers and legislators, has put the saffron party on the […]
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It’s truly a watershed moment in medical history that offers hope to millions of patients with failing organs. For the first time, American surgeons have successfully transplanted the heart of a genetically engineered pig into a human patient. The ground-breaking procedure will have major implications in future and could help transform the way we handle […]
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Pakistan’s invitation to India to participate in the much-delayed South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Summit is an empty gesture and doesn’t deserve any attention. New Delhi has rightly rejected the offer because there has been no change on the ground as far as Islamabad’s active support to terrorism is concerned. The hostile neighbour […]
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By now, the BJP’s political template has become tiresomely familiar; play the communal card to seek electoral dividends. Whether in States where it is already in power or in States where it is in the opposition, the saffron party has made divisive politics its core principle. Stoking public fears over an imaginary enemy and invoking […]