Opinion

By Pramod K Nayar Some years after World War II, a Jew who survived the camp and lost his parents in the Holocaust, published his first volume of verse. In 2022, we are witness to the 70th anniversary of ‘Todesfugue’, which, although written around 1944, was published in the 1952 collection, Mohn und Gedächtnis (Poppy and Memory). Translated […]

By Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada, Rashedur Chowdhury There’s a good chance that you would like to see Covid disappear for good. And you may also wish for an end to the war in Ukraine – or any other war for that matter. But would you feel the same way if you were the head of a […]

By Craig Jeffrey, Jane Dyson Young people have been taking to the streets across India, demanding governments act to provide more jobs. In Bihar, large numbers protested recently at delays in filling public sector vacancies. Some of them had passed the required examinations but waited several years for their job to start. In July and […]

By William D O’Connell There is a well-known saying shared by both crypto experts and sceptics: “Not your keys, not your coins.” The phrase, popularised by Bitcoin entrepreneur Andreas Antonopoulos, refers to how the contents of a crypto wallet are the property of whoever has access to that wallet’s digital “keys.” This means that unless […]

By ManMohan S Sodhi, Christopher S Tang Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan has elicited a strong response from China: three days of simulated attack on Taiwan with further drills announced, plus a withdrawal from critical ongoing conversations with the US on climate change and the military. This strong reaction was predictable. President Xi had […]

By Thomas E Doyle, II Every five years, the nearly 200 member states of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons meet to review their progress – or lack thereof. After being postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the month-long conference is now meeting in New York and opened with a stark warning. The […]

By Pramod K Nayar That poetry is the most compressed form of expressing the strongest emotions is now a truism. Think of how Imtiaz Dharker in ‘They’ll Say: “She Must be From Another Country”’ describes a nation’s rulers: fat old fools, the crooks and thugs who wear the uniform that gives them the right to […]

By Arun Sinha When Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for an end to the ‘revadi culture’ on July 17, he might not have expected that two weeks later a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana, hearing a petition seeking curbs on the distribution of ‘freebies’ by political parties, would decide to set […]

By Elsabe Loots Over the past 25 years there has been lots of research and debate about the concept, history and state of globalisation, its various dimensions and benefits. The World Economic Forum has set out the case that the world has experienced four waves of globalisation. In a 2019 publication, it summarised them as […]

By Dr Oruganty Prasada Rao Over the years, ‘freebies’ have become an integral part of politics for parties to either win elections or stay in power by offering them as ‘bait’ to woo the voters. Political parties vie with each other to provide freebies and add new ones to the list with each election. These […]

Pramod K Nayar What ostensibly distinguishes the human race from other species is its incessant need to preserve its memories in art, literature and prosthetic devices. The glories of ancient kingdoms, the devastations of wars, the achievements of scientists are recorded with the presumption that later generations will want to know these details of their […]

By Meredith Oyen US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Taiwan on Aug 2 – a highly controversial trip that has been strongly opposed by China. Such is the sensitivity over the island’s status that even before Pelosi’s plane touched down in the capital of Taipei, mere reports of the proposed trip prompted a warning […]

By Seela Subba Rao The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India’s report on Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) presented to Parliament in December 2021 showed mixed results – the good, the bad and the downright ugly. After examining a total of 607 CPSEs as on 31 March 2020, the picture brought out by CAG […]

By Abhijeet Anand and Priyanka Kaushal Whether we’re running a country or a household, we always need to spend within our budget. The Earth also has a budget – the ecological budget, where income and expenditure take the form of natural resources. Like every budget, the Earth’s is limited. Today, humans are using the resources […]

By Dr K Srinivasa Rao With the change in the operating ecosystem driven by technology and the evolution of the gig working community, the archaic labour laws need reforms. The possibility of process reforms, automation and enhanced scope to use tools like artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning and robotics calls for improved capacity of […]

By B Yerram Raju In India, 98% of manufacturing micro and small manufacturing enterprises (MSMEs), estimated at 1.6 crore, are single-owner enterprises even if they are proprietary or partnerships and family enterprises or private limited enterprises. Stages of their growth are similar to biological organisms like the seeds transforming into flowering or fruit-bearing trees. This […]

By Wendy Whitman Cobb Russia intends to withdraw from the International Space Station after 2024, according to an announcement from Yuri Borisov, the new head of the Russian space agency, Roscosmos, in a meeting with Vladimir Putin on July 26, 2022. Borisov also said future efforts will focus on a new a Russian space station. […]

By Dhananjay Tripathi The last couple of years has not been good for South Asia, which, in all respects, stands divided. Politically and economically, South Asia is regarded as one of the world’s least integrated regions. This post-colonial, post-partition region has failed to stand united despite establishing the South Asian Association For Regional Cooperation (SAARC) […]

By Arun Sinha India’s two prominent economists — Arvind Panagariya, former vice-chairman of NITI Aayog and Columbia University professor, and Poonam Gupta, director-general of the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) and a member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (PMEAC) — have in a policy paper batted for privatisation of all public […]

By JR Janumpalli The national executive meeting of the Bharatiya Janata Party held in Hyderabad was at its belligerent best, which involved a total assault on Telangana. But, the party could not garner enough traction commensurate with its effort and desire. For, the BJP is not in power in the State and the local party […]

By T Muralidharan The following four key provisions under the GST regime spell disaster for the MSME sector: • Taxpayer must pay the entire GST dues before filing the GST Summary Return (GSTR 3B) • GSTR 3B cannot be filed until and unless the delayed payment interest at 18% is also paid • Taxpayer is […]

By Dr Manoranjan Sharma The imposition of the windfall taxes and export duty evoked considerable debates across the development spectrum. The basic justification for the windfall taxes and export duty tax on petrol, diesel and Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) hikes imposed on July 1, 2022, stems from the fact that some oil refiners were raking […]

By Amit Mishra Startups in online education saw a spike as a result of the ‘stay-at-home’ Covid policy. Now, as India gets back to the ground, a large number of ed-tech employees are going home. A stock market meltdown earlier this month did not bode well for the wider economic world, and as a result, […]

By Kevin Trenberth When politicians talk about reaching “net zero” emissions, they’re often counting on trees or technology that can pull carbon dioxide out of the air. What they don’t mention is just how much these proposals or geoengineering would cost to allow the world to continue burning fossil fuels. There are many proposals for […]