Opinion

By VJM Divakar When the Telangana government decided to commence the 2022 Budget session of the State Assembly without the so-called customary Governor’s address to the joint session of the legislature, eyebrows were raised in certain sections criticising Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. The criticism is mainly based on political intentions and these are the same […]

By Mariola Urrea The plenary session of the European Parliament held on March 1 has left testimonies that make it possible to anticipate far-reaching political advances for the process of European construction. It is enough to review the speeches of the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Layen, and, particularly, that of the […]

By Balsher Singh Sidhu More than half the world’s population faces water scarcity for at least one month every year. Meanwhile, some people have to deal with too much water, while others have access to only poor water quality. That’s billions of people living with drought in Africa and India, facing flood risks in Bangladesh […]

BY MADABHUSHI SRIDHAR Does the Governor have a right or authority to address the Assembly session? As the formal head of Legislature, can s/he summon the session and decide to address the Assembly and Council jointly? MP Jain’s ‘Indian Constitutional Law’ (P 328) says, “the Governor’s address to the first session of the Legislature has […]

By Tanya Ogilvie-White Russian President Vladimir Putin overnight ordered the defence minister and the chief of the military to put nuclear deterrent forces in a “special regime of combat duty”, possibly referring to readying tactical nuclear forces. This could of course be a bluff, but Putin has demonstrated on numerous occasions he has a cavalier […]

By Franz Krüger For more than a century, journalism education prepared young people for the role of full-time professionals employed by sizeable news organisations. But the advertising-based business model that sustained journalism is collapsing because of new technology, and jobs of the old kind are becoming scarce. The educational model, too, must change to accommodate […]

By Juliette McIntyre, Douglas Guilfoyle The world was treated to a grotesque spectacle this week. Russia, the current president of the UN Security Council, launched an invasion of Ukraine while the Security Council was holding an urgent meeting to try to resolve the crisis. This has many people asking whether there is any point to […]

By Dhananjay Tripathi A couple of weeks ago, Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar was in Australia to attend the fourth foreign ministers’ meeting of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad). This meeting was viewed by experts as significant because, in the joint statement, there was an indirect reference to Pakistan’s support for terrorism against India. The […]

By Dr Vanishree Joseph, Dr N V Madhuri Several measures have been taken in India for the deprived to recover from the impact created by the Covid-19 pandemic. As per the IMF staff estimates, these measures sum to about 0.6% of the GDP. This estimated amount is being used to spend in providing insurance coverage […]

By B Yerram Raju Institutional reforms are least spoken of in the Draft National MSME Policy. The policy has missed the labour-intensive sectors to address the inclusivity issue. When the policy mentions demographic dividend, full advantage can be derived only when the small enterprises in manufacturing are encouraged and a strong link between the micro […]

By B Yerram Raju The Draft National MSME Policy, targeting V-shaped recovery after the Covid pandemic and the $5-trillion economy by 2025 (since extended by two years to 2027), seems to have seen the world more than India. There is a virtue in looking at the policies of other countries during the pandemic. However, the […]

By Arun Sinha Regardless of how the government negotiates with the farmers on the issue of legally guaranteed Minimum Support Price (MSP) for 23 crops, there seems to be no way it can abandon them. The state has been a foster father to the farmers, encouraging them to grow wheat and rice, pushing them to […]

By Nayakara Veeresha The union Budget 2022-23 has been hailed as growth-oriented in terms of physical and digital infrastructure development owing to increased capital expenditure. Most of the entrepreneurs, industrialists and corporate entities have welcomed it. No doubt these are necessities for an emerging economy like ours. However, the big missing link is the direction […]

By Tej Singh Kardam “Everything we love about civilization is a product of intelligence, so amplifying our human intelligence has the potential of helping civilization flourish like never before — as long as we manage to keep the technology beneficial” Artificial intelligence (AI) is based on the notion that human thought processes have the ability, […]

By Arun Sinha The BJP’s top leadership needs to review whether the way their Karnataka leaders have handled the hijab row is working in or against the party interest. At first glance, it seems the party has lost some of the goodwill it had earned among Muslim women by passing the Muslim Women (Protection of […]

By Yashobanta Parida, Joyita Roy Chowdhury, Prakash Kumar Sahoo The current budgetary allocation for disaster management under the aegis of Ministry of Home Affairs is Rs 493 crore in 2022-23, which is only 2% higher than the last fiscal year. This fund is available for specific natural disasters for financing immediate relief measures and emergency […]

By Seela Subba Rao The government of India enacted the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) Act in 2016 to address the resolution of stressed assets. The most important requirement was a speedy recovery process. The IBC Act, 2016, consolidated, revised and re-established the insolvency-related laws under one umbrella. It superseded all other laws and deals […]

By Mahitha Lingala A country with a magnitude as much as that of India thrives only when both levels of governments, in the States as well as the Centre, work in tandem towards prosperity. Cooperative federalism is a work in progress in India. Despite powers being divided asymmetrically in the Constitution, India is a Union […]

By JR Janumpalli Prime Minister Narendra Modi again said in Parliament that Telangana State was not formed properly. It is over seven years since the State was formed. The AP Reorganisation Act (APRA), 2014, was passed in Parliament unanimously. His own party, the BJP, was a willing party to the passing of the Act on […]

By Dr Vanishree Joseph, Dr N V Madhuri The union Budget 2022-23 focuses on enhancement of productivity and investment; infrastructure development; financing of investments and all-inclusive welfare. In its inclusive welfare and development, women and children have also been given a prominent place. The Ministry of Women and Child Development schemes are completely revamped and […]

By Moitrayee Das  The current times have witnessed an increase in mental health policies and programmes as well as mental health being as an integral part of the sustainable development goals. But is India doing enough to deal with the mental health crisis of its people? There is no doubt that the pandemic has taken […]

By Arun Sinha Which way will the farmers vote in the elections in UP and Punjab? That is a serious worry for the BJP. The signs are not good for it, and the Budget has not made them any better. The fire of farmers’ anger is still not extinguished. They recently observed a Vishwasghat Diwas (Betrayal Day) […]

BJP is not sure whether religion as a card will be able to deliver the State for it

By Prof Devi Prasad Juvvadi India liberalised its economy and opened up its markets in 1991 but the agricultural sector remained a deterrent as it was largely unorganised and at the same time protected and insulated. Thus in the years post-liberalisation, it became apparent that while industry and services prospered under the reformed system, agriculture […]