For a visitor to the U.K., men and women sleeping rough on the streets, both in city centres and in suburban areas, have sadly become an all-too-familiar sight, but figures have shown that the situation has been getting consistently worse. Government figures published earlier this year revealed that the number …
Read More »Daily Archives: August 19, 2018
Militants’ war on education in Afghanistan
“Education is increasingly a casualty in Afghanistan,” a briefing note by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) recently observed. The note was in reaction to a larger, comprehensive report by the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA), titled ‘Education Under Attack’, which studies the impact of conflict on education …
Read More »From the ruins of Operation Storm
The air was still and the streets of Zagreb bore little sign of life on Sunday, August 5, a public holiday marking the Homeland Thanksgiving Day and Operation Storm of 1995. The capital was bereft of pompous celebrations but Croatian flags hanging over nearly every shop, bar and house marked …
Read More »Is America afraid of socialists?
Reconciling the U.S.’s current economic model with its democracy is a challenging task for Americans but to come up with a name to call what they want appears to be even more challenging. The crisis is more evident for the Democrats, as opposed to Republicans who generally think the only …
Read More »Trade war brings old rivals closer together
China’s escalating trade war with the U.S. is drawing Beijing and Moscow closer to each other. China’s decision to curb soya bean imports from the U.S. as part of a tit-for-tat tariff spiral between the two countries is bringing Russia, especially its less developed but resource-rich ‘Far East’, into the …
Read More »No peace till occupation ends: Taliban
The leader of Afghanistan’s Taliban said on Saturday there will be no peace in Afghanistan as long as the foreign “occupation” continues, reiterating the group’s position that the 17-year war can only be brought to an end through direct talks with the United States. In a message released in honour …
Read More »North Korea urges Trump to be ‘bold’ to break deadlock
North Korean state media blamed U.S. President Donald Trump’s political opponents for the “deadlock” over denuclearisation on Saturday, urging him to act boldly to make progress on the thorny issue. Mr. Trump and Kim Jong-un held a summit in Singapore in June, which the U.S. leader touted as a historic …
Read More »15-member Cabinet in Pak
After its leader Imran Khan was sworn in as Pakistan’s Prime Minister, the Tehreek-e-Insaf on Saturday announced a new 15-member Cabinet. Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who previously served as Foreign Minister under a Pakistan Peoples Party government until 2011 when he switched to PTI, returns to the role. Pervez Khattak, the …
Read More »Dropout rate soaring after school mergers in tribal belts
Research by the Centre for Adivasi Research and Development has revealed that following the NITI Aayog recommendations in Jharkhand, 1,300 primary and middle schools were merged or closed and the government was targeting another 4,600 schools this year. In Karnataka, both government and aided schools located within 1 km from …
Read More »Cong. to seek JPC on Rafale deal
In an attempt to turn the alleged scam in the Rafale deal into the focal point of its campaign for the 2019 Lok Sabha election, the Congress has decided to hold demonstrations from the district to State levels demanding a Joint Parliamentary Committee investigation. This was decided at a meeting …
Read More »‘Multiple PANs still a menace’
All the attention over the privacy aspects of Aadhaar has diverted the conversation from the legitimate uses of a biometric ID, such as weeding out multiple PAN cards linked to the same person, according to a number of lenders. The issue, they said, is that many unscrupulous people run up …
Read More »Revise trade laws, tariffs: U.S. Ambassador
Kenneth Juster says you can’t attract investment and build industry by creating higher duties or more regulation Calling upon India to rethink trade barriers, tariffs and regulations in order to become a “hub” for innovation and production, U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Juster says that India and the U.S. need to see …
Read More »Indelible ink
Located in a narrow lane in Rajahmundry of Andhra Pradesh, the tiny, traditional home of K.V. Ratnam & Sons is the keeper of a precious legacy. It is from here that many handmade, ebonite fountain pens made their way into the hands of freedom fighters to script stories of independence …
Read More »NSCN-K purges ‘Indian’ elements
The Myanmar-based Shangnyu Shangwang Khaplang faction of the extremist National Socialist Council of Nagaland, or NSCN-K, has ousted the last of its ‘Indian’ leaders. Mr. Konyak, 70, is a Naga of Indian origin. A China-trained rebel, he had taken over as chairman of the NSCN-K after Khaplang died in June …
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