Monthly Archives: November 2018

Farmers assemble in Delhi to demand policy change

Farmers assemble in Delhi to demand policy change

Durgam Chinna’s life turned upside down last October, when her 40-year-old husband Venkatayya was found dead in his cotton fields in the village of Ankushapur, in the Jayashankar district of Telengana. Faced with mounting debts which had touched Rs. 8 lakh, the tenant farmer consumed pesticide. For his widow and …

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Imran looks for fresh start

Imran looks for fresh start

Making another pitch for talks, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan called for India to make a fresh start during his term to revive the dialogue process between the two countries. The talks have been stalled on the issue of terrorism for more than a decade. “It is not in Pakistan’s …

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Rolling back

Rolling back

The Polish government’s decision to rescind the forced retirement of several Supreme Court judges is a welcome sign of its willingness to improve compliance with the rule of law. This could begin a process to resolve the stand-off between Poland’s Law and Justice party (PiS) government and the European Union. …

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Corridor of hope

Corridor of hope

The announcement by India and Pakistan of plans to operationalise a visa-free corridor between Dera Baba Nanak in Indian Punjab and Kartarpur Sahib in Pakistan’s Punjab heeds a longstanding plea of Sikh pilgrims. That demand had gathered pace in 1995, when Pakistan renovated the Kartarpur gurdwara, situated on the site …

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Looking beyond the optics

Looking beyond the optics

President Ram Nath Kovind’s choice of Vietnam as the first Southeast Asian country to visit in his capacity as the President is not surprising. A close ‘ally’ of India for over 70 years, and not limited to official diplomatic ties, Vietnam is critical for India’s foreign policy at the regional …

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Not by ordinance

Not by ordinance

There is a clamour by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Sangh Parivar for an ordinance and later a statute (i.e. Act) for building a Ram temple over the ruins of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya immediately. No more waiting, they say. The supposedly neutral Justice J. Chelameswar, who retired …

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Stopping the virus

Stopping the virus

Maya Madan, 22, lives in a brick hut in Hamid Khedi village. A few feet from her home, which is in Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh, is a narrow street, criss-crossed by ditches full of dirty water. The buzz of mosquitoes breeding in these pools fills the air. It does …

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A toothpick and a Guinness World record

A toothpick and a Guinness World record

Manoj Kumar Moharana, a youth from Odisha’s Ganjam district, set a Guinness World Record by making 36 vertical rotations of a toothpick in the mouth in one minute.For the 24-year-old post graduate in mathematics, this is his second record. On August 28, 2017, he broke a Guinness World Record title …

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New green norms to aid builders

New green norms to aid builders

The recent notification issued by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change allowing local bodies to stipulate environmental conditions while granting building permission will improve the launch pipeline and at the same time, help save time and cost for developers.As per the notification, municipalities, development authorities and district panchayats …

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Banks under PCA see retail loan share jump 400 bps

Banks under PCA see retail loan share jump 400 bps

The 11 state-run banks under the Reserve Bank’s prompt corrective action (PCA) framework have seen a 400 basis points increase in their share of retail loans at 19% of the system in the four years ended September 2018, says a report.The Reserve Bank began to place state-run banks under the …

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