Growing economic inequality is a major concern in most developing countries and India is no exception. According to Oxfam, the richest 1% in India own more than 40% of the country’s total wealth while the bottom 50% share just 3% of it. One of the proven ways to alleviate economic …
Read More »Yearly Archives: 2023
THE RECENT WAVE OF TECH LAYOFFS
The New York-headquartered International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) became the latest to join the list of tech companies that have made large-scale layoffs since late 2022. The company said it would be laying off about 3,900 employees. This comes on the heels of what has been described as Big Tech’s …
Read More »‘GENERAL ASSEMBLY DIVIDED OVER UN REFORMS’
The crucial hurdle in the way of reforming the United Nations comes from the disunited state of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), Csaba Korosi, President of the 77th UNGA, said here on Monday. Speaking at a media stakeout, Mr. Korosi, who arrived here on Sunday on a four-day visit ahead …
Read More »16TH FINANCE COMMISSION
The Union government will soon kick off the process to set up the 16th Finance Commission, with the Finance Ministry likely to notify the terms of references for the constitutional body, tasked with recommending the revenue sharing formula between the Centre and the States and their distribution among the States, …
Read More »SC AGAINST STATES’ LEGISLATION AGAINST CONVERSION
Attorney-General R. Venkataramani on Monday in the Supreme Court raised serious objections to petitions being filed in the Supreme Court against various States’ religious conversion laws. “These are State legislations and the State High Courts are hearing them. There are petitions pending there and the same petitioners have now filed …
Read More »PADMA AWARDS
Since the Government of India began conferring the Padma awards in 1955, the work of laureates in the ‘science and engineering’ category has most often been related to mechanical engineering, materials science, metallurgy, aeronautics, space science, agriculture, plant breeding, mathematics and theoretical physics. Scientific work in these fields is typically …
Read More »POLITICAL PARTY’S DECLINE IN INDIA
Political parties are prisoners of their own history. This is what popular analysis will have us believe, often locating the present status of this or that political party in historical events. For instance, one popular narrative seeks to trace the genesis of the present woes of the Congress party in …
Read More »INDIA’S MILLET REVOLUTION
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has declared 2023 as the International Year of Millets. Millets have special nutritive properties (they are high in protein, dietary fibre, micronutrients and antioxidants) and special agronomic characteristics (drought-resistant and suitable for semi-arid regions). If millets are good for nutrition …
Read More »INDUS WATERS TREATY AND ITS CHALLENGES
The government’s decision to issue notice to Pakistan, calling for negotiations to amend the Indus Waters Treaty, must be considered carefully. New Delhi says this extreme step is due to Pakistan’s intransigence over objections to two Indian hydropower projects in Jammu and Kashmir: the 330MW Kishanganga hydroelectric project (Jhelum) and …
Read More »UAVS, MISSILES ARE LIKELY FUTURE THREATS
Missiles and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are likely to be a major future threat, calling for a mitigation strategy as part of an integrated air defence, and underlining the need for a comprehensive air defence solution. That is the biggest takeaway for India from an Army analysis of the war …
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