Remember Prashant Bhushan? The public interest lawyer and activist who was among the co-founders of AAP? His motto is do and say what is just fair and in public interest, regardless of immediate fallout. Reacting to the news that Elon Musk’s satellite communications business has tied up with Jio, Airtel and Voda to offer the services in India, he has tweeted: “Government of India has not yet auctioned satellite spectrum. But still, Airtel signed MoU with Starlink...[By Philip Mudartha]

The South Indian states are demonstrating against the hegemony of the federal government headed by the BJP. One such campaign was led by the state government of Karnataka which is ruled by the Congress party. This campaign was accompanied by a sit-in in New Delhi..

The budget was focused on winning Delhi NCT assembly elections which were held on 5th February 2025, only four days later. The budget announced massive tax relief to the middle classes. The middle classes constitute about half of the Delhi voters. In addition to the central government employees, they form the creamy layer and earn more than one lakh rupees per month. As beneficiaries of Modi bonanza, they were expected to vote out AAP from power and vote BJP...[By Philip Mudartha]

Delhi fell to the aggressive juggernaut of BJP. After twenty-six years, BJP captured the throne of Delhi NCT, the half state with an elected legislative assembly and a full union territory with the Union Government breathing down on the throat of elected Delhi government using its

Within hours of his inauguration as President of the USA, Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) ending birth-right citizenship. The 14th amendment to the Constitution of USA which was enacted after the end of civil war in 1868 applies the principle of “right of soil” by

Our former PM Dr. Manmohan Singh passed away on Thursday, the 26th December 2024 at the age of 92. Tributes from both national and international heads of state, political leaders, celebrities, intellectuals and opinion makers poured in. India declared a seven-day mourning period: all government

Indian billionaire Gautam Adani has been indicted by a US federal court for his alleged role in a $265 million scheme to bribe Indian officials, sending shockwaves not only across his business conglomerate but across Indian politicians and business leaders. The charges stem..

The month of October saw a record foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) outflows from Indian equities, totalling Rupees 82,479 crore. Global factors such as Chinese stimulus and US Fed rate cut made valuations of Indian equities comparatively unattractive. The domestic institutional investors (DIIs) took it as a

Following the overthrow of Hasina-led Awami League (AL) government, the Khaleda Zia-led Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) is very vocal about the Indo-Bangladesh relationship. Below is a summary of the party’s views. “India’s foreign policy mandarins in South Block have committed a massive blunder. They promoted

On 23rd July 2024, the Union of India Budget day, Nirmala Sitharaman reminded us why she is on Forbes’ World’s Most Powerful Women list: She is ranked 32, and shares the list with Taylor Swift and Melinda Gates. During the 86 minutes of her Budget speech, investors

A group of former presidents and prime ministers of the G20 countries have expressed themselves in favour of "billionaire tax". In their open letter to the current leaders of G20 group, they wrote that this initiative is a rare political opportunity. The Indian National Congress (INC)

In the 18th Lok Sabha, the opposition is strongest in our political history, with the INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) securing a record 234 seats. The BJP has a strength of 240, 32 short of the majority mark of 272. TDP and JDU together hold 28 seats and along with BJP’s other allies, NDA has formed the

Modi was set to lose 2024 like Vajpayee in 2004. Here’s what changed: If just 1 (one) out of the 66 people watching the government propaganda had changed their mind, the Supreme Leader would have been the Leader of Opposition today”. Yogendra Yadav, Shreyas Sardesai, and Rahul 

In earlier exclusives, I have dealt with two crucial issues: 1) Unemployment, especially youth unemployment due to which our youthful demographics is wasted. And 2) increasing inequalities of incomes and weath. To recap, the following pie-chart summerises the unemployment 

Inequalities in Incomes and wealth declined since independence due to the socialist policies adopted by successive Congress-led governments till mid-1980s. The land re-distribution laws enacted by the state governments, especially in the communist ruled states contributed most. In Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh

At the markets in Navi Mumbai where I shop for groceries, vegetables and fruits, young women and girl-children accost me and implore to buy garbage bags for a few tens of rupees. I wonder if they earn enough for two square meals a day. Then there are Swiggy, Zomato and other platforms whose delivery boys arrive at our door-steps with freshly cooked food from restaurants, daily essentials like fresh milk, eggs and bread etc. Have you wondered what they must be earning per day?...[By Philip Mudartha]

Given the political and highly contestable nature of the Ayodhya conflict, the 9th November 2019 unanimous verdict by a five-judge constitution bench expectedly continues to generate contrasting opinions. The bench had ruled that the entire 2.77 acres of..

After the hiatus of two months, I resume the series of exclusive articles. There wasn’t a dearth of news stories relevant to you. However, I must admit that my readers have been less than enthusiastic to express their views on these exclusives. Which, of course, affected my motivation

In April 1920, the World War-I Allies divided the former territories of the defeated Ottoman Empire. Syria and Lebanon went to France. Great Britain got Palestine. However, the Palestinian Arabs wanted an..

During the last decade of 19th century, a minority of Eastern European Jews rejected assimilation as minorities. Some others developed the modern European notion of nationalism. The emergence of nationalism deepened the Jewish existential crisis and Jews were forced to

In my previous article, I referred to Fred Jerome’s book “Einstein on Israel and Zionism”. I read it with my subscription to internet archive which gave me the accurate picture of Einstein as a human-being of very high moral calibre though irreligious. The full texts of Einstein’s letter to Nehru

Einstein was not an ardent supporter of Zionism, the Jewish Homeland project by the European Jews. He felt that the waves of arriving Jews could live alongside existing Arabs in Palestine. In 1938, he predicted that the Zionist project would be threatened by “fanatical Arab

The Hamas cross-border terrorist attack on Israel in the early hours of Saturday, the 7th October was unprecedented. Over 5,000 rockets were fired at Israeli cities, and villages. Under the cover of rocket fire, over 2,500 armed men poured into Southern Israel using either para-gliders or SUVs, trucks and motor-cycles. 

Speaking in the Parliament on 10th August 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi hit out at the governance and policies of the Congress in the North-East. He recalled an episode from 1966 when the Indian Air Force (IAF) carried out an attack in Aizawl on the orders of Indira