View Articles

Centre’s announcement of conducting national level Caste Census along with the forthcoming Census in India has intensified caste politics in Bihar, the first state to go to polls later in 2025, whose Vidhan Sabha’s term is to expire on November 22, this year. Political analysts have already claimed that by announcing the decision, PM Narendra Modi has punctured the core political plank of the INDIA bloc, called Mahagathbandhan in the state. Such a conclusion has obviously ignored the fact that Bihar voters are the most conscious and practical on caste politics in the country, who can’t be easily waylaid by mere promise.

Some countries are having it fine. No talk of ‘War and Peace’. The UAE, for instance. Indians and Pakistanis, big numbers of them, live disciplined lives in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Sharjah; Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah, eking out better lives than the ones in India and Pakistan. The latter two neighbouring nations are engaged these days in warmongering, preparing for war to break out if it hasn't already. But as the Burj al Khalifa, the world's tallest skyscraper, will bear witness to, the only issue the UAE residents worry about would be an impending hot and dusty weekend, which is what the weatherman has predicted!

Elementary textbooks in economics invariably begin with a completely mythical concept: the concept of “perfect competition”, which is different from the concept of “free competition” that the classical economists and Marx had used. “Free competition” was characterised by the equality of wages (for equal skills) and of profit-rates across sectors; all it required for its realisation was free mobility of labour and of capital across sectors which was by no means a far-fetched assumption in the pre-monopoly era. “Perfect competition” by contrast is characterised additionally by zero profits.

In India, the conflict between labour and capital has been intensified with the replacement and codification of all labour laws into four Labour Codes in the name of ‘rationalisation’ and ‘ease of doing business’ in order to reduce the labour compliance burden of industries. This has deeply significant consequences for the rights of workers, especially women.

Ten days have passed since the gruesome killings of 26 people at Pahalgam on April 22. In the following days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a lead to the boiling mood of the nation by announcing a number of measures, including the suspension of the 1960-signed Indus Water Treaty, followed by Pakistan’s retaliation through its own set of counter-measures, including coming out of the 1972 Shimla Agreement.

The terrorist outrage in Pahalgam, which left 26 tourists dead, has united the whole country in condemnation and grief. 25 families spread across India and one family in Nepal saw a beloved family member being murdered in cold blood. By choosing to kill people after ascertaining their religion, the terrorists hoped to create a communal divide and fuel communal tensions in the country. But the opposite has happened. There has been a spontaneous outpouring of anger and condemnation by all sections of society and people, irrespective of caste and creed, have spoken with one voice. At the political level, all political parties have expressed their resolve to unitedly face this dastardly attack.

By announcing to conduct caste census in India after a gap of about a century, the last being conducted with the Census 1931, PM Narendra Modi led government has not only done away with the independent India’s historical decision not to have caste census at all, but also the BJP’s historical position against conducting caste census, chiefly out of the fear that such an exercise may reinforce the caste system. The decision marks a significant shift in India’s policy that is bound to impact all walks of life–especially the politics, economics, and the social conduct.

The more the three armed forces’ chiefs sit on a decision to strike at Pakistan with uncommon force, the more the chance Pakistan will escape with inconsequential punishment. Point being made is that in the Indian context, a decision on whether or not to go to war is taken by the civilian leadership, but if the civilian leadership says it has left the decision to the armed forces, it's a slip of the tongue!

The killing of 26 tourists and injuring of many more tourists in Baisaran in Kashmir was a tragedy beyond words. The terrorists claimed to be part of Pakistan based Lashkar-e-Tayyaba’s front ‘The Resistance Front’, who have taken the responsibility for this dastardly act. They identified people by religion and brutally fired upon them. One of the people killed was Syed Adil Shah, the one who used to take the tourists on pony.

New Delhi: The Cerebral Palsy Sports Federation of India (CPSFI) along with World Abilitysport are holding an International Awareness Seminar on Classification in Para Sports here. The two-day event will be held 29–30 May 2025 at the India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.