AFTER the global Covid-19 pandemic exposed the dismal state of India’s public health system, one would have thought that the government would have learnt some lessons.  India’s public health expenditure is one of the lowest in the world and stood at 1.3 per cent of GDP in 2019.The Modi government pushed ahead with privatisation of health services in a big way – something which began with the liberalisation policies in 1991.  A health system developed where there is a dominant private sector – corporate-run hospitals, private nursing homes, clinics and diagnostic centres.  Most of them charg

WHEN the pogrom against minorities in Gujarat was raging in 2002, the then President of India, K R Narayanan had remarked to a delegation which met him seeking intervention, that: “The Constitution is not working in Gujarat”.  Narendra Modi was the chief minister of Gujarat at that time.Now, nearly two decades later and nearly seven years of the prime ministership of Modi, it can be said that the Constitution is not working in large parts of the country and in various sections of the polity.As we observe the 71st Republic Day, it would be instructive to see what has happened to the fundamen

THE new year has begun with a sobering reminder that the foreign policy of the Modi government is in shambles and its pro-US approach has landed the country in a strategic cul-de-sac.The outgoing ambassador of the United States, Kenneth Juster, has in a farewell speech put the Modi government on notice. After binding India in a series of military agreements, the United States will not countenance any strategic autonomy for the country.

THE Latin term `annus horribilis’ (horrible year) has been widely and understandably used to define the year 2020 which had just ended.  This is a natural description of an unprecedented year, which has seen a global pandemic – the corona virus pandemic – the comparable scale of which happened a full century ago when the “Spanish flu” caused worldwide havoc in 1918-1919. The Covid-19 pandemic by the end of the year had afflicted nearly 81 million people and caused 1.8 million deaths.  It caused large-scale suffering, especially for those families whose near ones died and caused rec

THE Local Self-Governing Institutions (LSGI) elections in Kerala have resulted in a resounding victory for the Left Democratic Front.  The LDF has won 11 out of the 14 district panchayats; 108 of the 152 block panchayats; and 514 of the 941 grama panchayats.  The LDF has won five of the six corporations and 35 of the 86 municipalities.It is significant that the LDF has improved overall upon the success it registered in the 2015 elections, five years ago.