PRIVATE military contractors (PMCs), a euphemism for corporate military entities, are back in the news. This time, it is the Wagner Group, a Russian PMC whose leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, staged an apparent armed rebellion against the Russian State. The Russian government had contracted the Wagner Group's services for the war in Ukraine. Prigozhin, known as "Putin's chef" and manager of his online troll army, betrayed his boss and now finds himself abandoned by the Russian State in Belarus.

SOCIAL reform movements for women’s rights have historically fought the uniformity of male privilege and each step forward has been in a specific socio-economic and political context. Admittedly in India, in the 75th year of our independence, the legal framework for women’s rights, though certainly vastly improved, is still ridden with discriminations, biases and cultural prejudice. There is little doubt that much needs to be done.

THE Karnataka government’s plan to launch its “Anna Bhagya” scheme on July 1 under which it was planning to provide 10 kg of free rice per month to each family below the poverty-line has run into problems because of the Food Corporation of India’s unwillingness to sell any rice to that state. Since the current central scheme provides 5 kg of free rice to each BPL family, the Karnataka scheme would have provided an additional 5 kg per month to about 1.19 crore BPL and Antyodaya card-holders.

TWO major headline-grabbing defence equipment deals, the focus of this article, were signed during the PM’s recent State visit to the US.The US is to sell 31 unmanned armed Reaper MQ-9B drones to India, 15 for the navy and eight each for the army and air force. The drones, long sought by India, would provide a new and substantial intelligence-gathering, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capability and, when necessary, the ability to strike at targets on land and on or under the sea-surface.

THE Indian power sector has undergone a complex and challenging journey of anti-people, anti-national reforms in recent decades. . The Electricity Act of 2003 was introduced with the aim of reducing government intervention in the regulation of the electricity business, opening doors for potential privatisation.