AIR India Express ‘Vande Bharat’ Flight IX 1134 evacuating stranded Indians from Dubai to India, tragically crashed in rainy conditions on August 7, 2020 evening at Calicut International Airport in Karipur near Kozhikode, Kerala. The Boeing 737 NG aircraft overshot what is termed a ‘tabletop’ runway, went through the airport boundary wall, tipped over the edge to drop over 35 feet, and broke into three pieces, two large and one smaller, with the front portion damaged the most and having most of the deaths.

JUST recently, the 59th anniversary of Fidel's quintessential words to Cuban intellectuals was commemorated. One passage in the speech is particularly noteworthy. Fidel said, and I quote: "The Revolution… must act in such a way that the entire gamut of artists and intellectuals who are not genuinely revolutionary, find that within the Revolution they have an arena in which to work and to create; and that their creative spirit, even if they are not revolutionary writers or artists, has the opportunity and freedom to be expressed.

INDIA’s ban on Chinese apps for allegedly protecting India’s data sovereignty, becomes suspicious when we see no such problem with the US companies doing exactly that: taking Indian citizens data out of the country.Ravi Shankar Prasad, the minister for electronics and information technology and communications, in a self congratulatory vein, has approvingly noted how President Trump is following India by banning Chinese apps. Trump’s attempt is to force Byte Dance to sell its assets – TikTok app – in the US to a US company.

AS we approach our 73rd Independence Day, a new national narrative is being scripted to bequeath to India’s future.  This narrative of a `New India’ suggests that on August 15, 1947, India achieved its independence; on August 5, 2019, with the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A of the Indian constitution; and August 5, 2020, when the Ram temple construction was formally launched by the prime minister is the day of India’s real freedom.This new narrative is the complete negation of and the antitheses of India’s epic struggle for independence and the republic that emerged under the Indian con

OPPOSITION parties in Telangana including the Left parties, TDP, TJS, Telangana Inti party, along with mass organisations gave a joint call to protest the government’s failure to contain the spread of Covid-19 in the state. A forum ‘Rachabanda’, formed by the members of the opposition parties, met on August 3,  through online platforms to come up with a joint action plan  and has decided to hold state wide demonstrations and protests by flying black balloons and black flags on the protest day. The forum is headed TJS state president Prof.