THE worst aspects of the Modi government’s privatisation drive are now coming to the fore.  The initial public offering (IPO) prospectus for disinvesting shares in the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC), the crown jewel of the financial sector, is expected to be issued in early February. The LIC is a unique corporation that has played a pioneering role in spreading the culture of life insurance in the country.  The widespread coverage of life insurance achieved through LIC is especially important in the absence of an effective government-backed social security scheme that extends protective c

FAST-MOVING political changes in UP have forced political commentators and analysts who were predicting an easy win for the BJP in the assembly election to be held in February and March 2022, to rethink their political math.  The exodus of several MLAs and three cabinet ministers from the BJP to the SP has upset the calculations of those occupying high office in Delhi and Lucknow too who are seeing the ground shifting beneath their ministerial chairs. It is incorrect, however, to think that the Yogi government is facing challenges all of a sudden.  As early as 2018, more than 100 BJP MLAs,

THE Jammu & Kashmir unit of the CPI(M) has expressed its strong resentment over the closure of Kashmir Press Club(KPC) by the administration of the union territory.A statement issued by the Party-state secretary, Gulab Nabi Malik on January 18,  demanded the restoration of the status quo of the club's impending re-registration.The CPI(M) has asked the administration to provide an atmosphere where KPC can have free and fair elections for its body.Targeting the administration Malik said that closing the KPC was a direct assault on the rights of the press people.

THE All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and Students’ Federation of India (SFI) have decided to organise a joint campaign against communalism and attacks on minorities from January 26-30, 2022.January 26, 1950, is the date when the Indian Constitution came into effect. As the chairman of the drafting committee of the Constituent Assembly, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar is universally acknowledged as one of the main architects of the Constitution of India.

AS people all over the world ushered in the new year, a major accident took place due to illegal mining in Khanak Dadam hills of Bhiwani district of Haryana. In this January 1 accident, five labourers died and two were seriously injured. There was a big explosion in the hill of Dadam at 9 in the morning in which seven labourers and two pokland machines and four dumper vehicles were buried under the stones. A stone slipped from the mountain and fell, whose length was 40 feet, the width was 30 feet and whose weight is said to be seven tons.