LAST week the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken was in New Delhi and his deputy, Wendy Sherman was in Beijing. Blinken’s India visit was to strengthen the existing strategic bonds between the two countries that are poles apart in terms of power.

CPI(M)  Polit Bureau met online on July 31, 2021. It has issued the following statement on August 1, 2021COVID PANDEMICEven the official data shows that there is a rise in the average Covid positive rates in the country. To prevent this from reaching the stage of a catastrophic third wave, it is imperative that the rate of vaccination increases exponentially. So far, a mere 10.83 per cent of all adults are fully vaccinated. Every state government is reporting shortages. Central government procurement has been tardy.

WHEN news arrived on July 11, 2021 in Havana, Cuba, of protests in the Cuban town of San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel arrived there by the afternoon, met with the protestors and talked with them about their frustrations. Dissatisfaction is normal in any society, particularly during the uncertainty of the pandemic with the economic problems it has exacerbated.

MANY parts of the world experienced extremes of climate and their consequences during June and July 2021. Whereas definitive attribution of particular weather events to specific causes has always been difficult given the numerous variables involved, scientists have almost unanimously ascribed this summer’s events all over the northern hemisphere to climate change. Even within that context, two aspects have been noteworthy. First the intensity, indeed ferocity, of the climate events and their impacts.

THE announcement by the Modi government providing for 27 per cent reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) and 10 per cent reservation for Economically Weaker Sections in the all-India quota for undergraduate and postgraduate medical and dental courses from the current academic year is being hailed by the BJP and its supporters as an example of the Modi government’s commitment for the welfare of OBCs.