THE Indian History Congress held its 78th annual session at the Jadavpur University campus, Kolkata, from December 28-30, 2017. By all accounts, it was its largest session till date, the number of delegates crossing the 1,600 mark.The session was presided over by the famous historian of Ancient India, Professor KM Shrimali. His presidential address was delivered at the inaugural session on December 28, in the main hall of the Jadavpur University.

A REMARKABLE speech defending the freedom of expression by Tribune editor Harish Khare kicked off Delhi Union of Journalists’ meeting on “The Right to Investigate – UIDAI vs The Tribune” held on January 10 at the Gandhi Peace Foundation.  The speech was in the context of the filing of an FIR by the UIDAI against the newspaper and its reporter Rachna Khaira for exposing leaks in the Aadhaar system.  Chandigarh based Khare’s speech was read out by Delhi bureau chief Prasad to an appreciative audience. Khare’s ironic address says that The Tribune was only doing “a spot of old honest, legitimat

MOST people assume that critics of Aadhaar are concerned about citizens fundamental right to privacy, or the loss of statutory benefits such as rations due to a faulty Aadhaar system. Two recent cases – that reported recently by Tribune and the French security researcher reporting on the novice-level security of the mobile App of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) – brings out a completely different threat. This is identity theft and therefore, the possibility of attacks from criminals on our bank accounts.

THE CPI(M) has expressed its total confidence that the BJP’s ongoing machinations for garnering narrow political gain in the upcoming assembly election in Tripura will be rejected by a massive mandate for the Party. CPI(M) state secretary Bijan Dhar at a press conference in Agartala on January 6 reacted to the recent parleys between top BJP leaders and those of IPFT(NC), which is an open political wing of the outlawed extremist outfit NLFT.

IN the concluding week of Winter Session of Parliament, Md. Salim raised the issue of mounting non-performing assets (NPAs) of banks while taking part in a discussion on the Supplementary Demands for Grants in Lok Sabha. No one can deny the fact that money needs to be pumped into the banks because there are capital adequacy norms. But the question is why the NPAs have risen after the NDA government assumed office. The government maintains that the corporate profitability is on upswing. Then why the recoveries are not being made?