Arun Kumar Shrivastav

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav A bumper potato crop and a surplus from the previous year have led to a sharp fall in prices. And, it’s driving millions of Indian potato farmers to desperation in the main potato-growing states — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal. India is the world’s second-largest potato […]

The post Indian Farmers Battling Price Crash After A Bumper Potato Harvest first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Indian tourism market is slowly but surely taking the centre stage. With Ganga Vilas, India is setting the stage for high-budget tourism products. That could bring a paradigm shift in the way the Indian tourism market is looked at. A four-day meeting of the G20 Tourism Working Group was held from […]

The post Indian Market Has Been Drawing Big Attention Of Global Tourism Industry first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Indian Foreign Minister S Jaishankar was on a two-day visit to Sri Lanka on January 19-20. It follows a letter by India to the IMF that it supports Sri Lanka’s efforts to restructure bilateral debt. The multilateral financial institution has offered a $2.9 billion bailout to Sri Lanka but the actual […]

The post Indian Foreign Minister Sticks To Economic Agenda On His Sri Lanka Visit first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav After months of struggling to bring the economy back in shape, Pakistan is finally close to the moment when its forex reserves will be completely drained and it would start defaulting on payments to its creditors. Its forex reserves currently stand at $5.5 billion which is enough for meeting imports barely […]

The post Acute Food Crisis In Pakistan Reaches Critical Proportion Leading To Anarchy first appeared on IPA Newspack.

  By Arun Kumar Shrivastav India’s North-East has seen several major infrastructure projects in the past few years. The latest is a 57 km broad gauge railway line between India’s Kokrajhar and Bhutan’s Gelephu, for which the work is going to start this year. This would be Bhutan’s first railway project and one of the […]

The post India’s North East Gets A Big Infra Push With 57 Km Railway Line To Bhutan first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav The central government released draft regulations for the online gaming and gambling sector on January 2. Union Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said the government has begun consultations to frame detailed guidelines and regulations for India’s nascent gaming sector, which has registered impressive growth both in app […]

The post India Wakes Up To Challenges Posed By Spreading Online Gambling first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Nepal’s most prominent global face, Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has become the new Prime Minister of the former Himalayan kingdom. In a swift political development on Sunday, he broke away from the ruling alliance led by the Nepali Congress and joined hands with the rival Communist Party of Nepal – Unified […]

The post Prachanda’s Negotiation Power Makes Him Nepal Prime Minister first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Elon Musk asked his 122 million followers through a poll on Twitter whether he should step down as the chief executive of the social media giant he bought for $44 billion on October 28. Out of the total 17 million votes, 57.5% favored him stepping down while 42.5% polled against the […]

The post Elon Musk Is A Big Social Junkie, He Can Not Live Without Twitting first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) launched the central bank digital currency (CBDC), nicknamed e-rupee or digital rupee, for the retail segment on December 1. It released Rs 1.71 crore in e-rupee format to four participating banks to roll out its use. As of now four banks and four cities have […]

The post India’s Pilot E-Rupee For Retail Has Big Prospects In The Coming Years first appeared on IPA Newspack.

  By Arun Kumar Shrivastav The All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, suffered hacking of its servers on November 23. Over 50 of these servers that store patient data and run hospital management software were out of order. It resulted in a complete shutdown of computers at this premier hospital that receives on  […]

The post Hacking Of AIIMS Servers Exposes Incompetence Of IT Professionals first appeared on IPA Newspack.

  By Arun Kumar Shrivastav The right to privacy in the time of the internet boom is difficult to enforce. But governments around the world are working to reverse this and restore control in the hands of users. Between tech companies and governments, there is a rush to take control of the huge amount of […]

The post Govt Agencies Right To Intrusion Into Privacy Remains In Draft Data Protection Bill first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav The UN agencies and NGOs working in Sri Lanka have warned that the food crisis in the island nation with 22 million people is worsening. In its June 2022 report, the UN said that at least 1.7 million people need immediate help. Early this week, it said now the number has […]

The post Food Crisis Accentuates In Sri Lanka Affecting 3.4 Million Poor People first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav A former hedge fund manager, Rishi Sunak is a big crypto bull. He wants the UK to become the crypto hub of the world. He is of Indian origin and most Indians are happy at Sunak becoming the Prime Minister of a country that ruled India for over 200 years. One […]

The post Besides Indian Origin, Rishi Sunak Is Also A Big Player In Crypto Market first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Nepal is going to polls on November 20 this year for the second time in its latest tryst with democracy. The first round of general elections took place in 2017 after the country got a brand new constitution in 2015. What makes the Nepal elections an interesting political development in the […]

The post Nepal’s General Elections On November 20 May Not Lead To A Stable Govt first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav In a breakthrough, IMF said in a statement Thursday morning that a staff-level agreement between IMF and the Sri Lankan government has been achieved. The agreement provides for $2.9 billion in assistance under Extended Fund Facility (EFF) over 48 months. The details of the agreement were made public on Thursday while […]

The post Sri Lanka Inches Closer To $2.9-Billion IMF Loan Under EFF first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Even though no immediate solution seems to be in sight for millions of hungry people, Sri Lanka is fast becoming a strategic flashpoint. Earlier, there were talks about different world powers playing their roles in giving Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Basil Rajapaksa a safe exit from Sri Lanka by getting their consensus […]

The post Sri Lankan President Vickremesinghe Is Powerless With Empty Coffers first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Myanmar’s military rulers on July 252 reported the execution of four pro-democracy activists — Phyo Zeya Thaw, Kyaw Min Yu, Hla Myo Aung, and Aung Thura Zaw. Ko Jimmy and Phyo Zeya Thaw were convicted under counter-terrorism laws in January while Hla Myo Aung and Aung Thura Zaw were convicted for […]

The post Indian Govt At Last Expresses Concern At Myanmar Junta Killings Of Activists first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has sent his resignation — first by email and a hard copy flown in from Singapore. The authenticity of the resignation has been verified and it has been accepted as authentic. The Parliament Speaker, Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, officially announced the resignation of Gotabaya Rajapaksa on Friday. […]

The post Foreign Powers In Full Play As Sri Lanka Moves To Choose New President first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav India is making news of rains and floods. It seems the entire country from Kerala to the North-East and from Kashmir to Gujarat, India is wet and inundated. Visuals of the roaring flow of rivers and inundated farm and city areas have swarmed social media platforms. Neighbouring countries Pakistan and Bangladesh […]

The post Floods, Farming, And Feni – Indian Monsoon Is Finally Here first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s bravado and brinkmanship turned fatal last Saturday. Not only was he reported missing from his office and residence, but the palatial President’s house in Colombo was also invaded by the protestors. Twitter is flooded with amusing pictures and videos of the incident. Protestors taking a plunge […]

The post Acute Political Instability Stares At Sri Lanka Even After President’s Resignation Offer first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the global tourism industry left not only tourism companies but also the tourism-driven economy in dire straits. Shutdowns and travel restrictions led to the disappearance of international travel. For example, China opened international flights after nearly two years on July 5, with India still […]

The post Global Tourism Industry Is Recovering After Pandemic With New Mantras first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Newly-elected Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is at the centre of public anger and jokes about him abound on Twitter. Apparently, he is not in the country when Sydney is witnessing severe flash floods and inundation. The situation in the entire North South Wales (NSW) is alarming with more than 50,000 […]

The post Assam Floods, Big Landslides In Manipur, Rains During Amarnath Yatra first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Delivering a historic ruling, the Supreme Court of India has recommended that sex work by consenting adults should be legal. Releasing a small set of guidelines on sex workers, the top court said prostitution is a profession and sex workers are entitled to equality, dignity, and protection from the law of […]

The post SC Ruling On Sex Workers Throws Spotlight On Govt’s Epic Indifference first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Jammu and Kashmir is once again at the centre of a raging political debate. In the past few weeks, several targeted killings of non-Kashmiris and Kashmiri Pundits have rocked the nation’s conscience. News reports suggest that Kashmiri Pundits are desperate to leave the valley while the government machinery is trying to […]

The post Kashmir Searching For Its Magic Amid Tourism Boom & Targeted Killings first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav For the last two-three days, Indian media is running a story that says a Bangladeshi woman crossed the swampy Sundarban forests, also home to Royal Bengal Tigers, and then swam for an hour to cross a river and meet her Indian boyfriend. The 22-year-old Krishna Mandal had met her boyfriend Abhik […]

The post India Govt Has To Take Care Of The Bangladeshis Working In The Country first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Navjot Singh Sidhu has been sent to the Patiala Central Jail to serve a year-long sentence in a case of road rage, registered in 1988. It took more than three decades for the Indian judicial system to convict and sentence a person whose felony was never in doubt; even the accused […]

The post Navjot Sidhu Sentence Speaks Poorly Of The Pace Of Judicial Process first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav In what appeared to be a sudden move, the Indian government prohibited the export of wheat on May 13. This appeared to be totally out of sync with India’s policy of goodwill and outreach through liberal relief and support measures under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s tenure, so far. Given the food […]

The post In The Wake Of War In Ukraine, Wheat Is Now A Strategic Commodity first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Majoritarian nationalism can go wrong and it can land the leaders in a hot soup! This is the unmistakable message from the Sri Lankan crisis. The Rajapaksa family was the darling of the majority Singhalese and it indulged in hate politics against Hindus and Muslims. The isolation of the minority came […]

The post Majoritarian Nationalism Of Rajapaksa Family Has Failed In Sri Lanka first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav Indian tax authorities are planning to levy the highest 28% GST on crypto activities, various media reports said on Monday quoting unnamed sources. Right now, Indian crypto exchanges pay 18% GST as they are considered intermediaries providing financial services. The GST Council is believed to have set up a law committee […]

The post In A Final Blow, Modi Govt Is Planning 28% GST For Crypto Sector first appeared on IPA Newspack.

By Arun Kumar Shrivastav The Indian government’s anti-cryptocurrency policy which includes high taxation and denial of banking services has resulted in many top-tier crypto exchanges shutting shops in India and moving to the UAE, which is fast emerging as a hub of crypto business. The massive exodus of business and talents from the Indian cryptocurrency […]

The post Praising Blockchain And Demonizing Digital Assets Are Contradictory first appeared on IPA Newspack.