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By Nantoo Banerjee

By Nantoo Banerjee On the face of it the controversial citizenship amendment act of 2019 may appear to be purely humanitarian. It provides the government with a special provision to expedite the citizenship process for non-Muslim migrants – including Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians, and Parsis — to India from the neighbouring Muslim countries such […]

The post CAA’s Implementation Just Before National Election Looks Purely Political first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The Election Commission of India (ECI) may be trying hard to control questionable electioneering practices which have been increasingly corrupting the process of free and fair election over the years, but it is unlikely to find it easy to influence or direct the behaviour of ruling political parties and their candidates. The […]

The post The 18th Lok Sabha Election May Witness Record Cash Spending By Candidates, Political Parties first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Two ongoing devastating wars – one in Ukraine and the other in the Gaza strip – have so far killed and injured tens of thousands of civilians since last year. The Ukraine-Russia war started in February 2022. As of February 15, this year, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for […]

The post The United Nations Has Failed To Keep Peace And Security In The World first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee India’s defence secretary Giridhar Armane’s outburst at the INDUS-X defence summit against China, last week, on the continuing troop face-offs in the Ladakh region exposed, if anything, the ministry’s frustration in dealing with the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) along the Line of Actual Control (LAC). The defence secretary described Beijing as a […]

The post Non-Tariff Import Barriers May Be Used As A Weapon To Protect National Security first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee It is difficult to understand why the government is silent on job creation while it has been continuously bragging on record infrastructure spending year after year. For fresh job seekers, opportunities are shrinking regularly. The constant growth of unemployment for both men and women is becoming a cause of worry. Currently, the […]

The post Modi Government’s Silence On Job Creation Is Raising Questions first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee With China rapidly developing and deploying potent anti-satellite (A-Sat) weapons, India’s defence industry must work on manufacturing similar defence equipment to bolster the country’s counter space capabilities. The issue has been taken up at the highest level of India’s defence management. Last week, the country’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Anil […]

The post India Must Double Up Its Defence Production To Grow GDP, Employment first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee It is difficult to believe in the 21st century that some small groups of Yemeni Houthi pirates on the Red Sea can bring a $1-trillion-plus annual global trade using the sea route almost to a halt, forcing shipowners and shippers divert the trade through a several times longer route via the Cape […]

The post Houthi Pirates Bring Global Trade Through Red Sea To A Near Halt first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The growing Chinese People’s Liberation Army-Navy action agenda sending so-called research vessels to ports in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and now the Maldives poses a major maritime threat to India and its littoral region. The PLA-Navy’s tie-ups with India’s neighbouring countries are all bilateral. The government of India may be upset […]

The post Indian Navy Needs Big Expansion To Face Off Chinese Maritime Hostility first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar may disagree, but the country has failed to use its import trade muscle to improve its diplomatic relations with China. His recent statement on Sino-India relations at a gathering in Nagpur earlier this month that “a strife-torn border and good business can’t go together” lacks clarity […]

The post China Continues To Pose A Challenge To India’s Security And Economy first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The new year’s best news for India, is that the Saudi Arabia-led Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is fast losing its grip on the market with a number of countries willing to offer prices even lower than those fixed for Russian crude. Saudi Arabia itself has cut down crude oil prices […]

The post Lower Global Oil Demand And Price Will Benefit India In 2024 first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee There is nothing to panic immediately about India’s current general government debt, for which the International Monetary Fund has warned that it may exceed 100 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) in the medium term, or by 2028. In its annual ‘Article IV’ consultation report, IMF said that long-term risks […]

The post India’s General Government Debt Needs To Be Controlled first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The world is finally recognizing India’s economic strength and its fast-growing market size. Going by the overall development trend, the economy is capable of growing close to 10 percent annually over the next several years. In 2023-24, the economy may reach a growth rate of seven percent. Both domestic and foreign investors […]

The post Surging Demand, Rising Investment Put India’s Economy On Top Gear first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee China’s Xi Jinping, running the third five-year term as the all-powerful President of the People’s Republic, is 70. Vladimir Putin, aspiring to become Russia’s President for a fifth six-year term next year, is 71. The National People’s Congress chose Xi’s appointment without any opposition. The vote for Xi was 2,952 to 0. […]

The post Joe Biden’s US-Led Wargames Is Shaping A Russia-China Axis first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir, without the Union Territory of Ladakh, and an expected elected government by September, next year, come at a time when J&K has established its position as one of India’s top performing provinces in terms of economic growth. J&K’s state GDP is lately growing at […]

The post J&K Has Potential To Become One Of India’s Economically Strong States first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The crime in India has been recorded annually since the days of the British Raj. Currently, with more comprehensive statistics, the data is compiled by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) under the Union Home Ministry. However, what remain unclear are the dependability of the data, the specific actions taken to control […]

The post Annual Crime Data Report May Not Be All That Dependable first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee In his recent Mann Ki Baat radio broadcast, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was troubled by the trend of some “big families” conducting weddings abroad, and urged people to hold such celebrations on Indian soil so that the country’s money does not leave its shores. “The wedding season as well has […]

The post India Needs A Strong Resolution To Protect Its Currency first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The announcement of a prisoner swap deal between warring Hamas and Israel mediated by Qatar and Egypt and agreed by Israel, Hamas and the United States may have led to a temporary armistice in the region and selective exchange of captives from both the sides , the issue of a viable state […]

The post A Viable Palestinian State Under Present Conditions Looks Difficult first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee It was very thoughtful on the part of the national government to provide free food grains to over 80 crore people under the poor and low income group in the country during the Covid pandemic season leading to long lockdown periods in 2020-21. The facility was extended twice, the last being on […]

The post Free Food Grains To The Poor Are Unlikely To Win Elections first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee It is difficult to believe that there has been no listed ‘code-of-conduct’ for the directly elected representatives of Lok Sabha since the country held its first general elections between October 21, 1951 and February 21, 1952. Paradoxically though, Lok Sabha has an ethics committee with the members remaining in the dark about […]

The post Lok Sabha Ethics Committee Functions Without Code Of Conduct For Members first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Increasing secret business donations to political parties to help fight state and general elections threaten to harm India’s democratic system. The practice protects the anonymity of contributors. If France, one of the world’s most vibrant democracies, can ban political donations by business corporations, why do political parties in India need to raise […]

The post Anonymous Political Donations Are Harming India’s Democratic System first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee Prime Minister Narendra Modi may not derive much comfort from the fact that Indian Railways, the government’s single biggest public connect, is in bad shape. India’s railway network, recognised as one of the world’s largest railway systems under single management, carries some 24 million passengers daily. Politically, that is like addressing 240 […]

The post Indian Railways Urgently Needs A Full-Time Minister first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The recommendation of the international proxy advisory firm, Institutional Shareholders Services (ISS), asking shareholders to vote against the proposal of 28-year-old Anant, the youngest son of Mukesh Ambani, for appointment on the board of Rs.9.75 lakh crore Reliance Industries may not look entirely unjust. Few will deny that Anant is too young […]

The post ISS Objection To Anant Ambani’s Board Level Elevation At RIL May Be Valid first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee It may be a bit early to predict economic consequences of the ongoing Hamas-Israel armed conflict on the world economy, but India is bound to be impacted if the war continues for long and oil prices keep soaring through the coming winter months. The war is now running through the second week. […]

The post Hamas-Israel Armed Conflict Brings Fresh Risks To World Economy first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.

By Nantoo Banerjee The vision document prepared by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) along with the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA) outlining the target of the country’s electronics production in terms of US dollars at $300 billion by 2025-26 is too tall. Considering the country’s present production and export levels, the […]

The post India’s Electronics Production Target By 2025 Is Too Tall first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.