By K Raveendran The Union government’s decision to issue a fresh draft notification for nearly 56,825 sq km of the Western Ghats as an Eco-Sensitive Area (ESA) in the wake of the catastrophic landslides that ravaged Wayanad, flattening entire swathes of settlements, markets, and public spaces can only be seen a knee-jerk reaction, rather than […]
By K Raveendran Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s response to the opposition’s critique of the budget, coupled with Rahul Gandhi’s performance, has turned out to be the highlight of the debate on the budget in the Lok Sabha. The crux of the opposition’s argument was that the budget disproportionately favoured Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, states of […]
By K Raveendran Rahul Gandhi and a host of Congress leaders have criticised Nirmala Sitharaman and the Modi government for copy-pasting from the Congress manifesto while formulating the new budget. Looking at the issue from another perspective, they must be happy that the finance minister has given Congress their best campaign point for the coming […]
By K Raveendran Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has provided a theoretical framework, explained in the acronym EMPLOYMENT, for her budget formulation: E for Employment and Education, M for MSMEs, P for Productivity, L for Land, O for Opportunity, Y for Youth, M for Middle Class, E for Energy Security, N for New Generation Reforms, and […]
By K Raveendran Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stepped up to her budget rostrum in the Lok Sabha with a resolute demeanour, a symbolic gesture marking the unveiling of what many had anticipated as a transformative federal budget for the fiscal year 2024-25. Yet, what unfolded before the nation on July 23 was not a conventional […]
By K Raveendran Come July 23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman will be presenting the first-year budget of Prime Minister Modi’s third term. Finding herself at a pivotal juncture, she is tasked with crafting a budget that appeases coalition partners, addresses public discontent, and sustains economic growth, and her role assumes unprecedented complexity as she navigates […]
By K Raveendran If Aadhaar is a money matter, anything can be interpreted to mean anything else. This will be one of the key dilemmas that the seven-member constitutional bench will consider when it begins deliberations on the petitions against the use of money bill route by the Modi government to overcome legislative hurdles in […]K Raveendran The scene at the Central Committee meeting of the CPI-M the other day in Delhi ran like this: the committee members are huddled together, pens poised, brows furrowed and looking askance at how and why the sand under the feet of their party got washed away in the Lok Sabha elections in the only remaining backyard of the Marxist party. Mash the Great, the intellectual […]
By K Raveendran Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s use of ‘balak budhi’ to describe Rahul Gandhi during the debate on the President’s address to parliament may be seen may be seen as an NDA-complaint derivative of the derisive ‘Pappu’ jibe used by BJP leaders in the early phases of the Gandhi scion’s political career. The new […]
K Raveendran In the tumultuous realm of Indian politics, few narratives are as gripping and revealing as the rise and fall of communist parties. Among these, the travails of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI-M, in Kerala and Bengal offer a compelling study in contrasts – one marked by systemic decay, moral erosion, and the predictable consequences of hubris. The saga begins in West Bengal, […]
By K Raveendran Having been confirmed as the finance minister in the Modi 3:0 cabinet, Nirmala Sitharaman is more pressed for time compared to her other colleagues as the budget of the new government is hardly a month away. And her budget-making this time is more complex as she has to accommodate the compulsions of […]
The post Coalition Dynamics Adds New Compulsion To Sitharaman’s Budget-Making first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.
K Raveendran The Indian electorate, that mystical blend of wisdom and mischief, have done it again. They have yet again proclaimed they can never be taken for granted. Picture this: silk kurta-clad rulers strutting through constituencies like peacocks on a catwalk. Their arrogance defies both physics and good taste. They believe they’re heaven-sent, not elected. And their entourage? A trail of sycophants thicker than Kerala’s monsoon air. […]
By K Raveendran Fuel consumers would do well to be ready to loosen their purse strings and face the post-election nuanced reality after they enjoyed a Rs 2 per litre cut in prices before the Lok Sabha elections. There has been a pattern in the price behaviour during and after every election. The most curious […]
The post With Elections Behind Us, It’s Time For ‘Market Forces’ To Take Control Of Fuel Prices first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.
Party is withering away its goals, accountability, and its very ability to comprehend anything definitive K Raveendran Pinarayi Vijayan and his fellow comrades have achieved a lofty Marxist ideal: the withering away of the state, which Engels had envisaged as the ultimate success of socialism, but could not live to see happen. In the glorious land of Kerala, where the red flag flutters proudly and coconuts fall […]
By K Raveendran It may be time for an Anna Hazare-type agitation to reclaim the integrity and independence of the Election Commission, completely compromised by the incumbent commission like never before. Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar is no T N Seshan, who proved that the Election Commission had enough powers not to let anyone interfere […]
The post It May Be Time For An Anna Hazare-Type Agitation To Reclaim Election Panel’s Integrity first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.
By K Raveendran The credibility and trustworthiness of the Election Commission of India (ECI) have hit a new low in the current Lok Sabha elections and the situation has come to such a pass that it cannot be retrieved without certain cataclysmic changes in the system. India’s election commission had won the world’s admiration for […]
The post Election Commission’s Credibility Touches The Lowest Level In Its Long History first appeared on Latest India news, analysis and reports on IPA Newspack.
So, let the drums roll and trumpets blare, for Indian politics is nothing if not a spectacle of surprises K Raveendran The issue of level playing field never came to the fore as it did during the 2024 elections. But it was mostly about political parties fighting out an unequal battle in terms of resources, partisan treatment by the Election Commission, sizzling summer heat at some parts […]
