The suspicion of many salaried professionals that successive governments have extracted unduly high taxes from those considered sitting ducks (persons in the formal economy with no escape routes), was vindicated, but not ameliorated, in Union finance minister Arun Jaitley’s budget speech of February 1. A reconsideration of income tax slabs … Read More
Recent years have seen an increase in the biographies of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, but these have failed to examine his contribution as a military leader and strategist, and tacitly treat him as a failure because the Indian National Army’s fate was intricately linked with that of Japan which lost … Read More
After decades of denying rampant discrimination against poor and lower caste converts, the Catholic Church has officially concluded that the only way to ameliorate the social and economic disabilities of the latter is by demanding Reservation benefits for Scheduled Caste converts to Christianity. This, notwithstanding the fact that the Church … Read More
Islamic tele-evangelist, Zakir Naik, who was in Saudi Arabia when Bangladesh authorities accused him of fanning extremism and terrorism in that country, may have found a safe haven in Malaysia, where he is believed to be staying for the past several weeks. Malaysia’s minority communities, however, are agitated over the … Read More
Almost coinciding with the Election Commission of India’s announcement of dates for elections to five State Assemblies, the Supreme Court’s interpretation of Section 123(3) of the Representation of People’s Act (RPA) in Abhiram Singh v/s C.D. Comachen (dead) by Lrs and Ors. (Civil Appeal No. 37/1992) seems destined to be … Read More
Al Qaeda’s virulent offshoot, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS; Arabic, Dawlat al-Islamiyah f’al-Iraq w Belaad al-Sham, Daesh), currently under stress owing to combined operations by Russia and the Syrian Arab Army of President Bashar al-Assad, poses a threat to the world as its foreign cadres flee back home. … Read More
The Allahabad High Court’s comments, declaring triple talaq unconstitutional and violative of the rights of Muslim women, has confounded the confusion over divorce among Indian Muslims as divorce for Muslim men and women are governed by two different archaic laws of the colonial era. Incredible as this sounds, Muslim men … Read More
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa, interred on December 6 after a State funeral attended by both the President and Prime Minister of India, was a complex personality who has left behind a mixed legacy. Surprisingly for one mired in controversy during her roller-coaster life, her final departure was accomplished … Read More
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Dr Jayaram Jayalalithaa (born 24 February 1948) breathed her last at Apollo Hospital, Chennai on Monday night at 11.30 p.m., after suffering a sudden cardiac arrest on the evening of December 4, 2016, the climax of a prolonged illness. She leaves behind a difficult-to-fill vacuum in … Read More
The demonetisation of high denomination currency notes is by far the most revolutionary feat of any Government in independent India, from which its opponents and victims are reeling even three weeks after the momentous announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on the evening of November 8. The move must be … Read More
