Opinion

Libyan leader Colonel Muammar al-Qadhafi spoke for 96 minutes during the General Debate of the 64th UNGA on September 23. This took its toll on UNGA’s schedule for the day. And, the penny with this realisation dropped for me when I was approached later in the day by a UN official and requested to preside over UNGA from 6 pm onward.

Covid-19, unemployment, migrants, floods and agrarian distress will dominate these polls

Its latest poll tells a most consequential story, but one that has received little attention: Indian-Americans don’t actually care much about US policy for South Asia.

From bringing in self-reliance ranging from indelible ink to the fight against Covid-19, CSIR has played a vital role and shall do so in any future pandemic or calamity that India faces.

The first six months of the Covid-19 pandemic have punctured the 21st-century claim of being driven by the imperatives of science

The new labour regime will boost industry’s competitiveness. But this will take time

Hate is an infection that is contagious when it is normalised as has happened in recent years

The police investigation has polarised the public. While a section finds the police biased for targeting the anti-CAA protesters, the other justifies the police action, clamouring for stringent legal action against the accused in the UAPA charge-sheet. The truth lies somewhere in between

A base price will ensure a fair price for every farmer, removing MSP limitations, which cover only 22 crops. Such a mechanism would help both farmers and private buyers as it will bring about transparency and accountability in the farm trade

Vir Sanghvi writes, “The government has finally taken a stand. In what may be a disappointment to those of its supporters who were sympathetic to Sudarshan TV’s case, the government went to the Supreme Court on Wednesday and said what should have been obvious to anyone who is familiar with the law.”

Only multiple markets and competitive ecosystems will fetch them best prices for their produce

Comprehending sagar in its vast and delicate multi-layered complexity is vital for India. Revisiting NMA of 2014 should be a policy imperative for the government.

It must become much more active in issues such as health, the climate crisis, terrorism

To win the war against the pandemic, battles have to be fought and won on every front.

Can Isro’s Shukrayaan help make headway? If conducted in the spirit of collective intellectual advancement rather than competitive nationalism, then yes, it can

Held amid the Covid-19 pandemic, A-list actors received their awards with a message for a more diverse and inclusive America

Offer it as a zero-debt company, ensure an open process, and free the new management

India must use genomics, synthetic biology, sensors, 3D printing, and AI to analyse data and develop treatments

Carefully-drafted laws that recognise the reality of platform work, and guarantee to platform workers both procedural rights (such as collective bargaining) and substantive rights (such as minimum wages and safe working conditions) are the only solution to this problem.

NGOs should be transparent, but the Union government must not impose restrictions

TRUTH VS HYPE Though the government maintains that the MSP regime would remain intact, it’s clear that on account of the tax differential between the mandis and new agri-trade areas, mandis will wither away in a short period.

The legislations will give options of new markets, attract private investments to build infrastructure, help in better price discovery, enable information dissemination mechanism, and provide future price assurance to the farmers

Sars-CoV-2 may not have been intentionally engineered, but the world stares at a crisis

GUEST COLUMN Saying that the state can no longer impose a market fee on trade conducted in its own physical space is nothing short of a territorial invasion through legislative action. A veritable Trojan Act.

Let the Bhiwandi building collapse be a grave reminder to states to prioritise proper urban planning

Insulate it from political ambition, nationalist bravado and geopolitics. Let scientists decide