A brain dead budget at such a crucial juncture… Or was it what the Congress actually wanted so that Pranab Mukherjee doesn’t steal the show? The vote on account budget is a very tricky budget. If the ruling party gives too many freebies in it, it will immediately be rapped for using the budget as a tool to unfairly influence the coming elections. Yet, never before perhaps, in the name of Parliamentary propriety, was such a brain dead, irrelevant and unimaginative budg...

On 20th of January, 2009, when Barack Obama was sworn in as the 44th President of United States of America, delivering one of the most outstanding speeches ever, many would have thought it to be a tokenism, as reversing the economic fortune of the current order is easier said than done. Only time would perhaps prove how much he would succeed eventually. But if one has to go by the precedence being set on each passing day, Obama is perhaps not just on the right track, but is also ind...

The first thought that drives me (Arindam Chaudhuri) infuriatingly mad tonight, as I sit down to write this editorial, is that it will all happen again... and too soon, because we have learnt no lessons. Just today, as I boarded the flight from Kolkata to Delhi, I walked into the airport with my large handbag, and was – to my astonishment – not subjected to any security check of any kind. The sickeningly lax security guards standing at the main entrance did not even ...

For the last few days, since the beginning of the Israeli military operations in Gaza, media – both print and television – has been riddled with scores of pictures of Palestinian kids, grievously injured in the air attacks by Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF. And every time I have seen those pictures, I have felt revulsion towards the blitzkrieg that has been launched by Israel to take the fangs out of Hamas. Yet, ironically, when I tried to think a little deeper about it, I was left...

In the backdrop of the Mumbai terror attacks , there has been a lot of talk about the need to go and vote... the need to elect the right government... the need for educated youth to come up and join politics and the need for a new political force that can bring about the real change. This topic is something that’s very close to my heart, as ever since I can remember, may be since I was eight years old or so, I remember my father always told me that it is not politics which...

  It is also a well known fact that after the war was over and the American objective of ousting the Russian army was served, they dumped the Mujahideens, which finally resulted in the emergence of Osama. Eventually, when the American funding stopped, these armed Mujahideens turned their heat on the Americans, finally culminating into 9/11. And now the US government has decided to extend military training beyond the Pakistani Army, to their paramilitary forces. This decision could no...

The US should have a special ‘Thanks giving day’ for India, looking at the manner in which premier Indian Institutions have been supplying talented manpower to them, absolutely free of cost!!! I repeat, absolutely free of cost! And from a pool of amazingly brilliant students across India! For long I have been advocating the fact that the Government of India should levy a tax from all those students of the country’s premier institutions who go overseas and join various globa...

The ghost of possible nuclear holocaust in South Asia simply refuses to die down. While in the last few years the chances of a nuclear catastrophe have come down considerably, time and again some or the other incidence has kept the region in perennial tenterhooks. The recent revelation that Pakistan is building a third nuclear reactor comes as a shocker and adds to the existing paranoia. Well if Pakistan puts forward the contention that it is building this nuclear reactor to mitigate the probl...

Castro, ChÁvez and now the entire Latin America is showing that it is time for the world to get together and embrace happy capitalism After celebrating the execution of Saddam and (almost) writing the obituary of Fidel Castro, the US was sitting pretty and eying an opportunity to engage with Iran. But, the hale and hearty revival of Castro and his iconoclastic interview, blasting Bush for freeing a terrorist and his biofuel plans, terming the latter as a genocide, had put sudden halt...

  India, for all the hype of being the second fastest growing economy of the world, with one of the largest foreign exchange reserves, still remains among the bracketed nations where having a decent home remains an elusive dream for millions. In most of the metropolitan cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengalooru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune and even Kolkata, the price of having a decent dwelling today is beyond the reach of the common man. At times, rationale fails to justify the reasons for suc...

The American financial system has hit its worst crisis ever. The crisis has been evident from the fact that in a given day, Dow Jones lost more than 4 per cent, which has been its steepest fall ever since the 9/11 attacks! It all started when Lehman Brothers, one of the largest US investment banks, filed for bankruptcy protection. As if this wasn’t enough, another equally big investment banker, Merrill Lynch, resorted to a merger with the Bank of America, and along with all this, the worl...

  November 4, 2008… In all probability, we shall not see another day of more global historical relevance in our lifetimes! While I had hoped that Barack Obama should win the American Presidential polls (you all would know how less of love I have for George Bush and his party representatives), yet, I didn’t really believe six months back that it would be him standing as the President-elect of America today. That the majority in America could vote for a black, half-Muslim, ...

I really hope you didn't get carried away reading it and started taking her seriously! She is still a first generation dynastic hopeful with her husband having no war experience. George Bush on the other hand is a seasoned second generation warring cowboy!! And trust you me he knows the game better than you can imagine. Let me explain you how the smoke 'em out cowboy has actually won the war on Iraq... well at least as far as his schemes were concerned!! It has been exactly five years since ...