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Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman in the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government’s first budget after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections has announced measures to boost jobs and employment, in an echo to the poll campaign in which unemployment among the youth emerged as a major issue. In its bid to boost unemployment, […]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is facing his toughest battle in Maharashtra soon after the BJP and its allies met their Waterloo in the Lok Sabha polls there. Talk of credibility, which catapulted the BJP to the top spot in 2014, as it was riding the Modi wave, is once again an issue here ahead of […]
Over the past decade it has been frequently stated that Narendra Modi’s years as Gujarat Chief Minister were essentially a dress (sic) rehearsal for his tenure as prime minister. The working style, legislative changes, stranglehold on the governance system, marginalising the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its affiliates where he was politically reared and replacing it […]
A remission petition filed in the Supreme Court by Dara Singh, who is serving a life sentence for the 1999 murder of Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two minor sons, has sparked a controversy, with opposition leaders questioning the timing of the move that follows the installation of Odisha’s first BJP government. The gruesome […]
Last week, the Uttar Pradesh government blacklisted Ahmedabad-based exam conducting company EduTest Solutions Private Limited in the wake of the paper leak in the UP police constable recruitment exam. The Wire’s investigation has revealed that this company is has been subject to allegations of paper leaks and recruitment scams in several states across the country. Its founder-director, […]
New Delhi: Students at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay were fined and barred from using the institute’s hostel facilities for staging a play during a performing arts event, media reports have said. Some alleged the play insulted the deities Ram and Sita. A purported photo of a penalty letter signed by the institute’s registrar and posted online […]
In April 2024 in the city of Surat in Gujarat, a group of middle-aged businessmen expressed to me their deep sadness that their election had been cancelled and a winner declared before a single vote was cast. This was puzzling as they were avowed Bharatiya Janata Party supporters and their candidate had been declared the automatic winner […]
According to the Gujarat Congress, recruitment scams are not possible without government patronage. Asit Vora, a prominent Bharatiya Janata Party leader and a close aide of Narendra Modi, had to resign from the post of the Gujarat Secondary Service selection board chairman after one such notorious scam. The printing press which was in the news over the […]
In 2023, India’s luxury residential property market experienced a boom, with 3.29 lakh housing units sold in 2023, according to Knight Frank India data. However, the affordable housing segment saw a decline. For the first time, sales in the premium segment (above Rs 50 lakh) surpassed those in the mid-segment, with 72% of housing units sold in the premium […]
China has surpassed the United States to become India’s largest trading partner with a two-way commerce worth $118.4 billion in the fiscal year 2023-24. The bilateral trade between India and the US stood at $118.3 billion during the same period, news agency PTI reported. The trade relationship between India and China has risen despite geopolitical tensions […]
“It would be a big, hard slap for those who want to write the story of my ruin (barbadi ki kahani). That’s why, on May 20, I ask of you to push the [EVM] button hard, with rage.” That was Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s emotive appeal to voters in the Kaiserganj Lok Sabha seat in […]
Recently, on an ANI podcast, network chief Smita Prakash interviewed All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) MP Asaduddin Owaisi. While many different clips of the interview went viral, a particular eight-minute segment where Prakash and Owaisi have a conversation around the recent spate of hate speech by the prime minister during his election campaign was particularly interesting to […]
Ghazipur: When the Agneepath controversy erupted two years ago and the scheme faced protests, Indian Army officials had argued that the plan was essential for the modernisation of the army and would help it select better soldiers. Now, The Wire is carrying out a ground investigation of the impact of this scheme in, what are known as, ‘army […]
Rahul Gandhi’s decision to pick up the gauntlet in Rae Bareli marks the end of an era and the beginning of another. Of course, it was clear when Sonia Gandhi opted to enter the Rajya Sabha earlier this year that she would not be contesting from here again. She wrote a note to Rae Barelians […]
Krishnagiri (Tamil Nadu): A shiny new building stands on the national highway between Bangalore and Chennai, three kilometres from the town of Krishnagiri in northwestern Tamil Nadu. Inaugurated just last year, this five-floored building — roughly 12 metres wide and 16 metres long; painted cream and white with orange highlights — could pass as a residential […]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with other leaders of his party recently mounted an emotionally charged, still-running, counter-attack to nullify claims of several opposition leaders, including Rashtriya Janata Dal supremo, Lalu Yadav, that Modi has set the target of 370 seats (and 400 plus with allies) in the Lok Sabha with the intention to do away with the […]
In the peak of summer, with heat waves sweeping several parts of India, seven-phase general elections are underway in the world’s biggest democracy. The weather department and the government agencies have been regularly issuing alerts and warnings, to ensure the safety of citizens who step out to cast their votes, amid fear of heat strokes and heat-related […]
New Delhi: Despite claiming to be an “independent” organisation, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad-America has deep ties – both political and material – with the right-wing Hindutva group in India, a new report has said. “The VHP-A…must be seen as an inseparable part of the VHP: born from its efforts, and tied by shared personnel, regular coordination meetings and […]
The rise of the Right is not entirely new; it dates from Euroscepticism in the 1980s, but its new manifestation is its presence in governments on its own such as in Italy, Hungary and Slovakia, or in coalitions. In the several European presidential, legislative and Euro-parliament elections scheduled this year, the Right is expected to fare well […]
At the beginning of the Lok Sabha election season a couple of months ago it seemed that the outcome of the 2024 outcome was a foregone conclusion. And, when the Election Commission announced the election schedule, the received wisdom was that the prolonged time-table was designed to enable the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s ace mascot […]
