Editorial
Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are fast becoming a norm than an exception for the Indian business houses, of late. This permeates all verticals of business and is ownership neutral. The recent spate in high decibel deals – be it inbound or outbound – stands testimony to it.
Goa is going through a very peculiar situation where the colonial past has come to haunt the state and the livelihood of close to 3,00,000 people (or 25 per cent of the population of the state) is at stake. To understand this, one needs to understand the law and what has gone behind the chequered history of mining bans.
Prior to its liberation and becoming part of Indian Union on December 16, 1961, the then Portuguese government had granted mineral concessions in perpetuity to different private entities / concessionaries.
Ajit Wadekar was a reluctant cricketer, but he certainly got results for India, both as captain and in his avatar of manager many years later. Once he took to the game, he went right to the top. A product of Shivaji Park, Ajit Wadekar had the most unusual initiation into the game. In his case, it was hell hath no fury as a boy scorned.
After the controversial elections with propped up Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in lead, Pakistan’s newly-elected hung parliament met for the first time on 13 August 2018, a day prior to their Independence day, perfectly as per the plan and design of Pakistan Army and ISI. These establishments continue to do everything possible to shield Mumbai blast master mind Hafiz Saeed, despite being declared as UN designated terrorist carrying $10 million bounty on his head.
The creation of new jobs is essential for a healthy economy. However, the lack of reliable data on jobs is currently a much debated issue and key concern in the country today.
Domestic medical device industry hails government’s move to rationalise and cap trade margins in medical devices to achieve the overall goal of affordable healthcare for all by making all critical and lifesaving medical devices available at affordable prices. However, we suggest that the government should tread the fine line carefully between affordability and boosting domestic manufacturing or suffocating domestic medical device industry and allowing importers to create artificial inflation.
Local communities have for long believed that they own the right to life and occupation. When land is sold at cheap prices by the government, people often relocate, because where they are born, may not provide them with optimum chances of survival. It is because of this, that whole villages in Palakkad and Wayanad emerge as fully formed entities, with the same layout of streets, shops and residences as the hamlets the people originally come from. The settlers represent a new aristocracy, bringing with them the cultural ensemble of their previous homes and villages.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…” said Charles Dickens about the dichotomies in 18th century Europe in his book, A Tale of Two Cities.
The announcement of president Trump last week expressing his willingness to hold a summit with Iran with ‘no preconditions’, after a chain of threatening exchanges between him and president Rouhani, for a new model of US-Iran Nuclear deal indicates yet another flip flop in US policies. It is unlikely to be taken seriously so easily, after witnessing US withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA) of 2015 with Iran (Commonly known as Iran Nuclear Deal) even at the cost of differing with its allies and strategic partners, who have critical trade relations with Iran.
Last fortnight’s visit to Brussels, London and Helsinki by the US President Donald Trump has opened up the deep fissures in the Western alliance even though that had for almost eight decades maintained a hegemonic presence on international politics. While it would be easy to see this in light of larger schema of an overall acknowledgement that the locus of international politics is shifting from its Eurocentric location to an entirely new kind of ‘Concert of Asia’ with China, India and on account of its Eurasian land mass, Russia.
