Tea Crisis
As the sun sets over the rolling hills of the Terai and the Dooars plains, casting long shadows over the verdant tea gardens, a silent crisis unfolds beneath the surface.
As the sun sets over the rolling hills of the Terai and the Dooars plains, casting long shadows over the verdant tea gardens, a silent crisis unfolds beneath the surface.
The assassination attempt on Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is a stark reminder of the fragility of political stability, even in nations where political violence is rare.
On 18 May, International Museum Day, it is only befitting to pay homage to several generations of men like Sir Asutosh who lived to preserve heritage, while making history themselves during their lifetimes.
Lately, the debate over wealth taxation has intensified, with proponents arguing for its role in addressing income inequality and funding social programmes. However, implementing a wealth tax is not without its challenges and drawbacks.
As the 2024 US Presidential election draws nearer, the American electorate finds itself caught in uncertainty and disbelief.
Although Evergrande’s debt is large at RMB2 trillion (US$300 billion), its financial debts account for around a third of its total liabilities with a diversified creditor structure. The larger amount owed outside the banking sector is due to the peculiar funding structure of the Chinese real estate model.
The troubling question which rankles till today is why wasn’t anything done to prevent the tragedy? No country other than India really played any role to intervene to prevent the tragedy at any stage, although Soviet help to India in discharging this role should certainly be remembered. The United Nations also failed to safeguard human rights and democracy, and to prevent massacres.
First, do eight nuclear submarines by 2040 make serious military sense for Australian security? We can understand that a maritime power in the South Pacific with lots of coastal waters to patrol needs a strong navy. But as former Prime Minister Paul Keating rightly pointed out, China is a landbased power and, being over 3,220km away from Australia, does not present a military threat to the country.
Beijing has, in recent years, upgraded its strategic partnerships and expanded military exchanges and joint exercises with countries including Russia, Pakistan, and Iran. But, as Patricia M. Kim writing recently in Foreign Affairs points out, these partnerships are still a far cry from US alliances which involve mutual defence clauses, extensive troop-basing agreements, and joint military capabilities.
President Biden has expressed deep concern over the Russian troop build-up, even threatening “strong economic and other measures”, going by Washington’s version. Russia has, however, claimed that it will not attack the former Soviet satellite. It is fervently to be hoped that the events of 2014 will not be repeated.
