Opinion

Melvin Durai I haven’t stepped on a plane in almost a decade and I’m not eager to fly again anytime soon, largely because of all the animals I might encounter on a plane—and I’m not just referring to rude passengers. I’m mainly referring to other...

Bikash Narayan Mishra The global banking sector remained resilient and robust during the once-in-a-lifetime pandemic period of two years. High capital buffers and lower leverage enabled the global banks to carry out normal banking operations. The asset quality, however, has suffered marginally in some parts...

Bhaskar Nath Biswal Like other countries during the pandemic, India also faced the challenge to sustain the learning outcomes in schools and colleges, building skills and reskilling population, providing employment and continuity of livelihood to one of the largest labour forces in the world. The...

Melvin Durai I’m grateful to my mother for a lot of things, but one of the most important is that she urged me not to drink. Actually, ‘urged’ is not the right word. It was more like ‘forbade.’ My mother forbade me from drinking alcohol....

Santosh Kumar Mohapatra The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for 2022-23 has evoked mixed reactions. A Budget is not evaluated in terms of schemes or some allocations only as revenues and outlay increase every year and any finance minister can have some...

Sarbeswar Padhan Odisha has lately made remarkable progress on the economic front as its growth rate has surpassed the national average in the last couple of decades. It has witnessed gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate of 7.1 per cent against the national average of...

Debashis Acharya Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered her shortest ever Budget speech using a digital tablet Feb 1, 2022. The word ‘digital’ appears 35 times in this Budget speech with several proposals to promote India’s digital economy and fintech. But the retail investors in cryptocurrencies/assets...

Melvin Durai I’ve had three COVID vaccinations so far, including a booster shot, and I hope I don’t need to have anymore. But I’m preparing myself for several more doses because they seem inevitable. Just look at the results of a new study in Israel....

Santosh Kumar Mohapatra With the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections around the corner the BJP government has resorted to advertisement blitzkrieg. An attempt is being made to portray that UP has transformed under the Yogi Adityanath government. What is reprehensible is the brazen communal polarisation made...

Melvin Durai I drive a Honda that’s more than 10 years old. I was quite happy with it, until I happened to rent a new car one day. This new car had all the latest technology installed, including a navigation system that my Honda lacks...