TK Arun

TK Arun

TK Arun is a Senior Journalist and Columnist based in Delhi.
  • Articles: 0

Is India Squandering its Rotating G20 Presidency?

What should India get out of its G20 presidency, apart, of course, from countless dos all over the country to remind people, with their pomp, posters and streams of visitors from abroad, of India’s global leadership role?

In our current interconnected, interdependent world, coordination of national policies and actions is a must, to ensure mutual interaction results in productive coherence for the world at large rather than conflict. This calls for global platforms where leaders of the countries that matter can get together and agree on some things. G20 is the most important and most representative of such platforms.

Sharad Pawar’s ‘Resigning Sonia Act’: Emotional Upsurge for Party Unification

Sharad Pawar has paid the ultimate tribute to Sonia Gandhi, in opposition to whose leadership of the Congress he had left the Grand Old Party — after all, imitation is the highest form of flattery.

In 1999, when Sharad Pawar, PA Sangma, and Tariq Anwar had broken away from the Congress, saying they could not stomach foreigner Sonia being chosen as the president of the party, Sonia Gandhi resigned from her newly elected post. That set off an emotional upheaval at the party. Everyone who had stayed back was forced to join the chorus —  started by some genuine votaries of a Congress led by Gandhi —  asking, beseeching, and pleading with Sonia Gandhi to take back her resignation and take charge of the party. She complied and led a relatively unified party.

Is UPI the End of the Road for Credit Cards?

“It is now proposed to expand the scope of UPI by permitting operation of pre-sanctioned credit lines at banks through the UPI,” said the RBI Governor’s statement, towards the end, announcing the Monetary Policy Committee’s decision to pause policy rate changes. This proposal is fairly anodyne and anaemic, in comparison to, say, the Red Queen’s curt command, “Off with his head!” But make no mistake, it is no less effective a death sentence, directed, in this instance, at credit cards.

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