1) 38K conquered on the Sensex!
Bulls are on the rampage on Dalai Street as 38K conquered on the Sensex with ease and the last thousand points gained in the last few trading sessions. The rally this time has been different as the indices may be trading at lifetime levels but individual stocks barring a few heavyweight are nowhere near their peaks but substantially down from their highs. It pays to be in quality stocks and investors who are invested in blue chip companies have made money in this rally. The India growth story is intact and equities should be part and parcel of one’s investment but one should pick stocks that have decent valuation compared to their prevailing prices to make gains in the stock markets.
Patience is the key to make money in stocks and one should have a long term horizon to beat other investment instruments to make more money on the bourses. Stock exchanges too should come up with stringent laws so that ‘fly-by-night’ companies that loot investors in broad daylight do not exist in the present scheme of things!
– S.N. Kabra
2) Human-made disaster
Recent rains in southern side of India and more so in Kerala caused lot of loss to human lives and property. Losses are unavoidable when there’s very heavy rain. Swift rescue and relief alone are indicators of a good government. These words are intended to normalise a human-made disaster, and gloss over the pathology of urban development under successive administrations. It is quite usual for politicians and civic officials to blame so-called unprecedented rains for the civic and humanitarian crisis each monsoon brings, and decouple development from disaster. But unprecedented rains occur quite regularly in Kerala as it lies in the Western coast of India. Kerala is totally submerged in water and places like Palakkad there is no drinking water as well for a week as the main supply is totally blocked. Aluva is most affected and disaster management team is involved in relief and rescue operations.
– Anandambal Subbu
3) Fascinating literary journey ends
Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul (17 August 1932- 11 August 2018) was a Caribbean writer of Indian descent and Nobel Laureate. His death is a great tragedy for all the generations. He was a great and fascinating writer and novelist of his age. People all over the world received a lot of benefits from his admirable writings all five decades. He left behind, his beautiful memories in the shape of writing for the generation to come. His place will never be filled with anyone in the history. He will always be alive in our good memories for his contributions in development of writing standard. Let his soul rest in the peace and contentment.
– Mohd Usmani
4) Make collegiums accountable while recommending judges names
It refers to shocking news-reports indicating that central government detected faults in 50-percent names out of 126 recommended for judgeship by High Court collegiums, which include serious aspects like nepotism, minimum-income-requirement, probity, competence and observations made by Intelligence Bureau etc. It is a matter of concern that High Court collegiums do not follow set norms and parameters required to be judge before making recommendations to the central government. Even there have been cases though isolated ones where Supreme Court collegium did not recommend name of some judges again after matter was resent by central government for review with rare exceptions like Justice KM Joseph where ultimately he was elevated to Supreme Court.
Since it does not seem likely of some consensus on procedure of appointing judges, there should be well-publicised norms for collegiums of Supreme Court and High Courts to make recommendations for names of judges to ease burden of Union Ministry for Law and Justice for such big exercise of scrutinising individual cases of recommended norms. It will avoid unnecessary delay in appointment of judges because of central government sending back files for review. There should be accountability and responsibility fixed for members of court-collegiums for recommending wrong names.
– Subhash Chandra Agarwal
5) A shot in the arm for NDA
NDA is on a victory spree after winning the no confidence motion and now the deputy speaker race in Rajya Sabha. It has taken firm control and do not want to lose any battle politically. Backing JD (U) candidate signifies the party will form alliance in NDA in the Lok Sabha elections in 2019, which is very crucial and a state like Bihar have large role to play. In the current scenario BJP started to play its cards close to its chest and the opposition is foxed once again. Opposition unity is at stake and it is very clear that Rahul Gandhi is not the right choice to lead the opposition. The country must require a strong opposition without which proper governance will not take place thereby affecting the nation’s growth. Harivansh Narayan Singh is elected as the Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha and he is an accomplished writer, journalist and active Parliamentarian. Harivansh was fielded by the BJP-led ruling NDA. He defeated Opposition candidate B.K. Hariprasad of the Congress by 20 votes. It was a victory for BJP’s Chanakya Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
– M.R. Jayanthy
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
