Kesavananda Bharti case produced a landmark judgement which reinforced our democracy & basic structure of constitution. Therefore it is shocking that the judgement should be questioned now when India is projecting itself as "Mother of Democracies" under her G-20 Presidentship! Vice President of India Jagdeep Dhankar has questioned the validity of Kesavananda Bharti judgement implying that Parliament must have sovereign right to amend the constitution regardless of whether it impinges on the basic structure which also defines fundamental rights(contd)

The ban on wheat exports came within 48 hours after the commerce ministry announced trade delegations to 9 countries “to explore possibilities of boosting wheat exports from India”. Then what accounted for the U turn within 48 hours? It just tells you how this govt works!(contd) The trade minister was going all guns blazing to create record wheat exports but apparently the PMO intervened and the ban was imposed. This happens because different ministries are not talking to each other. And all decisions are left for the PMO to take! (Contd)

Centre says inadequate coal stocking by power generation plants (66% of power supply is thermal) could lead to big power cuts in coming weeks. What centre does not say is dominant supplier of coal is govt owned Coal India Ltd & largest power generator is govt owned NTPC! Next question is even if there is global shortage of coal, causing prices to go up 250% why did Coal India not increase production last 4 years.Its production has shown negative growth since 2017 when India has among the largest coal reserves globally.Reason is as follows👇

Air India sold to Tatas for enterprise value of Rs.18,000 cr. Tatas take over Rs.15,000 cr of current AI debt. Govt says Air India was losing Rs.20 crore a day.Govt/taxpayer pumped Rs.1.10 lakh crore to fund AI losses since 2009-10. This bleeding stops now, says Secy Divestment. Divestment Secy says AI’s networth had turned negative at Rs.33,000 cr. So a networth based bidding would have failed. So bids were on the basis of how much outstanding debt of AI was bidder willing to take over. Tatas agreed to pay Rs.15,000 cr out of total debt of Rs.61,000 cr.

As a young reporter for The Independent newspaper (Times Group) I covered the Rath Yatra thru Bihar in 1990. What struck me then was no mainstream political party tried to physically protest onsite as Advani’s cavalcade wound its way from Gujarat via Bihar for weeks(contd) Only some cadres of the Indian People’s Front stood with black flags on the way. It faintly struck me no mainstream party had an effective way to counter the overt use of religion in politics. As reporters we found it difficult to fathom the religious fervour (contd)

PM says he is unveiling fiscal support cum stimulus of Rs. 20 lakh crore or 10% of GDP. This includes RBI liquidity package -already announced- of about Rs.4.5 lakh crore. The details of fresh fiscal package to be unveiled by finance minister tomorow. At long last! Net of RBI liquidity package already announced the fiscal package could be 7 to 8% of GDP. PM hints there could be more income transfer to vulnerable sections & additional financial support to important segments of supply chain of business & economy.

The strangest policy notification from govt : says foreign investment proposals from countries sharing borders with India will not get automatic approval as per existing guidelines. This is clearly targeting China because Pakistan/Bangladesh never had access to automatic route. If idea is to discourage China from buying Indian companies cheap then restrict takeovers. Why prevent them from bringing FDI in greenfield projects via existing automatic route. It is unprecedented that the world’s 2nd largest economy is being put in a special category of FDI.

A highly respected ex RBI Guv tells me in 70 years our economy never slowed due to a domestic demand slump. It was always a supply problem (oil shock, drought etc)which slowed the economy. Official documents never spoke of a demand shock in a largely untapped consumer market. To reinforce his point the ex RBI Guv asked me to check with CEAs of past regimes whether they ever cited demand shock in as a major issue in their Economic Survey overview. I checked with two CEAs from late 1980s to late 1990s & both said demand slump was never an issue.