The Quint | Wealth Tax: The Rich Are Ready To Shell Out. Can the Government Enable Means?

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently addressed the concept of "Robinhood Economics", emphasising the importance of wealth creation over redistribution. Her remarks come amidst a broader debate sparked during the Indian election campaign regarding the potential implementation of wealth and inheritance taxes to address economic inequality. In an era marked by widening economic disparities and mounting calls for social justice, the debate over wealth tax and inheritance tax has ignited fervent discourse on the role of taxation in fostering economic equity and bolstering social security. Read the full article here.

The Free Press Journal | Analysis: America Can’t Rein In Trump, And The World May Have To Pay

Last weekend, America’s 21st century version of pre-1933 Adolf Hitler (minus the military service) — Donald Trump — said at an election rally that he once told a NATO leader that he will let Russian President Vladimir Putin “do whatever the hell he wants” to any NATO member that does not pay its full dues to the Americans. You know, protection money. Trump, by his own admission, told the president of a NATO ally, “No, I would not protect you. In fact, I would encourage them (the Russians) to do whatever the hell they want. You got to pay. You got to pay your bills.” Read the full article here.

Bol India Bol | Why Neither Vivek Nor Nikki Can Out-Trump Trump?

Sometime in 2003, India’s Left leaders went to meet then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee to convince him to not send the nation’s troops to Iraq to fight the ‘War of Terrorism’ that the United States had initiated in retaliation for the September 11, 2001 attacks. The US had created a ‘Coalition of the Willing’ and President George W. Bush wanted India to be part of it. Vajpayee was dead against it, but he had two major concerns: One, refusing the US would be diplomatically awkward; and two, some of his senior cabinet ministers, led by LK Advani, and the country’s intelligentsia, including leading editors in New Delhi, were goading the Prime Minister to send our soldiers to Baghdad and exhorting him to be “on the right side of history”. Read the full article here.

The Free Press Journal | Analysis: Vivek Ramaswamy’s VP auditions have begun

Let’s get one thing out of the way before we unpack what happened in the US this Monday and Tuesday: Vivek Ramaswamy is more ‘White’ than ‘Brown’. He is indeed proud of his Indian heritage (his parents are Tam-Brahms from Palakkad, Kerala), and has never shied away from flaunting it, but if he is to be at the centre of American politics in some way, it is not his religiosity at the family dinner table that matters, it is his social and political views. In that context, it is his childhood piano teacher who has had a greater influence on him than his parents. Read the full article here.

The Quint | Taiwan Polls 2024: Amid Cross-Strait Jigsaw, the Impact of US-China Tensions

Amidst a host of elections around the world in 2024, the island of Taiwan is all geared up for its own presidential election and for members of its parliament, the legislative yuan. As the popular vote takes place today, on 13 January, it has – Lai Ching-Te, the current Vice-President of Taiwan and the candidate for the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), Hou Yu-ih, incumbent mayor of New Taipei and candidate of the Kuomintang Party (KMT), and Ko Wen-Je, former mayor of Taipei and candidate of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) as contenders. Read the full article here.

The Free Press Journal | Analysis: Trump and the art of electoral endurance

In the 2007 hit Shah Rukh Khan movie Chak De! India, women’s hockey coach Kabir Khan has to deal with a bunch of soloists in the team, athletes who refuse to blend in as a team and would rather make single-player runs into the opponent’s side, only to be defeated in their pursuit, because, well, the guys on the other side are smarter. The Americans have a word for this: Heroball, a derogatory term for a style of play where a single player tries to be the team's hero by taking and missing many low percentage shots. Read the full article here.

Unless Lok Sabha elections get shorter, parties like BJP will keep winning

Central to the drama of 2019 is the Election Commission, an institution that India used to be proud of but which, in my view, no longer deserves the praise. I am referring to neither the allegations of tampered Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs), nor the Election Commission’s weak-kneed approach towards insisting that the BJP follow the Model Code of Conduct (MCC). The Election Commission’s biggest failing is the exceedingly long duration of the election.Read more