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Showing posts from January, 2026

News Capsule for the Month of May 2026

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The following are the top news stories for the month.   If you wish to follow and get notifications of future articles, you can sign up using the email on the left sidebar.  News Capsule of the month Kerala  Suspended IAS Officer B Ashok opposed the LDF.  Kerala hotels and restaurants remained closed on May 6 in protest against Gas Price hikes.   Congress poll strategist Kanugolu projects 80-plus seats for UDF.  Malayalam star Santhosh Nair dies in a Kerala road accident, his wife critically injured.  KIIFB CEO K M Abraham resigns after the LDF loses the election.  BJP improves performance in 12 of the 13 constituencies in Thiruvananthapuram.  A Cusat student was found dead at a rented house in Kochi.  Kerala CM's choice remains uncertain as Congress high command delays decision.  NSS says people had no option but to back Congress; it flags issues with Satheesan.  Congress faces Kerala Chief Minister headache as worke...

Takeaways from Kerala Budget 2026

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The budget speech was held on 29th January by the Finance Minister of Kerala, K N Balagopal, in the Kerala Legislative Assembly. The Economic Review report was presented in the Assembly one day earlier on the 28th. This is Mr Balagopal’s sixth Budget after taking over as Kerala’s Finance Minister and will be the final budget of LDF 2.0 ahead of the Kerala elections 2026.  Ernakulam leads Kerala districts in income chart, Pathanamthitta posts fastest growth as per the Economic Review.  Major Announcements from the Budget Speech  GSDP rate- 2025-26 - 9.9 7%  GSDP- ₹ 6,85,28,316  crore Public Debt- ₹40,848.21 crore Revenue Deficit-  ₹34,586.66 crore or 1.9% Annual Expenditure-  ₹2,17,558.76 crore Fiscal Deficit- 3.2% Debt-GDP Ratio- 33.44% Kerala recorded a 6.19% real growth as per the economic survey.  4th-longest budget speech in the assembly.  Wayanad Package- ₹50 crore. Finance Minister says the borrowing limit of the state ha...

Politcal Events to Watch for in 2026

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2025 was indeed a tumultuous one. Everyone who expected it to be like any other year was proven wrong. Thus, everyone expects 2026 to be as good as 2023 or at least 2024. Politically speaking, 2026 will be one of the most important years for world politics. Not because we have key elections coming up, but because of the political and international turmoil the world is undergoing. Thus, there are a lot of things you should be watching out for this year.  Additionally, given that we focus a lot on elections, we will equally consider the elections in 2026 along with other political events as well. Besides elections, there are major conflicts happening- the Russia-Ukraine War, the Venezuela issue, the Iranian issue, and the Israel-Hamas conflict. There are other minor issues affecting people’s lives as well, such as the refugee crisis, climate change, economic issues, civil wars, and a lot more. We will discuss important political events to watch for in detail in this article.  In...

Why Kerala Needs The K-RAIL Silverline Project?

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  Greetings to all listeners and readers!! The podcast talks about the need for the KRail Silverline Project, enumerating reasons and logic for the same. This episode is based on the article written by the host and presenter Jairam R Prabhu, published in the Journal of Comparative Politics of Bangalore University, titled- K-Rail- A Silverline for Kerala's future. This episode tries to elaborate on various socio-politico-economic reasons how and why the semi-high speed railway network- KRail Silverline Project will be beneficial for the state of Kerala.  References Prabhu J. R. (2024). K-Rail- An opportunity in disguise for Kerala. Journal of Contemporary Politics , 3 (1), 25–31. https://doi.org/10.53989/jcp.v3i1.13 Please find the Link to the Article Summary of the podcast  Generally, these topics aren’t much available in the mainstream media, because they are believed hard to crack and don't address the basics. But, through  our podcasts , we disprove this misc...