Covid-19: Modi, Putin to coordinate efforts

Russian President Vladimir Putin donning a bright yellow full-body hazmat suit and respirator as he visited a hospital on Moscow outskirts that is treating coronavirus patients, March 24, 2020 Soon after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s address to the nation on Wednesday on the government’s coronavirus response and measures to be adopted to deal with the …

A lockdown for ventilators and hospital beds

A man braving the coronavirus against the silhouette of Rashtrapathi Bhavan, Delhi, which was put under lockdown on March 25, 2020   Even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was addressing the nation yesterday announcing “total lockdown” in the country, Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro also took to a televised address to dismiss such health measures against …

Afghan endgame enters the home stretch

Afghans celebrating the US-Taliban agreement of 29th February 2020, Jalalabad, Nangarhar province, Afghanistan In an extraordinary statement titled On the Political Impasse in Afghanistan, Washington has admitted the failure of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s mission to Kabul on Monday to heal the political rift among Afghan politicians and to urge them to form an …

Trump samples democratic socialism. Hmm, it’s good.

US President Donald Trump at the White House announced that he signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, Washington, March 18, 2020  The responses of the Trump administration and the US Congress to meet the socio-economic challenges posed by the onslaught of the coronavirus constitute a marker in American politics — how in …

India revisits SAARC to fight COVID-19. Scepticism is in order.

Coronavirus pandemic is on the rise in India The teleconference today at 5 pm IST between the leaderships of the SAARC countries is a rare event in regional cooperation.  After an interlude of nearly six years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is once again networking with India’s neighbours in a SAARC setting. He had sprung a …