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AN UN-ISLAMIC KIDNAPPING AND CHAOS IN THE VALLEY

The illusion of azaadi and Kashmir’s historic deception

How Pak's terror policy evolved in Kashmir

Birth of social media jihadists, death of Article-370

Operation Sindoor: When Indian missiles rained on Pak terror parade

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<p><b>The Golden Buffer</b></p><p>Would Soviet Russia too have asked for membership of the IMF, had it not been for the fact that it can, up to a point, meet its foreign liabilities through sales of gold? International gold markets are buzzing with rumours that Moscow has quietly unloaded 150 to 180 tonnes of gold so far in 1981 and can be expected to sell an additional 20 tonnes by year end in a market that is very soft. Last year the Russians sold 90 tonnes of gold in Zurich alone (one tonne of gold is worth about Rs 12 crore at the current international price of $420 per troy ounce).</p><p>What is pushing Moscow into a bullion market, depressed by the effects of high interest rates in the US and a strong dollar, is the Kremlin's need for hard currency to pay for its growing Rs 3,000 crore trade deficit with the West. The Soviet Union is expected to import 43 million tonnes of grain next year, 4 million tonnes of refined sugar and a record 1 million tonnes of meat.The bill for these goods could reach Rs 9,000 crore. The decline in oil prices - Soviet Russia is the largest producer of oil as well as gold - is also a factor in its payment difficulties.</p><p>In fact, businessmen in Europe are complaining that Soviet customers are delaying payment of bills and also delaying delivery dates for goods they cannot finance. The Soviet Foreign Trade Ministry is apparently going slow on deals that call for payment after January 1, 1982. The only exemptions to the hard currency squeeze are imports for construction of the Yamburg natural gas pipeline from Siberia to West Germany and some important hospitals in the capital.</p><div class="itemcenter"><amp-iframe height="62" title="" width="320" sandbox="allow-forms allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-top-navigation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation" allowfullscreen src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014%5Cu0026native%3D1" class="mrBt15 preferred-source-banner"> </amp-iframe></div></p><p><b>Prospects For 1982</b></p><div class="itg-mosimage"><amp-img src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Fmedia2%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fstories%2F1981December%2Fbusiness-s_102313052600.jpg" alt="" height="425" width="650" class="" layout="responsive"></amp-img></div></p><p>This is the time of the year when backroom boys in banks and large business houses do their crystal-gazing, trying to get a peep into next year's prospects. Because of the confluence of a number of developments, commodity prices are depressed across the board for the first time in years. What is the outlook for 1982? On the demand side, sluggish growth afflicting the world economy has sharply reduced sales of industrial raw materials and has tempered sales of some foodstuffs. At the same time, high interest rates and the strength of the US dollar have discouraged commodity consumers and speculators from holding inventories. On the supply side, the need for foreign exchange has induced many developing countries to accelerate their commodity exports, and further depress the market.</p><p>According to latest estimates by US commodity experts, crude oil prices will go up slightly in 1982; sugar prices will come down, but not as fast as they did this year; copper prices will go up after the sharp slide down this year; wheat prices will be steady at current levels; coffee will go further down and cocoa will stage a comeback. </p><p>But most prices, with the exception of crude oil, will still be below the highs of last year when sugar, copper and coffee had reached a peak, all nearly at the same time. There will, however, be no let-up in crude oil's projected price in 1982 - 34 US dollars per barrel of Arabian light crude -though, unless there is a major flare-up in the Middle East, figures of 50 US dollars per barrel and more, so glibly mentioned last year, can be ruled out as desert fantasy.</p><p><b>Comrade In The Queue</b></p><p>The leftists - particularly the communists in West Bengal - who are kicking up such a big row over the IMF loan would be surprised to know that communist countries are queuing up for the membership of the Fund. The day the Indian loan went through, the Fund received a formal application from Poland whose external debt position is worse than India's. The Polish application came just one week after the request of Hungary, another communist country, for membership of both the IMF and its sister lending agency, the World Bank. </p><p>The Polish application, strongly supported by the US and other western countries, is expected to move quickly through the membership process. Poland owes more than Rs 21,000 crore to western banks and is obviously not in a position to pay off its debts without external assistance. The timing of the Polish announcement, so soon after the application of Hungary, the best-managed state in the Comecon block, suggests that the Soviet Union is supporting the Polish bid. According to reports, Poland is asking for a loan of Rs 9,000 crore, slightly less than double the Indian loan, but it will get about Rs 3,000 crore.</p><p><b>The Price Of A Wife</b></p><p>Those who know the price of everything but the value of nothing can now go ahead and notch up another figure in their notebooks. An insurance company in Britain - always a nation of shopkeepers putting a price on everything - has now come up with the commercial rate for a housewife's work. It is Rs 3,200 a week, equivalent to the salary of an army sergeant-major, a fire chief or a bishop. Even at such a high price, her work is still valued at not much more than Rs 33 an hour, the going rate - and the absolute minimum - for domestic help in Britain. This is for a seven-day week job and 12 to 14 hours a day.</p><p>Duties priced by the insurance company include cooking, child minding, waitressing, dishwashing, driving, shopping, cleaning, laundering, sewing and other activities, all based on employment agencies' average fees for different jobs. The insurance company is now working on a policy scheme for insuring loss of housewifely duties through death or accident.</p><p>What would be the cost of a housewife in India? If the going rate is taken to be about Rs 2 an hour - the minimum in metropolitan cities - the price would work out to around Rs 750 a month or, say, about Rs 25 a day. But let not the price, high as it may seem, be quoted within the hearing of feminists!</p><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">AtMigration </div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Oct 23, 2013</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div>

economy

Economy

<p><b style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">The Golden Buffer</b></p><p>Would Soviet Russia too have asked for membership of the IMF, had it not been for the fact that it can, up to a point, meet its foreign liabilities through sales of gold? International gold markets are buzzing with rumours that Moscow has quietly unloaded 150 to 180 tonnes of gold so far in 1981 and can be expected to sell an additional 20 tonnes by year end in a market that is very soft. Last year the Russians sold 90 tonnes of gold in Zurich alone (one tonne of gold is worth about Rs 12 crore at the current international price of $420 per troy ounce).</p><p>What is pushing Moscow into a bullion market, depressed by the effects of high interest rates in the US and a strong dollar, is the Kremlin's need for hard currency to pay for its growing Rs 3,000 crore trade deficit with the West. The Soviet Union is expected to import 43 million tonnes of grain next year, 4 million tonnes of refined sugar and a record 1 million tonnes of meat.The bill for these goods could reach Rs 9,000 crore. The decline in oil prices - Soviet Russia is the largest producer of oil as well as gold - is also a factor in its payment difficulties.</p><p>In fact, businessmen in Europe are complaining that Soviet customers are delaying payment of bills and also delaying delivery dates for goods they cannot finance. The Soviet Foreign Trade Ministry is apparently going slow on deals that call for payment after January 1, 1982. The only exemptions to the hard currency squeeze are imports for construction of the Yamburg natural gas pipeline from Siberia to West Germany and some important hospitals in the capital.</p><div class="itemcenter"><iframe scrolling="no" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" width="100%" height="62" awidth="320" aheight="62" amplayout="fixed" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Findiatoday%2Fbanner%2Fpreferred-source-new.html%3Fv%3D1.014" class="preferred-source-banner" loading="lazy"></iframe></div><style>.preferred-source-banner{  margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom:10px;}</style></p><p><b style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Prospects For 1982</b></p><div class="itg-mosimage"><div class="itgimage"><img  title=""  class="" alt="" src="https://ancillary-proxy.atarimworker.dev?url=https%3A%2F%2Fakm-img-a-in.tosshub.com%2Fsites%2Fmedia2%2Findiatoday%2Fimages%2Fstories%2F1981December%2Fbusiness-s_102313052600.jpg" loading="lazy" /></div></div></p><p>This is the time of the year when backroom boys in banks and large business houses do their crystal-gazing, trying to get a peep into next year's prospects. Because of the confluence of a number of developments, commodity prices are depressed across the board for the first time in years. What is the outlook for 1982? On the demand side, sluggish growth afflicting the world economy has sharply reduced sales of industrial raw materials and has tempered sales of some foodstuffs. At the same time, high interest rates and the strength of the US dollar have discouraged commodity consumers and speculators from holding inventories. On the supply side, the need for foreign exchange has induced many developing countries to accelerate their commodity exports, and further depress the market.</p><p>According to latest estimates by US commodity experts, crude oil prices will go up slightly in 1982; sugar prices will come down, but not as fast as they did this year; copper prices will go up after the sharp slide down this year; wheat prices will be steady at current levels; coffee will go further down and cocoa will stage a comeback. </p><p>But most prices, with the exception of crude oil, will still be below the highs of last year when sugar, copper and coffee had reached a peak, all nearly at the same time. There will, however, be no let-up in crude oil's projected price in 1982 - 34 US dollars per barrel of Arabian light crude -though, unless there is a major flare-up in the Middle East, figures of 50 US dollars per barrel and more, so glibly mentioned last year, can be ruled out as desert fantasy.</p><p><b style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">Comrade In The Queue</b></p><p>The leftists - particularly the communists in West Bengal - who are kicking up such a big row over the IMF loan would be surprised to know that communist countries are queuing up for the membership of the Fund. The day the Indian loan went through, the Fund received a formal application from Poland whose external debt position is worse than India's. The Polish application came just one week after the request of Hungary, another communist country, for membership of both the IMF and its sister lending agency, the World Bank. </p><p>The Polish application, strongly supported by the US and other western countries, is expected to move quickly through the membership process. Poland owes more than Rs 21,000 crore to western banks and is obviously not in a position to pay off its debts without external assistance. The timing of the Polish announcement, so soon after the application of Hungary, the best-managed state in the Comecon block, suggests that the Soviet Union is supporting the Polish bid. According to reports, Poland is asking for a loan of Rs 9,000 crore, slightly less than double the Indian loan, but it will get about Rs 3,000 crore.</p><p><b style="color: rgb(204, 0, 0);">The Price Of A Wife</b></p><p>Those who know the price of everything but the value of nothing can now go ahead and notch up another figure in their notebooks. An insurance company in Britain - always a nation of shopkeepers putting a price on everything - has now come up with the commercial rate for a housewife's work. It is Rs 3,200 a week, equivalent to the salary of an army sergeant-major, a fire chief or a bishop. Even at such a high price, her work is still valued at not much more than Rs 33 an hour, the going rate - and the absolute minimum - for domestic help in Britain. This is for a seven-day week job and 12 to 14 hours a day.</p><p>Duties priced by the insurance company include cooking, child minding, waitressing, dishwashing, driving, shopping, cleaning, laundering, sewing and other activities, all based on employment agencies' average fees for different jobs. The insurance company is now working on a policy scheme for insuring loss of housewifely duties through death or accident.</p><p>What would be the cost of a housewife in India? If the going rate is taken to be about Rs 2 an hour - the minimum in metropolitan cities - the price would work out to around Rs 750 a month or, say, about Rs 25 a day. But let not the price, high as it may seem, be quoted within the hearing of feminists!</p><div id="tab-link-wrapper-plugin"><div class="authors__container"><div class="authors__by"><div class="authlable">Published By: </div><div class="authdetaisl">AtMigration </div></div><div class="published__on"><div class="authlable">Published On: </div><div class="authdetaisl">Oct 23, 2013</div></div></div><div class="sendros">--- ENDS ---</div></div>

The leftists - particularly the communists in West Bengal - who are kicking up such a big row over the IMF loan would be surprised to know that communist countries are queuing up for the membership of the Fund.

India Today

Business international - India Today

Communist countries queue up for IMF membership

Business international

The interim setup of Muhammad Yunus is set to sign a tariff deal with the US. However, the non-disclosure agreement that keeps details shrouded in mystery has got Bangladeshi business leaders concerned. Then there is a bigger question. Is it legal for the unelected Yunus regime to ink a deal even as an elected government could come to office in weeks time?

Yunus' secretive, last-minute trade deal with US risks binding Bangladesh's garment sector to unknown terms that could hurt exports. (Images: Muhammad Yunus FB/Getty)

Yunus's rush to ink secretive deal with US has Bangladesh exporters worried

A viral video showed a sweeper conducting class in a primary school. It raised troubling questions about classrooms that exist without teachers.

Chhattisgarh school runs without teachers, sweeper takes classes

Inside a Chhattisgarh school where absence turned a sweeper into a teacher

Love Life Predictions for February 5, 2026: Gemini natives should not make decisions based on emotions. Closeness with family will be maintained. Communication will improve. Exercise restraint in emotional matters. Support from relatives will be received. Everyone will be impressed by your wisdom and proactiveness.

Love-Horoscope-1-IT-16X9

Love Horoscope Today for Thursday, February 5, 2026: Gemini natives will maintain close ties with family and home

Today's Number 9 Numerology Prediction, February 5, 2026: You will have the support of seniors in career and business. Avoid ignoring colleagues. Maintain a sense of equality in discussions. You will be interested in partnerships. Participation will increase. Maintain consistency in financial matters. Communication will be better.

Numero-9-IT-set-1-16X9

Numerology Number 9 Prediction Today, February 5, 2026: Will Maintain Consistency in Financial Matters

Today's Number 8 Numerology Prediction, February 5, 2026: There will be positivity in relationships. Contact with loved ones will increase. Joy and happiness will be maintained in matters of the heart. Personal conversations will be favourable. Friends will be supportive. Auspiciousness in relationships will increase. Guests will be welcomed warmly. Time will be spent with family members.

Numero-8-IT-set-1-16X9

Numerology Number 8 Prediction Today, February 5, 2026: Personal conversations will be favourable

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Here's the drone visuals of the massive traffic jam on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway, which has hit vehicular movement for over 24 hours after a gas tanker overturned in the hilly Khandala Ghat section.

drone

Watch: Drone visuals of massive 22-km traffic jam on Mumbai-Pune Expressway

Addressing the Lok Sabha, Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said the government has successfully safeguarded sensitive sectors in US trade deal.  

Piyush Goyal: No Compromise On Farmers Interests In US Deal

India protected agriculture, dairy interests in US trade deal: Piyush Goyal

In this Special Report, India Today’s Mir Fareed provides exclusive details on a major counter-terror operation in Jammu and Kashmir’s Udhampur. Security forces, including the Army, Jammu Kashmir Police, and CRPF, successfully eliminated two Jaish-e-Mohammed terrorists who were hiding in a natural cave within a dense forested terrain. Mir Fareed noted, ‘Finally, their luck ran out as security forces used IEDs to blow up the entrance. And with that, they were eliminated.’ One of the deceased has been identified as a top commander, Abu Mavia. The operation involved sophisticated drone surveillance and sharpshooters to pin down the terrorists who had previously evaded capture. The report highlights the evolving tactics of security agencies in tackling infiltrators using the treacherous forest reaches of Jammu. The area is currently being sanitised as per standard operating procedures following the recovery of weapons.

Mir Fareed: Two Jaish Terrorists Killed In Udhampur Cave

2 Jaish terrorists killed as security forces blow up cave in Jammu and Kashmir

This news report covers the intense political confrontation in Parliament where Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi reportedly called BJP leader Ravneet Singh Bittu a 'traitor'. The incident occurred near the Makar Dwar as suspended MPs were protesting. The transcript highlights that Bittu, once a close associate of Gandhi, was heckled by Congress members following the remark. Additionally, the bulletin features a statement regarding the suspension of eight Congress MPs for the remainder of the session due to 'unruly behaviour'. Dilip Saikia, who was in the chair during the ruckus, stated that the members violated parliamentary decorum and rules. The report notes that the Congress party views those who defect to the other side through a specific 'prism', leading to the sharp exchange. The drama unfolded as Priyanka Gandhi also met with the suspended legislators to discuss the adjournment of the House.

Rahul Gandhi Calls Bittu a Traitor in Parliament

Rahul Gandhi Calls Ravneet Singh Bittu a 'Traitor' outside Parliament

On this Special Report, the focus is on a tragic incident in Ghaziabad where three minor sisters, aged 12, 14, and 16, allegedly died by suicide by jumping from the ninth floor of a high-rise building. ACP Atul Kumar stated, 'Three girls jumped from the balcony of the ninth floor of flat number 907 in Bharat City and were declared dead upon arrival at the hospital.' A suicide note recovered from the scene read, 'Mummy Papa, we are sorry.' Police have seized mobile phones and gadgets for forensic examination to determine if specific gaming tasks triggered the extreme step. The incident occurred around 2:30 AM, and authorities are recording statements from family and neighbors to uncover the exact cause behind this triple suicide horror.

Atul Kumar: 3 Sisters Jump To Death In Ghaziabad

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Communist countries queue up for IMF membership

The leftists - particularly the communists in West Bengal - who are kicking up such a big row over the IMF loan would be surprised to know that communist countries are queuing up for the membership of the Fund.

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