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The Congress’s “existential crisis”, as one of the party’s voluble supporters, Jairam Ramesh, said recently, is over. If the party’s campaign in Gujarat (though not in Himachal Pradesh) is any indication, the 132-year-old party has regained its balance. It may not win in either state, but there is little doubt that it will give the BJP a run for its money, especially in Gujarat.

With American President Donald Trump dragging the global fraternity closer to disaster and flaring of insidious war mongering, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s presence on the international scenario has become imperative. The way he handled the Syrian crisis and Middle East worries makes him appear as perhaps the only individual available on the global format on which the global fraternity could rely for easing nervousness.

All and sundry know who the teenage actor was. In fact, for several hours after the story broke, her name was common currency on news websites and TV channels hungry for content on a lazy Sunday. Only in the afternoon did better sense prevail and her name and her moving images were removed to be replaced by “teenage Bollywood actor molested.”

The bounce back in the share of manufacturing in second quarter GDP in 2017-18 unleashed a fresh impetus to the Make in India initiative, which remained tardy in the post demonetization period. The manufacturing sector growth resurged to 7.0 per cent, nearly to the previous year’s level, after a sharp drop to 1.2 percent in the first quarter of 2017-18. This shows that the impact of demonetization was a short term effect.

It is not surprising that New Delhi is stepping up its efforts to deal with the inflow of the thousands of Rohingya refugees from Myanmar to India by tightening the border control. This is in tune with the policies of the Narendra Modi government as the BJP has always been against illegal immigrants from across the border holding that Hindu refugees are welcome but Muslims are not. What is important is the fact that the Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh’s high-level meeting with chief ministers of five northeastern states including West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram last week. The Centre is seeking their cooperation in checking the illegal migrants. The meeting had decided to setup a border protection grid on the lines of Unified Command in insurgency-hit states to check illegal infiltration. India shares a 4,096 km-long border with Bangladesh of which 2,217 km falls in West Bengal, 262 km in Assam, 443 km in Meghalaya, 856 km in Tripura and 180 km in Mizoram.

Mumbai: The Millennium Alliance under Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in its the 9thSankalp Global Summit, called for applications to its’ Global Grant for Indian social enterprises.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Twelve days after Ockhi cyclone sowed death and destruction in Kerala’s coastal districts, the anger over the Government’s handling of the situation refuses to die down.

‘King of Good Times’ Vijay Mallya – business tycoon and flamboyant fugitive from Indian justice system – has told a British court that Indian prisons are worse than the notorious Russian jails and that he will die behind bars if he is extradited to India.

This election season in Gujarat is riveting. Make or break. Shake not stir. Aurangzeb and Aiyer. Church and Temple. Neech & preach. Maa Aur Baap. Agent and double-agent. The crux of it: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, if he loses will no longer brag about ‘Gujarat Model’. And Rahul Gandhi if he wins will start his presidential innings with a victory. So the Congress is going all out to win and the BJP is going all out to win. But both cannot win. One party has to lose.

The Pakistanis are less corrupt than the Indians. This is the finding of the recent Europe, Middle East, India and Africa (EMEIA) Fraud Survey - 2017. While India is found to be the most corrupt country in Asia-Pacific region, with 69 per cent bribery rate in public services including education, health, ID, documents, police, and utility services, Pakistan has 40 per cent bribery rate.