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A year after demonetisation, economic pundits have spoken for and against the measure. Economists toeing the line of the ruling BJP have spoken in favour of it saying the measure was needed to cleanse the economy of black money and the ensuing digitisation will help in the long run to root out corruption, a major factor in generation of black money. But economists, particularly those airing the Opposition view, say that it has only pushed down the economy and virtually crippled the informal sector that account for majority of economic activity largely dependent on cash economy.

With just three weeks left for the first phase of the crucial state assembly elections in Gujarat, the political situation at ground level in this traditional stronghold of the BJP is steadily shifting in favor of the Congress Party which has been out of power for the last twenty two years. Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi who is single handedly spearheading the election campaign for the last two weeks, is getting big response from all sections of Gujaratis in his meetings and road shows sending alarm signals to the BJP. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken it up as a personal challenge and in the remaining period before the elections, he will be the main campaigner of the BJP in the state covering all the districts in his extensive election tour programme. It is also a do or die battle for him as the outcome of the Gujarat elections will set the pace for the tenor of the political developments leading to the next Lok Sabha elections in 2019.

In less than a month from now, members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) numbering 164 would gather for the biannual ministerial to take stock of how far and fair the liberal trade regime of the post-war era has been shaping up. The 11th WTO Ministerial Conference, scheduled to be held at Buenos Aires (Argentina) in the second week of December, has already evoked winter woes among trade envoys as the WTO was not able to gather its scattered wits since the collapse of its ministerial in Cancun (Mexico) way back in 2003. This is particularly so as the much-vaunted Doha Development Round launched in the Qatari capital in 2001 remained broken and bruised with no substantive agreements of the genre achieved in the Uruguay Round of multilateral trade negotiations under the umbrella of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) in the late 1980s to early 1990s that resulted in the genesis of the WTO in 1995.

There is no more ambiguity: India has finally agreed to act as an ally of the US by joining the new regional coalition ‘Quad’, an abbreviation for ‘’quadruple’ or four. The other members of the Quad are Japan, America and Australia. India’s stand towards Quad could be deciphered from the remarks of Prime Minister Narendra Modi which he made just before leaving for Manila: “India’s commitment towards deepening engagement with ASEAN and India-Pacific region.”

Tamil Nadu continues to flounder in the political confusion caused by Jayalalithaa’s death. As may have been expected in a one-person outfit which the AIADMK was in her time, the party is yet to find its feet. The situation has been made worse by the influence which Jayalalithaa’s companion, Sasikala, who is now in jail, continues to wield over the shaky organization via her nephew.

As the clock ticks down on Britain’s exit from the European Union, one could not go far wrong casting British Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn as the hopeful Miranda in Shakespeare’s Tempest: “How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world that has such people in’t.” And Conservative Party Prime Minister Theresa May as Lady Macbeth: “Out damned spot, out, I say!”

PATNA: Priyanka, a brilliant student from Saharsa, lost one precious academic year for no fault of hers. The culprit was the scam-tainted Bihar School Examination Board (BSEB) chaired by Nitish Kumar’s pampered bureaucrat Anand Kishore. Having received 4 marks in Sanskrit and 29 in science, Priyanka was declared failed in the 2017 matriculation examination. She approached the board with a request to reevaluate her answer papers. But it fell on the deaf years of the board. Eventually she approached the Patna High Court, which ordered re-evaluation of her papers and it turned out that she had got 61 in Sanskrit and 80 out of 80 in Science. But that could not save her from losing a precious year.

BHOPAL: The ruling BJP’s defeat in the Chitrakoot assembly bye-elections in the Vindhya Pradesh region of Madhya Pradesh may or may not be indicative of a change in the popular mood but it is definitely a warning bell for the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government, which has to face the electorate in end-2018, when the state would elect its new government.

What does one make of the surprising visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the Gopalapuram residence of former Tamil Nadu chief minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi last week? Is he looking for a new alliance with Karunanidhi’s DMK? Is he trying to confuse the political parties in Tamil Nadu? Does he want to send shock waves to the DMK’s ally, the Congress? Or, is he investing in a future alliance with the Dravidian party?

LUCKNOW: Facing large scale exodus from her party after its worst ever performance in the Assembly elections, BSP leader Mayawati is now focussing attention on the local bodies election, which is being contested on the party symbol for the first time.