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Earlier this week, the nearly two and a half month long faceoff between the Indian and Chinese troops at Doklam in the India-Bhutan-Tibet trijunction ended. The danger of a war between the two Asian giants receded as both countries agreed to withdraw their troops simultaneously and restore the status quo ante June 16. The Chinese agreed to drop the idea of building a road in Bhutan’s territory. This is what has actually happened. But there is a wide difference in the statements issued by the Foreign Ministries of the two countries.

For the first time, India ramped up its military presence on the other side of LAC after having learnt many bitter lessons from the repeated Chinese rampage with an eye to reshape the border. It is also first time that the Chinese strategy for cowing India ended unsuccessfully. Chinese publication Global Times was puzzled by the ending, which failed to cowing down India on the fear of China’s military might. At one point, it was sarcastic and taunted saying “New Delhi did not draw lessons from the 1962 border war”. There was considerable war mongering, such as ‘India’s provocation will trigger all-out confrontation on LAC’ and ‘India has most to lose in border spats’. While at the beginning of the stand-off, China applauded India’s growth potential, it stated: “As low cost manufacturing is gradually moving away from China, it is now critical for India, whether it can replace China as the next world’s factory”. This deciphers China’s bewilderment, unlike the previous border disputes.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress in Kerala is sharply divided over the controversial Athirappalli hydro-electric project.

Houston is facing an unprecedented disaster. Rescuers answered hundreds of calls for help as floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey rose high enough to begin filling second-story homes, and authorities urged stranded families to seek refuge on their rooftops.

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena last week sacked the outspoken justice minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe for publicly criticising the government’s $1.1 billion deal with China to develop the strategic Hambantota port. His sacking was recommended by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was angry with Rajapakshe for questioning the government’s July 29 decision to sell a 70-per cent stake in the port to a Chinese firm, a move that could raise security concerns in India.

The scale of the Supreme Court’s judgment on making privacy a fundamental right is as important as its timeliness.

VOLUME II of the Economic Survey which was brought out by the ministry of finance a few days ago paints an extremely grim picture of the Indian economy. The growth rate of real Gross Value Added (GVA which is the appropriate thing to look at, since the GDP measure includes net indirect taxes and hence does not truly reflect output trends), was 6.6 per cent for 2016-17 as a whole, compared to 7.9 per cent for 2015-16. More importantly, the quarterly growth rate (ie, the growth rate of GVA in a particular quarter over the corresponding quarter of the preceding year) kept declining in every successive quarter during 2016-17, the fourth quarter growth rate being just 5.6 per cent, which was roughly 3 per cent below that of the fourth quarter of 2015-16.

If anything is singularly responsible for India remaining as one of the world’s unhappiest countries to live, it is the utter neglect of life here. The CIA’s world fact book, updated in July, this year, estimated 40.5 deaths per 1,000 live births — 39.2 deaths in the male child category and 41.8 deaths for female —in India in 2016. These unfortunate infant deaths partly explain why the world’s ninth richest country by GDP and yet the home of the world’s largest number of poor people is continuously slipping in the UN world happiness survey since its first report was published five years ago. It is not surprising that the sudden death of at least 64 children over six days at Gorakhpur’s Baba Raghav Das Medical College and Hospital, earlier this month, became an instant political hit with opposition leaders such as Rahul Gandhi even before the cause or causes of death were officially established and known to the public. Reports blaming the death are contradictory — one blamed lack of oxygen in the children’s word, other held the spread of Japanese Encephalitis responsible.

The elusive achhe din no longer holds out any promise; or causes disappointment. We have become so used to the facts of life that it no longer bothers us. But suddenly there is reason to feel optimistic about some possible good days ahead when it comes to petrol and fuel prices, which have been creeping up without our noticing it. After the introduction of dynamic fuel prices, which involves the daily revision of retail prices on the basis of the prevailing international crude oil prices, petrol prices for instance have gone up by Rs5.42 per litre in Delhi. It is a different matter that retail prices are higher compared to the days when crude oil prices were at levels of $140 a barrel. Now crude oil costs a neat $100 lesser and faces the prospects of further falls.

The Supreme Court made history when in a landmark 3-2 verdict, it 'set aside' the centuries-old practice of instant triple talaq in which Muslim men divorce their wives by uttering 'talaq, talaq, talaq' in quick succession. The apex court thus ended a source of injustice that put certain sections of Sunni Muslim women at great disadvantage. By a 3:2 majority SC ruled that this form of talaq is “manifestly arbitrary”, allowing marital ties to be “capriciously whimsically” broken by a Muslim man, and violated Article 14 of the Constitution guaranteeing equal protection of law to men and women. With no chance for reconciliation, many Muslim women have found themselves destitute, with no recourse available in civil law.