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LUCKNOW: Unable to face the electorate through by-elections, the BJP is looking for safe passage for entry of UP CM Yogi Adityanath and three other ministers through the Legislative Council.

The nineteenth round of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) Trade Negotiating Committee held its twelve-day protracted parleys in Hyderabad with Government of India hosting the event. RCEP is a proposed comprehensive regional economic integration agreement among the 10-ASEAN (Association of South East Asian Nations comprising Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) and its six Free Trade Agreement (FTA) partners namely Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Korea and India.

Nitish Kumar’s departure from the “secular” camp has been a body blow to the Opposition, but it’s even more so for Rahul Gandhi.

In spite of threats from the Trump administration and sometimes violent demonstrations and a boycott by the right wing opposition, the scheduled elections for Venezuela’s National Constituent Assembly were held Sunday, July 30.

BHOPAL: A very grave situation prevails in the Narmada valley where people in their hundreds are observing "Jal Satyagraha" by standing in knee and waist-deep water and resorting to indefinite fast. The protest is aimed at forcing the state government to give up the plans to remove them from places that would soon be submerged.

It is said that trouble never comes singly but comes in a row and the grand old party, the Indian National Congress, is presently experiencing this. Since 2014 when the party won just 44 seats in the Lok Sabha polls, (the lowest ever), the Congress has been sliding continuously except for a good showing in Bihar in 2015 and in Punjab in 2017. Now, after the blow by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar by breaking the Bihar Mahagathbandhan last week and joining with the BJP, the Congress is facing trouble from its own stable in Gujarat as the party legislators are in a rebel mood. Six of them have already resigned and more are threatening to do so.

Nitish Kumar betrayed secularism, if not the secular forces, but in the process has gifted a young and dynamic secular face in the form of Tejashvi Yadav. The way he lambasted Nitish on the floor of the Bihar assembly, while speaking on the confidence motion put by the chief minister in favour of his government, made it abundantly clear that Nitish, Sushil Modi and Narendra Modi have erred in their political assessment of this young lad of 29 years.

The visit of National Security Adviser Ajit Doval to Beijing late last month and his interactions with the Chinese leaders including president Xi Jinping have brought out two facets of the reality. First, contrary to the extremely provocative and threatening language used by the official Chinese media against India about the stand-off at Doklam, the political leadership is not itching for a war with India. Secondly, a tacit, if nor a formal, understanding seems to have been reached that neither side will do anything to escalate the ground situation at Doklam.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will do a great service to the nation if he is able to put in place the National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) to rein in the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) for its perceived failure to enforce discipline. The prime minister is clearly upset with chartered accountants’ role in lack of corporate governance and financial misconduct of corrupt politicians, businessman and NGOs. While Companies Act 2013 provided for NFRA as a regulatory agency for audit, accounts and financial reporting, Section 132 of the law has remained on paper as the rules are yet to be notified. It seems some powerful, politically-connected ICAI members ICAI have been able to put the issue in cold storage for the last three years.

Despite a media frenzy of misrepresentation fuelled by the Tories, polling this week confirmed that only 17 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds interpreted Jeremy Corbyn’s comments to “deal with” historic student debt as promising a full write-off.