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With the US and India making 'progress' over the commercial and financing aspects of their civil nuclear agreement, the USA administration is hopeful that a deal for a nuclear power plant in India would be announced by summer of 2017.

Ironically, a good showing by the Congress in Punjab may harm the party in the long run because a satisfactory performance will further strengthen the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty’s grip on the organization. The stranglehold will preclude any infusion in the foreseeable future of fresh blood at the top with new ideas and greater proximity to the grassroots level.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s much-hyped up ‘Mission Delhi’ ended in fiasco with the Congress High Command refusing to blink in the face of his brinkmanship.

The US President Barack Obama closed his eight years of presidency with an emotional speech on Tuesday last. When he entered 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as its tenant in 2009, there were high expectations from within the country and abroad. India was no exception. Now that he has bid adieu to his presidency, his considerable legacy towards India needs to be assessed.

The beginning of the year 2017 has started with positive developments for the strengthening of the anti-BJP forces in the country following the Election Commission allowing Akhilesh Yadav led Samajwadi Party to use Cycle as the election symbol. This paves the way for a new power equation in the Uttar Pradesh politics which can checkmate BJP in the coming seven phase assembly elections in the state beginning on February 11 and ending on March 8.The supreme domination of the young Chief Minister of the SP has opened up the possibility of a formidable alliance between SP and the Congress in the assembly poll. All indications suggest that with both Akhilesh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi agreeing in principle to the need for such a unity in the UP polls against the BJP to stop the marching forward of the Hindutva forces, there will be not much difficulty in the distribution of seats. In any case, SP as the major party, will be contesting in around 300 out of the total of 403 seats in the UP assembly and the Congress and other allies will be left with around 100 seats.

India’s economy took a big hit from the sudden, ill-prepared November 8 decision to withdraw a massive quantum (86 per cent) of money in circulation, that now gets reflected in the global institutions’ growth estimates in fiscal 2017 and forecasts for the year ahead. It is time for the Modi Government to shift from a state of denial of contractions to repairing the social and economic damage from the disruptive ’notebandhi’ or “surgical strike” on honest millions.

BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh chief minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan, has launched yet another unique programme. This programme has been named as 'Anand Utsav'. The programme has been launched under the auspices of a specially constituted (Anand Vibhag Happiness Department). This department is headed by an officer of the rank of Additional Chief Secretary. This particular Additional Chief Secretary (Iqbal Singh Bais) also heads the chief minister's officer. Thus this programme will be supervised by the CMO.

Around 40,000 Rohingya Muslims belonging originally to Myanmar, have settled in India after being hounded out by Myanmar authorities and they are spread over eight states with a substantial number in Jammu. Indian intelligence officials are worried that some Rohingyas settled in Jammu, have got training under jehadis in Pakistan and Afghanistan and they are a threat to te Indian security in this sensitive region. Sources say that the concerned activists have international jehadi connections and they have already taken part in some actions in other countries.

Last week, Mondelez International Inc and its subsidiary, Cadbury, a global confectionery and snack-food major, reached a $13-million settlement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over questionable payments made, or bribes paid, to influential persons through an 'agent' by Cadbury’s unit in India in 2010 to secure various clearances. The news might have come as a shocker to India’s own Securities and Exchange Board (SEBI) in Mumbai and the company affairs department of the government in Delhi, which had no clue about “the speed money” Cadbury India paid to officials and probably some politicians as well to get licenses and approvals for a chocolate factory at Baddi located in Himachal Pradesh.

Shares of rail traffic, both in passenger and freight, have come down drastically since Independence vis-à-vis other modes of transportation despite volume of rail traffic having gone up substantially in absolute terms.. Presently, passenger share of Indian Railways has come down to 13 percent from 75 percent at the time of Independence. There is a worrying trend of decline in actual number of passengers since 2013-14. The number of rail passengers in 2012-13 was 8421 million, which has come down to 8151.90 million in 2015-16.