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The importance of Myanmar President U Htin Kyaw’s recent visit to Delhi and his formal meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi goes far beyond the signing of a number of MoUs on Indo-Myanmar cooperation in various fields but should be seen in its wider context.

The US Presidential elections are scheduled on November 9 this year but the socialist Democratic Party leader Bernie Sanders has not waited till the elections are over and the new President is elected between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. He has announced as promised his immediate agenda through his organization” Our Revolution” which is the continuation of the electoral battle run by the Vermont Congressman against the establishment candidate Hillary Clinton for the nomination of the Democratic Party. Bernie has endorsed Clinton for Presidential nomination on the basis of the results in the primaries but he agreed only after Hillary and the Democratic Party establishment agreed to incorporate the majority of his demands in the programme of the future Democratic Party President.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi proposes to undertake a Maha Pada Yatra for 30 days from September 6 with a view to swing the fortunes of the party in the ensuing Uttar Pradesh elections. It will cover a total 223 assembly and 55 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. This follows the enthusiastic response in Varanasi on August 2 when Congress President Sonia Gandhi did a road show. Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi will be the trio who are expected to deliver UP this time.

China has worked hard for months to make the first G-20 Summit under its leadership a landmark event to achieve revival of global growth and trade - in a more challenging environment post-crisis with low incomes and rising inequality across nations. Globalisation itself is in peril.

You thought that it is India which commits such crimes as imposing retrospective taxes running into ten years or more. Think again. It is the holiest of holies of so-called tax conservatives, the European Union and OECD countries, that are now imposing two decades old retrospective tax claims.

Giving a big push to the joint collaboration in the energy sector will be getting major focus in the discussions Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be holding with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the bilateral summit in October this year in New Delhi. This will be the 17th bilateral summit between India and Russia and the visit of the Russian President has been preponed to coincide with the BRICS summit in Goa on October 15 and 16 when the Russian President will be present.

BHOPAL: Many important leaders and functionaries of the BJP and the RSS launched severe criticism on the functioning of the Shivraj Singh government. Those who vied with each other in criticising the BJP led Madhya Pradesh government included BJP members of parliament and representatives of various organisations affiliated to the RSS. The occasion was the recent two day meeting summoned by the RSS to get feedback about the BJP ministry.

India and the US has given a concrete shape and face to their newly evolved companionship by signing the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA) that will allow the two countries to provide logistics support to each other’s fighter planes, warships and personnel. Indian defence minister Manohar Parrikar who is in USA has accomplished the task of signing the LEMOA as promised to the US defence secretary Ashton Carter during his visit to Delhi in April.

It is a safe bet that no government will withdraw any of the laws which ostensibly exist to protect the nation from internal and external threats, but are nearly always misused.

Much noise is being made over the Australian media expose’ of the 22,000-page knowhow and secret data leakage of the state-of-the-art Scorpene stealth submarines, which are being built in India’s Mazagon Dockyard under a collaboration agreement with the French supplier. The foreign publication has threatened to expose more. The French designer has gone to the court. However, this is not for the first time that a highly guarded defence technology transfer by an overseas armament manufacturer and supplier to India became a public knowledge through the media. In the mid-1980s, under Rajiv Gandhi’s prime ministership, the German technology to build HDW submarines, also in the Mazagon Docks, which India purchased at huge cost those days, was reported as ‘already sold and transferred’ with other sensitive documents to South Africa. The HDW submarine deal caused a huge embarrassment to Rajiv Gandhi and his government not for the knowhow leakage alone, but also for a kickback allegedly received by those involved in the purchase deal, including the prime minister. Tragically, the government said it was unaware of both the developments before they were exposed in the overseas media.