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India witnessed 721 communal strives in 2015, in which 97 persons lost their lives and 2264 people injured compared to 95 dead and 1921 injured during 2014. However, no major communal riots occurred during 2015, according to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA). The communal situation across the country, by and large, was under control.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The stay granted by the Kerala High Court on the recent Government order asking the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations to carry out allotments to all seats in private self-financing medical colleges is no setback for the Government as is being made out to be.

The Awami National Party which has only one elected representative in the 366-member National Assembly of Pakistan with just one percent of votes in the last parliamentary elections, held in 2013, continues to remain the main target of the Talibans in the latter’s protracted assassination campaign. Hundreds of ANP leaders and cadres were killed during the last seven years but the ANP’s intrepid opposition to the politics of individual terrorism shows no sign of fading out.

After quite some time, the centre has appointed competent persons as governors. In the poll-bound state of Punjab, a senior and experienced BJP leader V P Singh Badnore has been installed on the gubernatorial post. The last governor of the state was a senior Congress leader and former home minister Shivraj Patil.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s recent efforts to control the activities of party-backed anti socials have proved abortive. Because of continuing lawlessness and a general police reluctance to take any action against goons with Trinamool Congress (TMC) links, India’s foreign trade to Nepal and Bangladesh from West Bengal has been hit.

Apprehensions have come true. Enforcement of Bihar Prohibition Law has driven the well organized liquor trade underground. Stringent prohibition laws boost corruption and crime. On August 15, when the country was celebrating its Independence, at least 16 poor and Mahadalits in Gopalganj, fiefdom of RJD chief Lalu Yadav embraced death by consuming illicit liquor. It was really a shocking incident as the chief executive of the state, Nitish Kumar had vowed to eradicate the menace of boozing at all cost and liberate the people from the vices of boozing.

At first sight, the Modi Government may have earned some credit all over for its choice and for ensuring a degree of stability in the conduct of monetary policy by selecting the highly accomplished Dr Urjit Patel, Deputy Governor, to succeed the internationally acclaimed Dr Raghuram Rajan to head India's central bank.

Will Nepal find stability in the new regime of Pushpa Kamal Dahal? Will the Maoist leader known as Prachanda be able to steer Nepal better than he did when he was Prime Minister eight years ago? Will Indo-Nepal relations be back on track? It all depends on a lot of things including how he handles the two big neighbours - China and India and how the two neighbours look at Prachanda’s regime.

Spurt in terror strikes across the globe has shown the growing spread of their network that radicalizes people to target innocent lives. Different terror outfits have sprung up and are present in almost all parts of the world. Unfortunately, the United Nations has not yet been able to negotiate the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism. The draft has got stuck up in attempts to define terrorism and what constitutes an act of terror. Much more controversies are awaited over the concept of “good” terrorists and “bad” terrorists. How much of more bleeding can the world afford to realize this growing menace?

The successor to the charismatic current RBI Governor Dr. Raghuram G Rajan by an equally foreign-trained economist from renowned global institutions Dr Urjit Patel early next month has not set the markets afire. As one perceptive observer said the difference between the two governors is that one was educated at the US and another in the UK with both of them sharing steadfastly to their core dharma of preserving price stability as the sole and whole objective of the central bank, the markets’ muted reaction is but understandable. Even as the proverbial chasm between the Mint Street in Mumbai where the apex bank is billeted and the main street in North Block where the mandarins of the Ministry of Finance sit continues to be distinct, the Finance Ministry’s ready reassurance to the markets that the new Governor would be flexible betrays a sense of one-upmanship over the functional autonomy of the central bank.