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The next summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at Tashkent in Uzbekistan on June 23 and 24, will be the first one with the full membership of India and Pakistan. The summit is crucial in presenting a joint approach to the issue of regional security and to defeat any attempts by the rich nations led by the USA to divide the SCO members and impose roadblocks on the way of fostering energy security by the SCO member countries. The CIS members of the SCO as also China and Russia as the original founding members have the responsibility to steer the SCO to the right direction so that SCO can really emerge as a major grouping for ensuring security in the region and fostering economic collaboration at a faster pace so that the energy resources of the SCO members, especially in the Central Asian region, are developed taking into account te best interests of the members.

Narendra Modi once cautioned the judiciary against being influenced by “five-star activists”. Evidence of such perception-driven considerations beyond the ambit of law and logic can be discerned in the Bombay high court’s directive to keep out some of the IPL cricket matches from Maharashtra in view of the water scarcity in the state.

It must be unnerving for any country continuously coping up with a belligerent neighbour that makes military bonhomie with the world’s top three super military powers on its soil. It must be equally uncomfortable for a country, itself aspiring to be a global economic powerhouse, getting practically surrounded by the world’s third largest military superpower and second biggest economy to disturb its growth focus. India may be the lone example of such a country anywhere in the world. India, the world's ninth largest economy in dollar term, has lately broken the global slowdown trend to maintain a seven per cent plus GDP growth. But, it is faced with both external and internal challenges to growth and economic stability. Being a multi-party democracy with several regional power centres having constant political tug-of-war with the national government, the country’s administrative and intellectual energies are being spent more on managing internal political frictions than to pursue more effective external diplomacy to build some strong trusted friends among leaders in the international community.

A new dawn broke over Myanmar democracy after five decades of military rule. On March 30, for the first time in 50 years, Myanmar saw a civilian President and an elected civilian government together, when Mr U Htin Kyaw took over the Presidentship of Myanmar. In November 2015, NLD (National League of Democracy), led by Aung San Suu Kyi, the general election in Myanmar with massive victory, overthrowing the military government.

Renaming cities is nothing new in India; some were relevant and some irrelevant; some names were changed for political convenience. A number of places whose names were misspelled or mispronounced during the British Raj have been changed after Independence. For example Cawnpore, as Englishmen pronounced it, was changed to Kanpur. Regional and linguistics identity and people’s aspirations were some of the common reasons that governments have cited to justify to change the name of places.

NEW DELHI: Air India’s low cost cousin Air India Express has reasons to celebrate. In the year 2014-15, the Air India Express made an operating profit of Rs 330 crore. For 2015-16 it is expecting an operating profit of about Rs 800 crore. With just 18 aircraft, 700 employees and mainly the Gulf region to serve, it is no mean achievement in a highly competitive environment.

After the end of the second phase of the polls on April 11, the war of survival for BJP in Bengal has finally entered into a blind alley. The desperation of the saffron force is evident from the incongruous tactics being resorted to by it. While the RSS is out to communalise the scenario by pushing the Vishwa Hindu Parishad to celebrate Ram Janmotsva in the state, the Prime Minister has launched vilification campaign against Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. His style of campaign makes it explicit that he has not learnt the lessons from Bihar drubbing.

Dalit icon Bhim Rao Ambedkar is the flavour of this year as political parties are competing with each other for the Dalit votes which are up for grabs. For the first time, obviously with the Modi government’s efforts, the United Nations observed the Dalit icon’s 125th birth anniversary showcasing his universal appeal on Wednesday, a day ahead of his birthday. Prime Minister Modi himself paid homage to the departed leader visiting his birthplace in Mhow to observe social harmony day. To claim Ambekdar’s legacy, the Congress too organised a big rally in Nagpur on Monday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Three days after the ghastly Paravur temple fireworks display tragedy which killed 113 people, a shell-shocked Kerala is reeling under its devastating impact.

There is no ambiguity. The Narendra Modi government has conceded ground to the USA administration and agreed to enter into the logistics support pact. In fact the Indian defence minister Manohar Parrikar announced that the pact, known as the Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) will be concluded “in the coming months”. India and the US are working on a key agreement that will give either country access to logistics support from the other besides refuelling and berthing facilities.