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The seventh summit of the BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa) countries scheduled at Ufa in Russian Federation on July 9 and 10 this year, will be a big test for the Russian President Vladimir Putin in organizing the support of the major economies of the world for working a strategic cooperation for steering investment and growth within the group.

There were a few takers for the West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s claim that elections to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation were fair and by and large peaceful. Long before she attempted to assuage the feelings of the urban people, especially the Bengali bhadralok, who was enraged at the massive show of fire power and violence during the election, the State Election Commission Susanta Ranjan Upadhyaya had echoed the popular perception: “The SEC had received about 70 complaints during the day from different political parties regarding violence and other electoral malpractices. With so many complaints how can I describe the polls as peaceful?”

At a time when China is busy in extending its ‘String of Pearls’ in the Indian Ocean with an intention to encircle India, New Delhi has worked out an alternate strategy to checkmate Chinese ambition by inviting Trans-Atlantic powers in the region. President Xi Jinping on his recent visit to Pakistan signed a $46 billion agreement for 3,000-km China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) which will connect Gwadar in Pakistan to China's western Xinjiang region. This CPEC will be a network of roads, railway and pipelines between the long-time allies and would give Beijing direct access to the Indian Ocean. China’s “all weather friend”, Islamabad has thus become its centre of “pivotal importance.”

BHOPAL: In a major step to promote Hindu values in various walks of life, the BJP state government organised a three-day International Seminar from April 17 to 19 in Bhopal. The seminar was jointly organised by the Culture Department of the government, a New Delhi-based organisation called “Shiksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas” (Trust for betterment of education and culture) and Makhanlal Chaturvedi National University of Journalism, Bhopal.

The old order has given way to the new order in the Communist Party of India (Marxists) with the 62-year-old Sitaram Yechury taking over the reins on Sunday at Visakhapatnam. He is the fifth general secretary of the party. He has taken over at a time when the party is facing its struggle for survival. The CPI (M) has not only lost the national status but also gasping even for its regional space. It had been a coalition partner leading the Left Front in the National Front, United Front and supported the Congress in the UPA 1. From 2011, it had lost even the regional space when Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee threw it out in West Bengal after 34 years of the left rule. It also lost Kerala where it was leading the LDF coalition. Only in Tripura the left is ruling. In a severe jolt, the Left parties were rendered virtually politically irrelevant in the 2014 polls winning only 10 seats, down from 24 in the previous House. The total vote-share of CPI (M), CPI, RSP and Forward Bloc drastically came down from seven per cent in 2009 elections to 4.5 per cent.

Early this month, the Modi Government hosted the State Environment and Forest Ministers’ Conference that promises to craft the concerns on unsustainable development with a raft of action plan to arrest, if not reverse, the damaging consequences of myopic development policies. Though the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi traced the country’s historic veneration for environment down the ages, the stark fact remains that in the pursuit of growth to meet the compulsions of demographically dynamic youth populace with avalanche of aspirations, successive governments both at the Centre and the States had paid callous disregard to maintain the delicate balance between the two opposite strands in the path to modernity and societal advancement! This is no secret and the business-as-usual approach would not do if India is to present a responsive and responsible position in the run-up to the global conference on climate change to be held in Paris towards the end of this year.

The Centre has reportedly decided to undertake a ‘review’ of the 17 Mountain Strike Corps (MSC) which is being raised to defend India’s borders in the high Himalayas in the North-East. The object of the review is to downsize the corps. The Centre’s decision has come at a time when two infantry divisions and an independent armoured brigade have already been raised and other brigades are being positioned. The reason is said to be the very high cost – Rs. 64,678 crore – that will have to be incurred to bring the corps to its full strength.

Is something genuinely wrong with the way the affairs of the country are being run? They probably are. How else can one explain and put up with India’s emerging as the world’s biggest annual defence importer with its army, navy and air force still putting up with massive shortage of modern armament and equipment. Why do India’s indigenous missile and satellite programmes have little connect with its military capability? Why is India short of modern guns, trucks, war ships, aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, fighters, bombers, signal equipment and electronic gadgets?

Government takes pride in saying that India has one of the largest irrigation networks in the world. Yet vagaries of weather play havoc to Indian agriculture as vast majority of farmers are still dependent on the rains for their livelihood. There may no longer be starvation deaths in the country but the plight of farmers even after nearly 70 years of independence is pathetic as agriculture is one area where successive governments have provided symptomatic solutions to problems. One is not belittling the achievements so far but it is regrettable that a holistic approach has not been adopted on a sustained basis resulting in periodical suffering of farmers. Share of agriculture has come down to 15-16 per cent in India’s GDP with progress but nearly 60 per cent of population still dependent on agriculture putting huge pressure on land, which is increasingly becoming scarce.

When it comes to sheer hypocrisy and double standards, it’s hard to beat the Sangh Parivar. It strenuously claimed the legacy of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, a principal author of India’s Constitution, and a Dalit, on his 124th birth anniversary. This was motivated by nothing nobler than the coming election in Bihar, where a Dalit (former stopgap Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manzhi) has emerged as the Bharatiya Janata Party’s potential ally against Messrs Nitish Kumar and Laloo Prasad.