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Intriguingly, both the Congress and the BJP are currently involved in internal skirmishes. Nor are they of a minor nature common to most parties which have to deal with factional squabbles.

This is undoubtedly a different budget, much different than anyone has seen or read since the independence. The poor, the downtrodden and the old may think they have the most – insurance, pension, health care and all that. The unemployed youth, aspiring small entrepreneurs may find the budget providing a basket of hopes. The salaried middle class carries more money into their pocket even without lower tax levies. The states are treated most ravishingly ever. Eastern states, including West Bengal and Bihar, and newly created Andhra Pradesh have more. The give-away list goes on and on. There is little to grumble about the budget. The only fears are the remote possibility of an international oil price surge beyond $75 per barrel and a real drought.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: An aggressive assertion of its separate identity and a forceful articulation of the paramount need for strengthening the left marked the start of the five-day state conference of the Communist Party of India (CPI) in Kerala in Kottayam.

Where is Rahul Gandhi? None in the Congress Party knows his whereabouts. First reports revealed he was seen boarding a flight to Greece and then someone said he might have gone to Bangkok. The latest reports say that he was sighted in Uttarakhand, but according to a Congress leader, he may be in Himachal Pradesh. The stock answer to repeated queries was Rahul has gone on sabbatical to introspect on a series of Congress defeats in elections; first debacle in Lok Sabha elections in May 2014, followed by rout in Haryana and Maharashtra assembly polls and finally in Delhi where the mighty Congress Party, which ruled the state for 15 long years and set the pace for development, was reduced to a zero.

A medium-term massive investment plan of the order of Rs 8.56 lakh crore for the next five years with no hike in passenger fares but a 10 per cent increase in the freight structure for the base class-100 with a few exemptions for essential items such as salt for human consumption and bulk goods like cement, coal and coke, iron and steel, pig iron, iron ores and petroleum products as also rationalization of distance slabs in the next fiscal are the highlights of the 2015-16 Rail Budget presented in Parliament by the Railway Minister Mr. Suresh Prabhu on February 26.

India with its quest for attracting greater foreign direct investments (FDIs) has stepped up its diplomatic efforts around the world. Diplomatic efforts have gained a renewed vigour after the country relaxed FDI norms and shortlisted as many as 25 sectors to attract investments under the ambitious Make-in-India programme. These sectors are namely auto components, automobiles, aviation, biotechnology, chemicals, construction, defence manufacturing, electrical machinery, electronic system design and manufacturing, food processing, IT &BPM, leather, media and entertainment, mining, oil and gas, pharmaceuticals, ports, railways, roads and highways, renewable energy, space, textiles, thermal power, tourism and hospitality and wellness.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has got a golden opportunity to bring about measures for the welfare of the masses through the 2015-16 budget to be presented on February 28.The Economic Survey for 2014-15 presented to Parliament on February 27 depicts a picture of steady recovery in the Indian economy with a GDP growth potential of over 8 per cent in the next fiscal as against the current year’s estimated figure of 7.4 per cent. The international credit rating agency Standard & Poor has already projected a growth rate of 7.9 per cent for India in 2015-16 and so that way the Survey’s forecast is not at all ambitious.

The Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu’s maiden rail budget-2015-16 and first full fledged railway budget of the NDA Government, announced in the Lok Sabha on February 26, 2015, has fixed the annual railway plan size at Rs.100, 011 crore for the fiscal year 2015-16, raising it by 52 per cent over 2014-15 fiscal year. It would be a Herculean task for mobilizing such massive resources in the backdrop of down sizing annual railway plan size for the three consecutive financial years, 2011-13, 2013-14 2014-15 drastically.

The first week of what was billed to be a historic budget session with game-changing reforms to be listed in a weekend Budget – evoking worldwide interest - has had a tumultous start inducing some caution for the powerful Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his tough-talking colleagues against any precipitous course of governance.

Why does the Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi hog the front -page headlines for the wrong reasons? The Gandhi scion has done it again by choosing to disappear on the eve of the crucial budget session of Parliament when his party members expected him to lead the attack on the Modi government. Rahul Gandhi often goes abroad and also has missed many other important occasions like attending the farewell party for Prime Minister Singh, or participating in the 130th birth anniversary of the Congress Party to name a few. The surprise was that the party had made it public that he had sought leave of absence for a sabbatical.