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West Bengal may find it necessary to redefine its land acquisition policy to upgrade its road and highways network, a major component of rebuilding its inadequate infrastructure.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Will the CPI(M) get it right this time around? This is the million dollar question resonating in the power corridors of the State following the Left Democratic Front(LDF)’s decision to scale up the agitation demanding the resignation of Finance Minister K. M. Mani, who is in the eye of the bar bribery scam.

The US president Barack Obama’s farewell shot to India after his three-day successful visit this week was marked by his cautious reference to the right of freedom of individuals to profess, practice and propagate religion quoting the Indian Constitution. He noted that it was important for India with its multiplicity of faiths to uphold this fundamental right. In short Obama’s thrust was that India would succeed as long as it's not splintered along religious lines.

The United Nations (UN) has plumped for greater cooperation among countries to put in place a set of safeguards and rules for tax reforms the world over in the bleak backdrop of extant rules and conditions, “particularly regarding illicit flows, as well as tax avoidance” often limiting what governments can raise as domestic revenues”. International rules, policies and cooperation play a key role in ensuring that governments have the ability to raise sufficient revenue domestically as they remain by far “the largest and most reliable source for investment in sustainable development”.

As in other eastern states, dalit politics is emerging in a forceful manner in West Bengal too. While this development is a setback to the classical bhadralok culture, it would also endanger the gains of the two-century-old Bengal renaissance. Caste equation has undoubtedly been a factor for identifying the support base of the political parties. But at no stage it dictated the political and ideological discourse. This in fact has been the major difference between the political parties operating in Bengal to those in other states. If the Congress represented the aspiration of the aristocrat and upper caste Bengali Hindus who have working relation with the rural poor, the ascendance of the CPI(M), the left parties, owes to coming together of the intermediate castes and namashudra (dalit). But both these parties instead of following the dictates of the caste pursued a left of the centre political and ideological line.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The political storm battering the Congress-led United Democratic Front(UDF) Government has gathered greater force with the Congress itself sharply divided over support to beleaguered Kerala Congress(M) chief and Finance Minister K. M. Mani, who is in the eye of the bar bribery scam.

He came, he saw and conquered almost everything. US President Barack Obama revisited India this time with a clear objective – to derive an effectively no nuclear liability concession for American atomic plant and equipment suppliers, to get India play a strategic partner to contain China in the Asia-Pacific region and to arm India. Going by the joint statement by the US president and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Obama has succeeded in his summit objective. The US president did not leave the pomp and show of India’s Republic Day celebration that followed the summit to deviate from his principal tour purpose. It was the high point of his visit and the takeaway of the summit.

More than two weeks on, the debate on the barbaric killings of Charlie Hebdo journalists and the freedom of expression has become a conversation across time-zones and political, cultural and legal divides. This is probably the first time that such a debate is taking place in a world connected by Facebook, Twitter and U-Tube.

Ever since she was denied the police commissioner’s post in Delhi in 2007 by a Congress government, Kiran Bedi has been bent on getting the better of the (no longer) Grand Old Party. Now, finally, her ambition may be fulfilled if she can become Delhi’s chief minister, courtesy the BJP, for which she is alleged always to have had a soft corner.

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav is not happy the way his own son, chief minister Akhilesh Yadav is running the SP-led government in Uttar Pradesh.