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War is not all about attack. History has shown that tactical retreat as a war strategy had succeeded in winning more wars by entrapping advancing enemy than the show of blind belligerence by a brigade. Unfortunately, the use of tact is not a very strong point of this last Lok Sabha poll defeated Sonia-Rahul led Congress party. Its leaders are speaking in babel of tongues when they should hold them and judge every side-effect carefully before making their tongue movements in public. The latest outburst by some loose-tongued Congress satraps to publicly badmouthing the rousing rockstar-like reception to Prime Minister Narendra Modi by persons of Indian origin (PIO) and Indian immigrants in Australia at Sydney, these leaders have only exposed their pettiness and political jealously putting their party in a very poor light before the general public both at home and abroad. The Congress leaders saw in such receptions – first, in New York, last month, and now in Sydney – nothing positive. Instead, they smelt a PMO spin and money-making venture by the reception organisers. They are obviously out of their senses and totally tactless.

Why is Prime Minister Narendra Modi wooing the Indian Diaspora? While Modi’s critics say that he is building up the brand Modi abroad, Modi is clear that with their support he could build a better image for himself. There are about 100 million Indians living abroad and he obviously feels that their power should be harnessed for the growth of India and for his own image.

While prospects for improving Indo-Bangladesh relations have brightened following Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's discussion with his Bangladeshi counterpart Ms Hasina Wazed on pending issues, working out the Teesta river water sharing arrangement may take some time.

If South Asia plans to consolidate and further integrate itself, it needs to learn much from the experiences of South-East Asian countries that are moving towards an ASEAN Economic Community hopefully by 2015. About 80 per cent of the spadework have been done for the process of integration, only 20 per cent of the efforts are needed. The ASEAN group was of course formed much earlier on August 8, 1967, while the South Asian group, SAARC, was formed on December 8, 1985. The European nations after years of efforts finally came together in the form of European Union on November 1, 1993.

All those who expected Prime Minister Narendra Modi to deliver on his election-campaign promise of cleaning up Indian politics of money power and crime, making a break with short-term caste-and-community calculations, and placing merit above personal loyalty, would be sorely disappointed at his cabinet reshuffle, including the induction of 21 new ministers.

BHOPAL: Both the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress are in serious trouble. The reason is mounting discontent over the distribution of tickets for the three-tier urban bodies which will go to polls during the current month and also during December this year. How much serious situation is in both the parties can be appreciated by the headlines in a local English newspaper. The headlines are 'After resignation of top leaders, Congress faces ticket-for-cash charges'. The other headline is 'Rebels galore in BJP too.'

Given the size of the country’s domestic market of goods and services, the prime minister’s vision of manufacturing in India is no doubt a very practical idea not only from the point of view of the scale of local consumption but also the opportunity it holds for the export of surplus production. No country can sustain an import-led economy forever. However, its success will depend on the price and quality competitiveness of ‘Made-in-India’ products and services vis-a-vis imported ones. That is easier said than done. Entrepreneurs in a free economy are not in control of the factors of production, including costs of funds, raw material, labour, technology and conversion. The challenges are as much internal as external. And, industry has to perform at the highest level of efficiency to charter Made-in-India’s success. Simply, there is no escape from cost audit and maintenance of cost records on a regular basis by industry that many are trying to avoid by influencing the government to amend the cost rules.

LUCKNOW: Mission 2017 to capture power in Uttar Pradesh has prompted a major political move which is to play aggressive dalit card to woo member of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes who constitute more than 22 per cent of the total population.

If all goes well, India and Russia will shortly ink the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India & the Customs Union of Belarus, Kazakhstan & Russian Federation. The coming visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin to India next month is supposed to impart a new dimension to the bilateral ties between India and Russian Federation and speedy finalization of the FTA between the two countries, will be one of the major tasks in the summit. The bilateral trade between the two countries crossed to $12 billion in early months of 2013 and by 2015, it is expected to touch $20 billion.

KOLKATA: Way back in 1994, the then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao formulated India’s ‘Look East’ policy. Its aim was to strengthen economic ties, increase trade and commerce between India and her eastern neighbours and provide greater market access to one another for mutual benefit. Several projects like the 3200 km long India-Myanmar-Thailand Trilateral Highway were taken up to accelerate the implementation of this policy. This particular project has taken an inordinately long time and is yet to be completed.