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The Prime Minister Narendra Modi is not a naïve. By his rule for nearly 14 years in Gujarat, he has given evidence of his political astuteness and his administrative capabilities. Above all he proved to be a better equipped with political marketing techniques. He did not engage in verbal duels with those who heaped allegations of communal politics on him for a decade. His reply and effective one was to ensure no another break out of even minor communal incident in 12 years. His marketing technique earned him attention of the world leaders after the Beijing Conference on the World economy. After the Beijing performance even Indian industrialists vied to issue certificates of his economic performance in the decade of his regime in Gujarat.

Even as Darjeeling continues to burn, political leaders and parties cannot help feeling, ‘Here we go again’, a strong sense of déjà vu, whether they support or oppose a separate Gorkhaland state. They have been going through the same motions, shouting the same slogans and resorting to now familiar acts of arson for over three decades.

In a recent policy liberalization, the government has done away with the FIPB route for approval of major foreign direct investment. This is a major policy shift to woo the foreign investment, besides opening doors big way under Make in India campaign. But, there are more such challenges to stimulate the domestic investors.

HONGKONG: China has launched one of the world’s most powerful space observatories dedicated to the study of black holes, the darkest regions of the universe where gravity is so strong not even light escapes.

“You do not need to commit to land in a jail. Get into any business and you will end up eventually in jail.” This message is gone viral on social media as younger generation is expressing through it its dissatisfaction with plethora of recent rules, regulations and enactments that stand in the way of their economic activities. The young of third generation since the emergency imposed by the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in June 1975 do not know what had happened then. They have not even read of why Indira Gandhi preferred to use the constitution to escape her political crisis and moral dilemma as consequence of the high court verdict unseating her.

BHOPAL: Farmers continue to protest in some form or the other in Madhya Pradesh, though no violence has been reported since June 10, the day on which Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan ended his 28-hour-long fast to “restore peace”. Chouhan has taken some steps to heal the wounds of the families who lost their kin in police firing at Mandsaur on July 6. He visited them and handed over cheques of Rs one crore each to all the six families.

LUCKNOW: BJP is unnerved with the possibility of a grand alliance (mahagathbandhan) of opposition parties ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The Indian Establishment is perpetually in a state of denial. Self-denial has almost become a state policy, except that it has not been written into the Constitution’s directive principles. One may argue that there is nothing wrong with complacency as long as it gives a sense of contentment and security. But when it is a false sense of security, it lands us in a dangerous situation. A good part of India’s problems actually stem from this self-denial mode that we have placed ourselves in. The first step towards solving any problem is recognizing that it exists. But we are adept at dealing with a problem not only by ignoring it but vehemently denying that anything like that exists at all.

Ever since, former governor Raghuram Rajan had underlined the need to clear up the air over sticky loans of India’s public sector banks, the issue has come out of the closet. Earlier, bad debts were usually swept under the carpet and not openly talked about. The banking secrecy laws were invoked and no actual references could be made. No names were disclosed of those who had taken loans and were not returning, whether wilfully or accidentally.

A week after the shock defeat of the Tories in the general elections, the British politics continues to undergo great churning. While the Prime Minister Theresa May is busy cobbling a majority with the ten members of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the most discredited political Party in the United Kingdom, the Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn is going from strength to strength in the post-election period. The latest survey done by the pro-Tory The Telegraph newspapers projects a lead of five per cent in favour of the Labour as against the Tories if the elections are held now. The other surveys are projecting higher leads in favour of Labour Party thereby indicating that the popular mood is now favouring a change.