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An audacious journalist, Nora Chopra, was given a loving farewell by colleagues, family and friends at a memorial meeting held at the Delhi Union of Journalists’ office on April 27, 2017.

Why is Make in India loosing steam? Was it eulogized with fanfare when it was launched in September 2014? Two years have passed, Make in India continues to reel under uncertainty. It did not make any headway in the growth of manufacturing trajectory. Production growth hovers around 2 per cent, despite high GDP growth in the country (7 per cent). Export was flat. Investment by private sector dwindled. Stock market wades in volatility.

The disaster at Sukhma, where 25 CRPF jawans lost their lives, reveals many shortcomings in government’s Maoist policy. Absence of strategic clarity, over-dependence of states on Central forces, have crippled the fight against Maoist. It is also incomprehensible that there is no clarity yet about the strategic approach to Maoist problem even though the Indian state has been battling it for last 50 years. Shivraj Patil, when he was Home Minister in the UPA government, had described Maoist as “our brothers and sisters”. The Maoists took full advantage of this approach to augment their strength and built fire power. In 2006, a 14-point policy was announced which, among other things, talked of addressing the problem simultaneously “on political, security and development fronts”. The policy, however, never got implemented on the ground.

India witnessed 703 communal riots during the calendar year 2016 in which 86 persons lost their lives and 2321 people injured compared to 752 communal incidents in 2015, 644 communal strife in 2014, 694 in 2013 and 668 in 2012. According to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), one major communal riots occurred in Hazinagar, West Bengal during the year. An analysis of communal riots, however, reveals low intensity violence is the new mantra of the anti-social communal elements.

LUCKNOW: The Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh is facing a staggering law and order problem created by various saffron outfits during last one month.

The strategic partnership between India and US is primarily driven by defence related deals. There is no other propelling element. It is a vibrant deal till India responds positively to the American requirements. The strength of the partnership is judged by the nature and quantum of defence deals. An analysis of the ‘strategic partnership’ between India and US and the defence deals struck, raises some serious questions regarding their utility and effects on achieving India’s strategic interests. The Modi government had signed 147 procurement contracts worth over Rs 2.96 lakh crore in three years.

With the agitation against government effort to grab adivasi land and handing over the same to the private and corporate sectors for setting up industries, the Union government is also steadily moving ahead with the plan to implicate the activists on the plea of being Maoists. But undeterred of the NDA government’s machinations, stir against Adani project spreads across Godda. The activists have resorted to a sort of direct action.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said recently that India’s infrastructure gap is so huge that it will take at least two decades to bridge. At the same time this major bottleneck to development provided an opportunity for massive investment. Prime Minister Narendra Modi Government has therefore focused rightly on infrastructure development from day one it came to power in May 2014.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: April has been a cruel month both literally and politically for Kerala. The people of the state are feeling the heat with a blazing summer sun glaring down on them. But the soaring mercury outside is nothing compared to the political heat wave hammering the Left Democratic Front(LDF) Government.

With an army of 1.33 million employees under its fold, the Indian Railways (IR) today stand at the crossroads to rediscover its relevance and role in shaping India’s mobility of its legions of upwardly mobile youthful people. For the major arterial mode of transport, IR saw some wrenching changes in recent times, including an abrupt end to its privileged status of presenting its own budget, a colonial practice that survived close to seven decades. The Modi Government has not only merged the rail budget with the General Budget but also put paid to political allies of the governing coalition using the railways as gravy train to batten on without qualms to the larger consequences of such patently populist practices inflicting havoc on the spine and sinews of the railways down the years.