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NDA Government appeared to be in a fix as to whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi should visit Japan before the BRICS summit and budget session. Never before the visit of any Indian Prime Minister to Japan was hyped as the visit of Mr Modi did. Mr Modi is known for his special preference for Japan for development. Media was hogged with the reports that Japan would be the first bilateral visit of Mr Modi and he would visit in the first week of July. The euphoria was buried when it was decided that he would visit after budget session.

It is unfortunate but true; the gubernatorial office is used for rehabilitation of political leaders who have been rejected by the people, could not be accommoded in the government, battled-scared veterans and favourite officers. Both the Congress and the BJP have used Raj Bhavans as retired homes for politicians who have to be dropped from the ministry and favoured officers who have to be rewarded for services rendered by them.

A journalist isn’t generally expected to comment on news items in which s/he personally figures as an actor. But I’m compelled to do so in respect of a leaked report prepared by the Intelligence Bureau, which received wide coverage, and which names me as part of a conspiracy by “foreign-funded” non-governmental organisations to “take down” Indian development projects, set the country’s economy back, and halt this society’s forward march.

BHOPAL: “Baat niklegi to phir door talak jayegi”. This line from a Ghazal sung by the famous singer, Late Jagjit Singh is on the lips of many a person, who are keeping an eye on the implications of the arrest of Laxmikant Sharma, who was a very important and powerful member of the Shivraj Singh Chauhan, on June 15 on the charge of recommending the appointment of many persons to various posts through exams conducted by the Professional Examination Board (Vyapam), an agency under him. Sharma was an important member of the Shivraj Singh Chauhan cabinet till December 2014, when he lost the Vidhan Sabha elections from his home constituency Sironj in the neighbouring Vidisha district.

WASHINGTON: Indian community in US, including NRIs and students, is upset over the increase in crime against women in India in general and Uttar Pradesh in particular.

The ‘Modi speak’ on tough decisions in the next couple of years to nurse ailing economy has sparked off speculations about what measures he might take.

The weathermen have predicted poor rainfall in the country during the four-month monsoon season. This has caused panic. Actually the worry is not so much for the foodstock which is in comfortable position in the current year, but for the rising trend in prices of essential commodities, particularly food items that pinches the pocket of the common man.

By choosing Japan for his first major diplomatic port of call outside India’s neighbourhood, Narendra Modi has only confirmed what his critics and admirers have by now settled for that he is not only the most unconventional but also most pragmatic of all Indian prime ministers in thoughts and actions, so far. Last week, the prime minister first stepped out of the country to meet India’s most trusted and friendly neighbour, Bhutan, a land-locked historically royal state turned the youngest republic in the region, at its premises to throw open the country’s economy and agriculture for the benefit of the people of Bhutan, help develop Bhutan’s natural resources, including energy, and buy back the surplus for the economic benefit of both the neighbours. Bhutan is India’s only border state that had consciously stayed away from Chinese any major assistance for economic development until now.

Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP’s political tactics in West Bengal have left Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee pretty much clueless, and her party sharply divided, in working out an effective response.

The notion that advanced economies are on a steady course of recovery and growth, has taken a sudden knock with incipient risks, especially for the already struggling emerging economies like India. EMEs' role as principal growth driver had recently diminished somewhat in juxtaposition to the relatively more robust recovery and growth in USA and in a few other advanced economies other than the euro-zone.