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For the owners and users of passenger vehicles, the relief in recent lower natural rubber prices on a sustained basis in the last six quarters has not led to any price cut in the retail replacement tyre market. This is so as the original tyre manufacturing industry comprising a handful of units across the country is unrelenting in their spree of periodic price hikes. When owning and using any mode of personal vehicle is no longer a luxury, the automotive manufacturers—the automotive and the tyre segments remain impervious to efficient and invisible market mechanisms with the latter more so as they willfully resort to collusive behavior to keep tyre prices high. They overtly avoid passing on the benefits they might get from the government in tax cuts or a fortuitous fall in input costs as in the case of tyre to the eventual users/buyers.

KOLKATA: By-elections were held to three seats of the Assam Assembly on September 13. Apparently, it was quits for all the three contesting parties, the Congress, the BJP and the AIUDF, each winning one seat. But behind the apparent, the reality is very different. The trend is that Muslim voters in Assam are deserting the Congress and gravitating to the AIUDF. The Hindu voters are also moving away from the Congress and consolidating behind the BJP. This is true in spite of the fact that the Congress candidate won the Lakhipur seat by defeating his BJP rival by 9,172 votes.

Online lottery fraud has come to stay as a big menace to the gullible people, who are carried away by the lure of big money. They are simply not aware that without investing in lottery scheme, how can they win any lottery! It’s just not possible. Yet people fall prey to such allurements, which are in the domain of spam and phishing. State police and governments launch public awareness campaign, on regular frequencies, against such frauds. Online lottery frauds are borderless crimes, tackling which is, indeed, a very challenging task for Indian law enforcing agencies. It often comes a cropper.

Upon close observation of some of the most glaring examples of injustices to humanity, Hindi Imposition in India stands out as a peculiar one. In fact the constitution of India itself records some articles that make this imposition of Hindi official and thereby legal.

What message does by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Assam and West Bengal send? One loud and clear message is that the Modi wave is losing its momentum. Coming on the heels of setback in Uttrakhand and Bihar by-polls, last week’s by-election results in five states show a steady decline in the BJP’s rating. Congress won all the three seats in Assembly by-polls in Uttarakhand on July 25. Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar turned their once-famous rivalry into a friendship with very real benefits. Along with the Congress, they have won six of 10 assembly seats in by-elections. If these trends are any indication, BJP may face tough time in next month’s Maharashtra and Haryana elections.

The escalated row between Japan and China and deterioration in Sino-American relations activated Chinese interest in India. China and Japan are vying for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s heart to establish a political dominance in Asian politics and counter-balance each others’ foray in Asia. Had Japan not extended a big hand of support to India’s infrastructure development, it is doubted that China would have splurged investment in India.

After a long tug-of-war, India-ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in services has become a reality. It symbolizes one more step forward to accelerate India’s Look East policy. India signed FTA in goods in 2009. In fact, from the beginning India has always been insisting on comprehensive FTA for goods and services, in contrary to ASEAN thrust on FTA in goods at the first stage. The advantage for India is more in service trade than in goods. But, since trade in goods is conventionally the first stage of FTA, India had to bow to ASEAN pressure for trade in goods as the precursor to FTA in services.

BHOPAL: The ancient holy city of Ujjain where Lord Krishna, his brother Balram and his lifelong friend Sudama, had their education, has earned the reputation of a city where 'gurus' are subjected to violent attacks by the goons belonging to outfits which are self-appointed custodians of Hinduism. On September 15, about 30 to 40 persons, who, according to the police, belonged to Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, forcibly entered the chamber of Professor Kaul, the Vice chancellor of the Ujjain University and started manhandling him.

The Modi Government strangely seems to have settled for a somewhat slow motion in re-energising economic growth, belying the expectations of dynamic performance for a stable government which had instilled business confidence. It may well have had some impact in the political backlash within four months for the ruling party, BJP, as reflected in the recent assembly byelections.

The poll season is picking up with four politically important states going to elections in the next couple of months. These are the first major elections, since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls where the BJP-led NDA was voted to power with a thumping majority. It is important for the BJP to maintain its winning streak. But the recent by-election results in different states including Bihar, Uttarakhand. UP, Rajasthan, Bihar and Gujarat have come as a jolt for the party. It was routed in U.P and Rajasthan and ceded ground in Bihar and Modi’s home state Gujarat. The only consolation for the party was opening its account in the West Bengal Assembly.