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India which has recently spurned the ratification of the WTO-piloted Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA) till a permanent solution to its public stock-holding for distribution of foodgrains on subsidized sale to legions of its poor people is found, may perhaps draw comforts from the latest Trade and Development Report (TDR) of the United Nations Conference on Trade & Development (UNCTAD).

BHOPAL: Whether a government servant can or should attend a meeting of a political party? This has become the subject of a fierce debate in Madhya Pradesh. On one side is the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party and on the other, the opposition Congress.

At the start of a month of hectic summit-level diplomacy (September), Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a grand debut on the world stage, on the back of a strong mandate at home for governance, bringing off landmark agreements with Japan on support to India’s infrastructure development and meeting high-technology defence needs. The traditional bilateral relationship has now been elevated to one of “Special Strategic and Global Partnership”.

Will Delhi have a new government or will it go for fresh polls? The capital may not be a full state as the Delhi assembly and government have only truncated powers, but it is politically important. Most right thinking people believe that fresh elections are the only answer to the present imbroglio. The sting video by the AAP party showing the BJP allegedly trying to lure its MLAs only reinforces this opinion. Nobody wants a fresh election so soon but it is clear that without resignations or defections no new government could be formed.

After the debacle in Bihar by elections, BJP is facing serious challenge to retrieve its prestige in Uttar Pradesh, where by elections for 11 Assembly and one Lok Sabha constituencies are taking place. The personal prestige of its President Amit Shah is at stake. He was made the party President because of unexpected success of the party in the most populous state of India, where BJP with its allies Apna Dal won 73 out of 80 seats.

Soon after Japan’s ‘yes-no, yes-no and let’s-see, let’s-see’ response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bid to strike a nuclear cooperation deal during his first visit of the country came a firm assurance from Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott of uranium and other nuclear supplies by way of inking a civilian nuclear cooperation agreement during the latter’s Delhi trip. What does the so-called cooperation agreements with the 46-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) constituents mean to India and its resolve to substantially raise the share of nuclear power to meet its present and future demand-supply gap, especially given the limitation of substantial expansion of coal-fired electricity generation and its ecological impact? Will such agreements by themselves ensure execution of the country’s ambitious nuclear power generation programme? India produces and supplies only around 29,665 gigawatt-hours of nuclear electricity out of its total 20 atomic reactors as against neighbouring China’s 92,652 gigawatt-hours from17 operating reactors?

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh is set to witness intense battle between ruling Samajwadi Party and the BJP in the forthcoming by-elections for 12 seats including one Lok Sabha on September 13. BSP and Congress are considered to be spoilers as they are not in the picture.

How does Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s lofty slogan Sab ka Saath, Sab ka Vikaas (inclusion and development for all) square up with India’s social-political reality as vulnerable groups such as the religious minorities experience it? The honest answer is that these groups had the most to fear from a Bharatiya Janata Party election victory, and some of their fears are coming true. The BJP’s leaders, Mr Modi included, have done very little to allay them although it’s their duty to do so.

It has been quite some time now that the RSS chief hasn’t dwelt on his favourite theme of India as a Hindu nation. Nor has any minister in Goa called for a ban on the wearing of bikinis on beaches. Has their enthusiasm for provoking controversies dimmed or have they been told to pipe down by the powers that be ?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Three legal setbacks within the space of two weeks and a stinging snub from the Congress High Command would have proved too much for any other Congress Chief Minister. But not for Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who heads a coalition government that has lurched from crisis to crisis during its more than three-year-old tenure. Obviously, he is made of sterner stuff, and clings to power like a limpet, fumes the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the BJP, borrowing an expression from the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi himself!