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When Narendra Modi Government began the second innings of the NDA in May, 2014, it plumped for “Make in India’, “zero- defect zero-effect” policy of low-carbon growth pattern and to provide policy ballast to the country’s merchandise exports. As the government is in its mid-term, things have not radically changed with industrial growth continuing to plod on with tepid growth withal no tangible employment generation from the secondary sector in the absence of consistent and continuous policy support for skill upgradation from legions of job-seekers across the country.

An innocuous announcement made by the union finance ministry last week went largely unnoticed. The ministry had announced that the issue of securities for the Sovereign Gold Bond scheme has been pushed back from September 23 to September 30. As such, what significance does it have, one can ask.

Yet another colonial hangover has been dismantled with the cabinet recently deciding to scrap nearly a century old practice of having separate Railway budget, a move started by the British in 1924 as at that time rail budgets used to be very large financially.

Despite spreading canards and projecting him as the modern Stalinist tyrant, the USA and particularly the Obama administration has to cut a sorry figure as it miserably failed in its design to inflict damage and ensure the defeat of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin at the recent election to the Duma, the parliament of the Russian federation.

LUCKNOW: With large number of exodus of leaders from different castes in recent months ,it is going to be a do or die battle for BSP supremo Mayawati who is working very hard to get back power in 2017 after assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The development of agriculture, which had suffered badly under the erstwhile United Democratic Front (UDF) government, received a big boost with the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government’s decision to clear the amendment to the Paddy Land and Wetlands Act, 2008.

Arvind Kejriwal carries a monumental chip on his shoulders. It was revealed when Navjot Singh Sidhu appeared on the scene. Sidhu wanted to be the Aam Admi Party’s (AAP) candidate for the Punjab chief minister’s post. But Kejriwal was unwilling to commit himself. The reason was that if Sidhu, or someone else, became the chief minister in the (unlikely) event of the AAP winning the polls, that person would become the chief minister of a full-fledged state while Kejriwal himself would remain a notch down the pecking order as the CM of a mere Union Territory.

Paradoxical though it may sound, India, the world’s third largest manufacturer of allopathic medicines by volume, also boasts among the world’s lowest physician-population ratio. As a result, physicians in government hospitals and health centres are often highly overworked to be quite useful for patients. Government healthcare centres are usually ill-equipped or their critical equipment are usually non-functional for want of either qualified para-medical staff or poor maintenance.

NEW DELHI: The Central Secretariat of the Communist Party of India (CPI) has opposed the Union Cabinet’s decision to merge the Railway Budget with the General Budget. In a statement, the CPI said “it was arbitrary. It was never discussed in Parliament.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Vietnam (September 2 & 3) needs to be viewed from the angle of India’s desire for a significant role in the South East Asian region. His visit to Vietnam after 15 years of an Indian Prime Minister’ visitation and incidentally after the showdown in South China Sea, snowballed by UN Convention on Law of Sea arbitration against China’s claim for sovereignty, hold paramount importance to draw a new role for India. Modi’s visit to Vietnam and its impact on the relations between the two countries cannot be assessed without linking the turbulence erupted by South China Sea dispute. In South China Sea water, interests of both countries are involved. They are apprehended to be overridden by Chinese assertiveness for its sovereign power in the water.