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Now that the government has at long last named a successor for Dr Raghuram Rajan at the Reserve bank of India, what are the major tasks before Dr Urjit Patel? Though a sound economist, Patel does not have an aura of global reputation rivalling Rajan, which overshadowed those of the political leaders. Removing Rajan was in effect throwing out a hot potato.

For an “above average” student, as a Vadnagar school teacher described Narendra Modi, the prime minister’s grasp of history does not appear to be foolproof. Having once called the Mahatma “Mohanlal”, Modi has now said that the BJP’s travails since 1947 have been worse than what the Congress faced during the freedom movement.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is on a crucial visit to Vietnam in the first week of September this year on his way to China to attend the G-20 summit on September 4 and 5. PM has been giving special stress on his Look East policy as a part of his new diplomatic offensive and this visit after a gap of fifteen years by any Indian PM, is getting special attention due to the increasing importance of Vietnam in South East Asian politics as a rising economic power and its continued opposition to the Chinese position on maritime rights in South China Sea.

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav is facing his biggest challenge in keeping his family united to face the 2017 assembly polls.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It was a tongue-lashing the bickering Congress leaders in Kerala richly deserved.

Rahul Gandhi and his ilk in the Congress command may disagree, the non-alignment movement has lost much of its relevance in today’s world where national interest is dynamic as also key to diplomatic wisdom. If Narendra Modi has decided to skip the long journey to Venezuela to attend the forthcoming 17th summit meeting of so-called 120-odd non-aligned nations there, it only suggests that the Indian Prime Minister believes in dynamic diplomacy and not in a static tradition. Barring Charan Singh, all Indian prime ministers attended NAM summit. Modi is different. He proved his point on the very first day of his assuming the office by trying to engage Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and, thereafter, Chinese president Xi Jinping in order to improve diplomatic ties between India and its historically two hostile neighbours.

As the crucial assembly poll of 2017 in Uttar Pradesh draws near, political equations among the contesting parties are changing. Mayawati is confident that her party will get a majority while the UP’s youngest chief minister Akhilesh Yadav concedes that election 2017 will be hard to fight.

The central trade unions of the country are taking massive preparations to observe a one day general strike of the workers and the employees of the country on September 2 this year in support of their 12 point charter of demands. Though the official announcement was made by the central trade unions from their convention in New Delhi on March 30 this year and the trade union leaders had continuously approached the Narendra Modi government for negotiations so that the strike which will paralyse the national economy for a day , is avoided, but the NDA government has not cared to start any meaningful discussions on the charter of demands, rather the union labour minister has passed on the buck to the states by mentioning that most of the demands fall under the purview of the state governments.

Both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe are known for their great leap in the economic reforms. Both were sailing on the same boat for the urgency of reforms, even though the aims of reforms are different. Both vowed to bold reforms to bring their economies on a sustainable growth trajectory .Mr Modi’s main reform agenda is Make in India and Japanese Prime Minister Abe’s main reform agenda is 3 Arrow economy, dubbed “Abenomics'.

True to his style of speaking, without any restraint, this time, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Indian Independence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue of human rights violation in Balochistan, the restive province of Pakistan. Apparently this move of Modi is ordained to push Pakistan on back foot and also force it to respond to the accusation of perpetrating atrocities on the people of Balochistan and Pak occupied Kashmir (PoK). It also manifests the showcasing of the image of the macho-politics.