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The Word Trade Organization (WTO) held its sixth review of China’s trade policies and practices in Geneva on June 20 to 22. The world trade monitoring body’s conclusive message is that “the basic national conditions of China as a big developing country have not changed and will not be fundamentally changed despite its economic development achievements”. WTO further foresees the Middle Kingdom to be subject to “the challenges of onerous development tasks for a long time”. This might warm the cockles of unipolar power like the United States or other emerging economies like India, though the incontrovertible fact is that China has of late begun throwing its weight and its growing clout leveraging both its soft and hard power pitch, much to the consternation of many peace-loving nations across the world.

Experts fear that the cost of power generation from the six nuclear reactors to be set up in Andhra Pradesh by Westinghouse Electric (US), a major outcome of the recent talks held between US President Barack Obama and Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, would be prohibitively high.

Indian Railways annual budgeting and accounting of its receipts and expenditure, hitherto known as a separate Railway Budget, will form part of the General Budget of the Union of India from 2017-18, as is learnt from the official sources in the Ministry of Railways, although a formal official announcement is yet to be made. This follows recommendations of Debroy Committee Report on restructuring of Indian Railways in 2015 and the latest advice by the NITI Ayog to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) that the existing system of a separate Rail Budget be scrapped and made part of the General Budget of the Union.

Nepal politicians have criticised Canada over the recent death in a suicide bombing of 14 Gorkha soldiers in Kabul, alleging ‘negligence’.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A new liquor policy in consultation with all sections of the people; re-introduction of people’s planning programme, zero tolerance to corruption; free treatment to all; integrated 24-hour one-step centre for women’s safety; paddy cultivation in 3 lakh hectares and vegetable farming in 50,000 hectares. These form the thrust of the Left Democratic Front’s first policy address made by Governor P. Sadasivam in the State Assembly.

Brexit has shown the threat which the far-right poses to a level-headed nation such as Great Britain. One of the qualities which the Brits are supposed to have – whether they are English or Scottish or Irish or Welsh – is a strong commonsense.

NITI Aayog, the NDA government’s new economic think tank that replaced India’s 64-year-old planning commission, may have forgotten the reason behind the government’s decision to use tax payers’ fund and public borrowing to set up state-owned public enterprises to manufacture steel, non-ferrous metals, power, power plant equipment, transmission network, earth moving equipment, mining equipment, machine tools, telephone instruments, cement, ships, defence equipment, spacecraft, aircraft, drugs and petrochemicals, take up mining, make fertilizer and support food production and distribution among others. India produced just around two million tonnes of steel through its two private enterprises – TISCO and IISCO - in the 1950s.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: He came. He saw. But he failed to conquer. It may sound a bit clichéd. But that aptly sumps up BJP president Amit Shah’s much-hyped trip to Kerala. The visit was aimed at attempting “Mission 2019” – the bid to bag as many seats as possible in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

The uncertainty is over. A new dawn is breaking over the economic sovereignty of UK. Amidst the months’ long ping-pong guess- game between Remain and Leave, the people of Britain chose to exit EU. The leave camp calls it a victory of ordinary people and a victory of decent people. They view it an historic Independence Day for Britain.

The 2017 is yet another election year. Apart from Gujarat, Punjab and Uttarakhand, the most important state going to poll is Uttar Pradesh. It has 403 assembly seats and 80 Lok Sabha constituencies. It is said the party which controls UP, dominates politics at the centre. When the Congress controlled the state, it ruled the country. The upcoming elections in the state do not inspire much hope of development. The BJP is projecting itself as the likely winner; thanks to its large haul of 71 of 80 in 2014. But voters think and vote differently for national and state elections.