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The NDA coalition government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has just taken office, and it's too early to predict how it will perform, even whether it will run its five-year term. It is common knowledge that India has a messy history of multi-party governments. Late BJP leader Atal Behari Vajpayee also ran an alliance of 24 parties from 1998 to 2004. India’s experience with coalition governments has been somewhat tumultuous.

The country’s industrial outlook for the current year as well as the next few years will depend on the stability of the new government and how the Bharatiya Janata Party deals with its alliance partners and the opposition, which will have a formidable presence in the newly-elected Parliament. At stake are several large investment projects, including those under foreign direct investment (FDI), worth $30 billion. A good number of them are linked with production of semiconductors and display fab manufacturing. The last government approved an outlay of Rs76,000 crore (>US$10 billion). The government offered fiscal support of 50 percent of project cost on pari-passu basis for all technology nodes under the Scheme for Setting-up of Semiconductor and Display Fabs in India. It included compound semiconductors, silicon photonics, sensors fab and connected facilities.

India, under Prime Minister Garib Kalyan Anna Yojna, has been giving free foodgrains to 80 crore poor people who are dependent for food on government, because they don’t earn enough to support their needs for food. Their number remained the same for the last 10 years of the Modi regime. Children have been facing severe food poverty which Prime Minister Narendra Modi must address urgently in his third term.

At the end of the bitterest general elections in recent times, it is only in Assam that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the main opposition, the Congress, are broadly satisfied with the outcome. The BJP won 11 out of 14 Lok Sabha seats while the badly divided, and always under-estimated Congress, swept the remaining three seats, surprising analysts and defying conventional wisdom.

Punjab with a population of 27 million, the majority of which is Sikh, has in recent times, has given rise to an important movement that seeks to organize the Dalits, who comprise the poorest and most downtrodden section of rural society in the state.

The economic liberalisation of the 1990s brought with it malls and shopping arcades. However, the timeless allure of traditional marketplaces, deeply ingrained in the collective consciousness of Indian society, persists. A significant part of that allure is individuals who earn a living vending goods, spices, vegetables, clothing, toys and more from movable wooden carts or from pavements, commonly known as ‘street-vendors’ or ‘hawkers’ in India.

The coming week or two could determine Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s political fate and reshape the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s Gaza war. That is, if Netanyahu fails to comply with war cabinet member Benny Gantz’s demand that the prime minister produce a plan for the post-war administration of GaIf Gantz resigns, he will likely be joined by fellow war cabinet member and former Israel Defence Forces (IDF) chief of staff Gabi Eisenkot.

Fuel consumers would do well to be ready to loosen their purse strings and face the post-election nuanced reality after they enjoyed a Rs 2 per litre cut in prices before the Lok Sabha elections. There has been a pattern in the price behaviour during and after every election. The most curious part is that while the pre-election price cuts are credited to the government account, subsequent price increases are invariably attributed to market forces.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has now decided to go ahead alone and has started reviewing relationship with INDIA bloc. The party’s path ahead is already embattled with legal battles, with its three key leaders – CM Arvind Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, and Satyendra Kumar Jain – put behind the bar. The Enforcement Directorate has made the party an accused in a money laundering case, and the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi has recommended investigation in allegations of receiving funds from a terrorist organization. Apart from that, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said during election campaign that there were other 7 cases of corruption against AAP Supremo Kejriwal. Moreover, AAP could gain only a lacklustre public support during the Lok Sabha Election 2024. All these show AAP’s political path ahead is uncertain and rocky.

It is the same old story. The boringly repetitive drama of Congress leaders imploring Rahul Gandhi to take on a plum post – this time that of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The two sides never tire of the game. On one side, Congress leaders and on the other side, the Gandhi scion. The last time Rahul Gandhi played hard to get was for the Congress President's post, which finally went to Mallikarjun Kharge.