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Historically, we are pretty accustomed to seeing Indian awards and controversies go hand in hand. Come January, there would be absolute chaos once the padma awards are announced. Well, this year was no different, the awards did not fail to surprise us and they did live up to their innate reputation of being diabolical. So, have Indian awards lost credibility? Did they ever have it in the first place? I personally believe that it would be only fair to comment once we scrutinize the award process from layman’s perspective.

The myth of Narendra Modi’s invincibility, especially after the debacle in Delhi and Bihar, has been busted at last. It also comes ahead of crucial events like the Union budget later this month and the coming assembly elections in five states this year. The party has apparently reset its only Modi strategy. In Assam, the party named a chief ministerial candidate, while in West Bengal, by all accounts, it will rely less on Modi, more on its local leadership. In Tamil Nadu and Kerala, the party will adopt the same strategy. Clearly, the NDA allies feel embolden to seize this moment when the BJP’s winning streak appears to be dented and the party seems pushed onto the back-foot in terms of politics and strategy.

The contentious domicile policy for Jharkhand has not only exposed the ideological bankruptcy of the political establishment of the state on the issue of how to accomplish the task, it has also created a sharp division in the intellectuals and academics whether it would benefit impoverished indigenous tribal population or only end up destroying the state’s social fabric and tribal culture.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The mission to Kerala of Congress vice-president, Rahul Gandhi to ‘put the Congress house in order’ has come a cropper.

LUCKNOW: Much significance is being attached to by-elections for three assembly seats scheduled on February 13. The results of these by-elections in Bikapur, Deoband and Muzaffarnagar will set the tone for 2017 assembly polls for Uttar Pradesh.

India, and indeed the world, awaits on how our 'fastest-growing economy' would at last move forward in the new fiscal year 2016-17, from a two-year slough, amid major reform hurdles at home and convulsions in global financial markets, which together keep investors wary and domestic corporates in a bind.

In a swift move the BJP has reached out to its asserting allies with the party President Amit Shah assuring them that the party was keen to follow the coalition dharma. This damage control exercise this week ahead of the crucial budget session of Parliament had somewhat mollified the allies who were irked with the BJP’s what they call arrogant behaviour.

Central bankers in the developed world are entering into a surrealistic world. Ever since unconventional monetary policies were launched in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, the central banks are wading into areas further and further from reality. They had introduced low interest rate regimes to encourage economic activity. When that did not work, they started quantitative easing or simply pushing more and more money into financial systems.

Uncharacteristically and after sturdy signals that it would not bolster environmental issues standing in the way of scoring higher economic growth and high yield productivity in agriculture, the Modi Sarkar sent a message, loud and clear, by deferring a decision on permitting commercial cultivation of a genetically modified organism (GMO) mustard hybrid.

Mandatory 20 per cent procurement by public enterprises from Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises came into being on April 1, 2015 and but it seems to be not working so far as most of the PSUs have faltered on this provision putting into hardship several MSMEs, which account for nearly 40 per cent of manufacturing in the country.