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Lucknow: What would be the main agenda for political parties in 2014 Lok Sabha is the million dollar question that is being asked in socio-political circles in Uttar Pradesh.

Who gets the credit for the Lokpal Bill, which the Parliament has passed this week? Is it the Parliament, is it the UPA government, is it the main opposition the BJP, is it the Gandhian Anna Hazare who had led the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement or is it the newly born Aam Aadmi Party, a by product of the IAC, which stunned the political parties by its unprecedented victory in the recent Delhi Assembly elections? It is said success has many fathers and failure is an orphan. The same thing is applicable to the Lokpal bill with all the above-mentioned entities taking credit for the measure while the real credit goes to the public pressure.

New Delhi: The Government has expressed the hope that the National Intelligence Grid (NatGrid) centre set up in the National Capital would function as a deterrent against terrorism in the country.

New Delhi: In a most logical effort to provide full diplomatic immunity to its diplomat Devyani Khobragade against harassment meted out to her by the US Administration, the Indian Government on Wednesday transferred her to its Permanent Mission in UN Headquarters in New York with immediate effect according to highly placed sources.

Contrary to almost universal expectation of a hike in the key policy lending rate (repo) by at least 25 basis points, in the face of soaring inflation at wholesale and retail levels, RBI Governor Dr Raghuram Rajan has avoided a ‘hat-trick’ after two successive hikes earlier, to leave the repo rate unchanged at 7.75 per cent, in his mid-quarter policy review on December 18.

That the political class as a whole treats the country’s banking industry as the savior of anything that goes wrong with their fallacious interventionist pricing and entrepreneurial policies in the efficient allocation of sparse resources is nowhere palpable than the problems plaguing the Rs 80,000 crore sugar industry. How else could one explain and exculpate the recent decision of an informal group of Ministers headed by the Union Agriculture Minister Mr.Sharad Pawar to come out with a Rs 7500 crore bailout package for the politically-inspired wounds on the ailing industry and the banking sector in general?

Reserve Bank of India governor Raghuram Rajan has lived up to his reputation. He had forewarned about the impending global financial crisis in a conference in Jackson Hole where worlld’s central bankers and economists had congregated at the high noon of Great Moderation period. Everything was in the best of shape, global economy was growing and financial markets were scaling new heights. Alan Greenspan was reigning at the US Federal Reserve with his approach of light touch regulation. Amidst all this euphoria, Rajan had spoken of the risks to the system and possible crash.

New Delhi: Stung by scams relating to misuse of Defence plots like Aadarsh housing scandal, the Directorate General of Defence Estates have taken up the onus of surveying Defence holdings and digitization of records.

New Delhi: In an inevitable and effective retaliation to the 'despicable' and 'barbaric' treatment meted out to its diplomat, India asked US diplomats to turn in their IDs on Tuesday.

The main message from the Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi Assembly elections is stark. The Congress stands routed and faces further decline. The Bharatiya Janata Party has made impressive gains, which indicate a likely upturn. And the Aam Aadmi Party has made a spectacular debut in Delhi. None of this augurs well for the ruling United Progressive Alliance.