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The coming two years—2016 and 2017—are crucial both for the Congress and the BJP and regional parties like BSP, Mulayam Singh-led SP, AIADMK, Trinamool Congress and CPI-M (particularly in West Bengal and Kerala). In 2016 elections are scheduled in Assam, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Puducherry and Kerala. The year 2017 will see Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Manipur, Uttarakhand and Goa going to poll.

The new year is expected to augur well for India’s aviation industry with the union government getting ready to come out with a new civil aviation policy soon. The aim is to give a much needed push to the sector languishing for over a decade.

Desperate to erase his image of wrongdoer, perpetrator of Jungle Raj, from the minds of the common Bihari and project himself as a politician with development vision, the RJD chief Lalu Yadav is on the mission to chasten up the bureaucracy and perk up governance. While he has already advised Nitish Kumar to chisel bureaucracy by taking action against the lunj-punj (an incompetent and lethargic guy) officers, if needed throw them out, he has committed to sue Prime Minister Narendra Modi for committing a breach of trust by refusing to hand over the special package of Rs 1.25 lakh crore to the state.

The two recent simultaneous terror attacks on vital Indian assets at the beginning of the year – one at air base at Pathankot in India and the other at Indian consulate office in Mazer-e-Sharif in Afghanistan – have raised questions on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “innovative” and “risky” diplomacy with Pakistan.

Slowly, the long pending regional economic bonding is beginning to take shape in South Asia, as agreements between India and its neighbours are being finally implemented. After prolonged dialogues between the leaders of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan, it is time to report some concrete progress already made, raising new hopes for the future even in the short term.

Jeremy Corbyn’s ascendance as the Leader of the Opposition in the UK is the indicator of the leftward shift of the people in the capitalist economies. Little doubt his triumph provides some useful lessons for the Left in India too, particularly the CPI(M) which held its Kolkata Plenum barely a couple of days back.

It is difficult to comprehend that one of India’s most important forward area air force stations, hosting several squadrons of battle ready aircraft, can be easily violated and attacked by only some half a dozen terrorists loaded so heavily with arms and ammunitions killing a number of airmen, army and paramilitary staff and keeping the normal operations of the vital defence establishment paralysed for days. This happened at Pathankot in Punjab, earlier this week. The Pathankot air force station is close to the Indian state of Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan, a regular source of armed intrusion by well-trained Jihadi terrorists into the Indian states for years.

Illegal human trafficking has spread from the eastern states in India to the Northeast as well. After targeting West Bengal, Jharkhand and Odisha for years, powerful chains of traffickers are expanding operations in Assam and, according to Guwahati-based media.

Dawn of New Year is the time to draw balance sheet of the outgoing year’s happenings. But, more importantly, it provides an opportunity to perceive what the New Year holds for the future.

Every caused event carries its consequences and also its own logic as well. Often the intent behind causing the event is unable to control the logic that flows from the event. The government has brought into play the detailed scheme for controlling use of black wealth in high value transactions by making mention of the PAN mandatory in all deals above certain value. Intent is to curb tax evasion but the maze of law brandishes millions of honest in their deals with few dozen black sheep with same paint of dishonesty.