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The NDA Government’s regional connectivity scheme (RCS) under which airline tickets will cost a maximum of Rs 2500 for an hour’s flight in undeveloped or underdeveloped areas of the country has received a big push by foreign airlines. But, as expected, India’s own domestic private sector carriers are out to oppose the laudable scheme for their own selfish motive. It is time the Government takes a decisive step to rein in the greedy and unresponsive airlines who refuse to think beyond themselves.

On October 18, Irom Sharmila Chanu finally took the plunge into electoral politics by announcing the formation of the People’s Resurgence and Justice Alliance (PRJA) at Hall No.1 of the Imphal Press Club in the presence of media persons, supporters and some random wanderers like me. In the parliamentary and assembly political space dominated by Congress and a rising BJP (by inducing defections in the Congress), two mainland origin parties, there exists a space for a Manipur centric party that puts Manipur’s interest first and not the diktats of a distant high-command.

LUCKNOW: The ongoing ‘Mahabharat’ in Samajwadi Party has further boosted the image of chief minister Akhilesh Yadav who is seen as the person who is fighting against corruption and criminalization of politics.

The USA President Barrack Obama will leave behind the wreckage of the super power legacy and scraps of moral authority for the new incumbent besides the daunting task to salvage the national pride of being America. Already its policy of hegemony lies shattered in the rubbles of Syria. The fact of the matter is Obama has brought more discredit and bad name to the USA in Syrian crisis.

The dynastic politics in India is getting stronger and stronger with the leaders of political parties naming their family members to succeed them even as their parties have been docile to accept it. Leaders like Sonia Gandhi, Parkash Singh Badal, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Lalu Prasad Yadav, K. Chandrasekkhara Rao and Nara Chandrababu Naidu, and Farooq Abdullah, to name a few, believe in the dynastic politics. The latest to join this club is the 93-year-old DMK supremo Muthuvel Karunanidhi, who has declared his younger son M.K.Stalin as his political heir. 'From his prison days where he faced a lot of hardships, he has himself worked very hard and elevated himself systematically to the position of future president (of DMK). In that aspect, he remains my political heir apparent today,” he told in a recent magazine interview.

No matter its notoriety in both sponsoring and becoming victim of terrorism, Pakistan's economic management has been lauded by IMF, at the completion of its three-year conditional credit (6.15 billion dollars), with its growth pick-up and ongoing power and fiscal reforms.

After the maiden monetary policy statement of the newly-constituted Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) which announced a modest 25 basis points cut in repo rate to 6.25 per cent early this month, much hype and hoopla were built into the minutes of the meeting of the six-member Committee as to how they arrived at this decision.

Manipur Chief Minister Okhram Ibobi Singh and some of his senior colleagues survived an abortive attempt on their lives earlier this week by Naga rebels suspected to belong to the NSCN(IM) faction. The rebel outfit, which entered into a cesefire agreement with the Centre decades ago, has been demanding a greater Nagalim which should include Naga-inhabited areas of States neighbouring Nagaland, including four Naga-inhabited districts of Manipur, namely, Ukhrul, Tamenglong, Chandel and Senapati. Naturally, all the concerned States – Assam, Manipur and Arunachal – are dead against ceding any territory to the proposed Nagalim.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After the CPI(M), it is the turn of the Congress to find itself in the eye of a storm in Kerala.

One interesting aspect of the BIMSTEC grouping is that smaller member countries set the pace in terms of attracting foreign investments as well as implementing the agenda of regional development. Until recently, Myanmar in the first flush of its post-dictatorship democratic dawn, was a magnet for international investors because of its enormous mineral and energy resources. Lack of infrastructure and political complexities have taken some of the shine off the Myanmar development story.