View Articles

With iron ore, coal, coal-bed methane, bauxite, dolomite, charge chrome and other minerals at its door step along with abundant availability of underground and river water, excellent roads, ports, air service facilities, and steady power supply, West Bengal has been by far the country’s best industrial location since it was first spotted and developed by the UK’s East India Company in the mid-18th century.

India, as a vibrant nation, has a vital stake in the success of the strong and stable Modi Government which, however, needs to emerge out of its current style of 'maximum governance', where the nation's social order is being thrown in greater disarray and its democratic credentials brought into question on too many occasions in its first 28 months.

The refusal of the leaders of All Parties Hurriyat Conference to meet members of a parliamentary delegation on a visit to Srinagar must be seen an attempt to assert their relevance at a time when the ground is slipping beneath their feet. The perception has grown that control of ‘resistance movement’ has gradually taken over the path of violence under the influence of radical Islam. The Hurriyat leaders, therefore, felt it necessary to refurbish their credentials.

Indian carrier Jet Airways has set a new benchmark on inflight entertainment by launching a new technology that offers a wide variety of video and audio content directly to passengers on their own devices such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops.

It did not make much difference. But to keep the Indian rulers in good humour, the Obama administration made a departure from its past practice and modified the military logistics agreement, Logistics Support Agreement (LSA) to Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA). The USA has a standard draft text of military logistics agreement to be signed by the countries. Since the Obama administration badly needed on their side and was also aware of the criticism Narendra Modi and his government will have to face for allying with the US, the standard draft was replaced by a new summary text.

The intensification of the anti-corruption drive by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government has gained traction, raising anxiety levels in the Congress-led Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF).

The Cauvery River water dispute has popped up once again like the Maria Theresa dollar. It happens whenever there is water scarcity to meet the demands of both the upper and lower riparian states Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In the last two decades and more, the Supreme Court and the Cauvery River Authority have intervened on several occasions. It happened in 1991, in 2002 and again in 2012. It is has happened again now.

G-20, which was set up with the global aspiration for economic security after two major financial crisis, Asian currency turmoil in 1997 and Lehman shock in 2008, seems to have lost its genie. The 11th G-20 Summit at Hangzhou city in China ended in a paradoxical situation. While a broad agreement was reached for coordinated approach towards macroeconomic policies, little headway was made in the concrete proposals.

As the nation commemorated its 70th Independence this year, the one instrument and venerable institution that has withstood the vicissitudes of fortune from within and without the political system is the Indian Parliament. It was therefore a no surprise that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on being elected to the 16th Lok Sabha after a three-time stint as Chief Minister of Gujarat genuflected on the ground before entering the historic and hoary sanctorum which he described as the temple of democracy. It is now the mid-point of Modi’s meaningful move to Delhi with a catchy motto of Sabka Vikas that a dispassionate assessment about Parliament is not only due but also germane. This is all the more so in the wake of the Modi Sarkar’s alleged bias against diversity and dissent.

The cold war between the two brothers of Bihar, Lalu Yadav and Nitish Kumar has been the major impediment in the formation of the Left and Secular alliance in Bihar to challenge and stop the Modi Juggernaut in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. It is unfortunate that the prospect of formation of the Left and secular alliance is caught into the vortex of the social justice. Notwithstanding the prevailing ground realities that only a combined political move can challenge the BJP and stop the Modi juggernaut, the two leaders are not making serious effort to bring the left and secular forces on a single platform.