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New Delhi : The Indian Defence Minister AK Antony complimented the top brass of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) for their remarkable achievements in recent years, most notably, for Agni-5 and the BrahMos missile systems.

New Delhi : India has been finally successful in striking a diplomatic deal with Italy for sending back its two marines, Salvatore Latorre and Massimiliano Girone to face going trial in the country.

With the Italian government finally agreeing to return the two accused sailors in the Kerala fishermen-in-sea murder case, the ground that was fertile till yesterday for some reaping of patriotic crops has been scorched. Nothing works better than some good old Italy bashing to make ‘proud Indians’ out of us. But for these Italians, how else could the homegrown saffron Goths, constantly plotting the fall of an imagined Roman regime in New Delhi, rehearse another episode of their ‘India, good or bad’ drama?

India’s two-decade-old economic reform policy is finally exposing its weaknesses. Initially, the reform was all about phased liberalisation of the economy, selectively ending the licence-permit regime, embracing globalisation of trade and commerce in keeping with WTO protocols, easing sectoral restrictions on foreign direction investments (FDI), lifting curbs on foreign institutional investment (FII) in company stocks and domestic fund management, financial deregulation, easier corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&A), transparency in business and government deals, etc.

LUCKNOW: In view of development taking place at the centre, the political parties in UP are apprehending Lok Sabha polls by September-October 2013, instead of scheduled for 2014.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is no let-up from controversies for the storm-tossed United Democratic Front (UDF) Government led by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.

Gone are the days of national leaders going to different states to address the rallies. With the centre becoming weaker and the emergence of strong regional satraps, this is slowly changing the pattern with the latter storming the capital seeking national attention.

The West Bengal finance minister Amit Mitra, formerly secretary-general, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry, stated complacently that there is ‘a dynamic ‘Paribartan’ underway’ in the state under the All India Trinamool Congress-led government. The state has shown distinct signs of getting out of the ‘debt-trap’, handed down by the erstwhile CPI (M)-led Left Front government, Mitra stated in his budget speech for 2013-14.

Early this month, Guwahati was abuzz with the rumour that some Congress MLAs were busy collecting signatures demanding a change of leadership — that is replacing Tarun Gogoi as chief minister. They were claimed to be supporters of Health and Education Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Adhikar rally organised in Delhi on March 17 was ostensibly for demanding special status for Bihar for its rapid development, but under the garb of economics, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar was playing crude politics. His main objective was to put pressure on BJP to declare a Prime Ministerial candidate other than Narendra Modi and check his national ambitions. The secondary objective was to prepare a ground to have an alliance with Congress, in case BJP does not heed his demand.