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Controversies in the literary world always gladden me and the past year had doled out quite a handful of them as a way to remind us that our writers, poets, novelists, playwrights, memoirists and literary journalists still put their reputations at stake in defence of the written word, or to challenge long-held beliefs. Literary spats are actually heady exchange of ideas, albeit in a ferociously public and theatrical manner, much to the consternation of some people, while raging delight for the others.

NEW DELHI: The 45th Session of the Standing Labour Committee (SLC), held in Delhi, on January 3, 2013, set the Agenda for the Indian Labour Conference (ILC) – the apex labour tripartite in the country.

The border clash in which two Indian soldiers were killed could not have come at a worse time when a Indo-Pak peace initiative was making steady progress in Lahore. As the SAFMA (South Asian Free Media Association) conference was pledging opening borders, opening minds, came the report of the clash. Ironically, viewed from Pakistan side, one gets the impression, as if, the Indian side was at fault, while seen from the Indian side, it appears, the fault was that of Pakistani troops. The people in general were thoroughly confused. Neither Islamabad nor New Delhi want to escalate the tension and keen to defuse the volatile situation by back channel diplomacy. It is a welcome sign.

Gujarat governor Kamla Beniwal has appointed RA Mehta as the Lokayukta of Gujarat, in spite of protests of the state government. The appointment had been challenged in court. On January 2, the Supreme Court upheld the appointment. Predictably, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has reacted strongly to the verdict. Kamla Beniwal is a former member of the Rajasthan unit of the Congress(I).

LUCKNOW: Ming He Group of China has evinced keen interest in setting up a big lead acid battery manufacturing unit in Uttar Pradesh.

The Foreign Investment Promotion Board’s (FIPB) latest year-end decision to summarily reject the joint venture proposal of Mahindra & Mahindra, one of India’s most reputable technology companies, with Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd to manufacture high-tech defence equipment in the country, without assigning a good reason, is not only shocking, but also exposes the government’s age-old mindset against the domestic private sector playing a key role in state-of-the-art arms and security equipment manufacture.

Jharkhand is in a political crisis once again after the resignation of the BJP-led Arjun Munda government this week. The state, which consists of rich natural resources, is fated to have instability since it was created in 2000. In the last 12 years, it remained a shining example of horse-trading and has seen eight chief ministers. President’s rule was imposed twice. In all probability, it may be heading towards the President’s rule once again if no other government could be formed.