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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: With both the plantation owners and workers in tea, coffee, cardamom and rubber estates in the State sticking to their guns, the sector is all set to witness a prolonged agitation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has returned this week after a successful six-day tour of the United States, his second after he became the prime minister. If he had wowed the East Coast and Washington last year, this time it was the turn of the West coast, and particularly the Silicon Valley, where several Indians using opportunities had become millionaires. Also about half a million Indian Americans, the second biggest contingent in the US, live in the Bay area. Therefore West coast is important both politically and economically.

BHOPAL: It appears that bulk of MPs are not interested in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream project of Model village. This became clear by the poor presence of MPs at the workshop held in Bhopal.

The latest decision by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) not to go in for any upward revision in electricity tariff rates this year, after four years of continuous hikes has warmed the cockles of the common man Chief Minister Arwind Kejriwal. Losing little time, Kejriwal tweeted by crediting this to “honest politics”. Whether Chief Ministers of other States or the other quasi-judicial power regulators in the rest of the country should take a cue out of this not humdrum happening in the capital is a moot issue?

By sending troops in support of the Assad regime to prevent its collapse, the Russian President has opened a new phase in the four-year-long civil war. Unless Moscow backs this up with a global diplomatic initiative to end the crisis, it could be sucked into another Afghan war-like situation. Though after his face-to-face meeting with Barack Obama on Monday night the Russian president Vladimir Putin said that Russia and the US could find a way to work together on Syria, over the future of the Syrian leader, Bashar al Assad, the mechanism was still not clear.

CHANDIGARH: Punjab’s mainstream political parties are in turmoil. The worst affected is the Congress followed by the BJP and the AAP. Akali Dal has not remained unaffected as signs of protests and dissent have also started emerging in the party. The only exception is the Left parties whose base, however, stands deeply shrunk. They are now trying to regain their political relevance by launching joint actions against the Akali-BJP government.

RBI Governor Dr Raghuram Rajan has effected a hefty 50 basis point cut in the key policy rate (repo) from 7.25 to 6.75 per cent with effect from September 29, designed to boost economic recovery, in a welcome surprise for both the unsettled market and a Government pressuring him for rate cuts.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is no mistaking the growing sense of nervousness in the respective camps of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, who head the two dominant groups in the Congress in Kerala.

The trip to Brazil, Peru, Colombia, and Chile by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in May this year sought to follow up on the planned cooperation between China and CELAC (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) arrived in January 2015. Plan’s main thrust is to increase bilateral trade to $500 billion and the inflow of Chinese direct investments to the region to $250 billion until 2025.

It is slowly becoming clear that Narendra Modi is pursuing the twin agenda of economic development and Hindu hyper-nationalism.