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India-US bilateral trade, among the top 2 or 3 countries, is expected to grow five times in five years or so to $ 500 billion, much more than India's annual exports of a little over $300 billion. The first composite strategic and commercial dialogue in Washington on September 21-22 will provide the much needed platform to carry forward this none too optimistic aim.

The resounding victory of Jeremy Corbyn at the British Labour Party’s annual conference on September 12 signals a watershed in the British polity and it may very well start a new process of churning in Europe where the common masses have been agitating against the austerity programmer imposed by their respective governments.Corbyn is an unalloyed leftist and for the last 32 years, as a member of the House of Commons in British Parliament, he has been fighting openly for the causes which are a big no no to the majority of the leadership of the Labour Party.Corbyn has fought on the basis of his own agenda of bringing a new kind of politics in the Labour Party exposing the hollowness of the new Labour propounded by Tony Blair types .Nearly sixty percent of the Labour Party delegates gave un stinted approval to Cobryn’s programme and the general mood at the Labour conference was that the British politics is entering a new stage where the opposition Labour Party will be articulating the demands which never got favours from the British establishment.

Is the Kerala CPI(M) is in the grip of a crisis of confidence? If the party’s response to the latest crisis besetting it is any guide, the answer to this question is a resounding yes.

There was an English monarch in the 11th century who was called Ethelred the Unready. Being 10 years old, he sought advice from those around him, mainly to fight the Vikings. But, the counsellors usually gave him what turned out to be the wrong advice. The phrase, unready, in the king’s name implied “badly advised”.

LONDON: Even while captains of India Inc, the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his senior finance ministry officials are optimist that the Chinese stock market crash and the devaluation of the yuan, will create opportunities for India, the Chinese political leadership has geared up to face the challenges and put its financial house in order and retrieve the lost ground.

The bugle for Bihar’s crucial election has been sounded. It is a matter of life of death both for Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Both the NDA and the Nitish-Lalu-Congress alliance have huge stakes in the October-November elections. A Modi victory will not only consolidate the BJP’s power for next several years, it will decimate the opposition. On the other hand, if the Grand Alliance, comprising JD(U), RJD and Congress, wins, it will put an end to the Modi’s invincibility.

The next summit of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is scheduled at Tashkent in the middle of 2016 with India and Pakistan joining as full members of this emerging powerful regional grouping .India is now advantageously placed to pursue its programmes at both political and economic levels at the SCO forum which has got six members- China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, apart from the two new members India and Pakistan. The last summit at Ufa in Russian Federation in July this year set the stage for the entry of India and Pakistan to the SCO after a long wait as observers and 2016 summit opens up immense opportunities to India to expand its economic and trade relations with the four central Asian countries apart from Russia and China.

Over the past few months, there has been increased talk of dividing the state of Karnataka into two separate states. The division being talked about might result in two entities, the northern part of Karnataka and the southern part of Karnataka. Interestingly, all this talk is emanating from the sitting MLAs belonging to the two political parties that call themselves as 'national parties', the 'Indian national Congress' and the 'Bharatiya Janata Party'. Mr. Umesh Katti, sitting MLA from the BJP, and Mr. AS Patil Nadahalli, sitting MLA from the INC, are the two gentlemen who are at the forefront demanding separate statehood for the northern part of Karnataka.

LUCKNOW: All is not well in Samajwadi Party parivar and Akhilesh Yadav government which is now BEING reflected on public platforms.

BHOPAL: The reconstitution of the working committee of Madhya Pradesh Congress has given rise to the revolt like situation in the party. The dissident group claims that the formation of the committee has been done in the most arbitrary manner ignoring the claims of several factions of the state Congress.