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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is yet another instance of the Oommen Chandy Government meekly succumbing to the politics of brinkmanship practised by the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML).

A behaviourial change in someone who was shown catching forty winks in parliament and is nowadays aggressively leading the charge of his party against the government cannot be easily explained.

A former Citybank trader, Tom Hays, recently found guilty by a London court of rigging London interbank offer rate (Libor), was sentenced 14 years in prison for conspiracy to defraud. Earlier, many top executives of multinational banks have lost their jobs, following the revelation of the Libor manipulation scandal. Libor is used as a benchmark for trillions of dollars worth bank loan transactions. India’s corporate sector is among the major borrowers under Libor and has been bearing the burden of the Libor manipulation for years. Unfortunately, there is no exemplary punishment in India for financial fraud and manipulation, including understatement of junk loans and large bank defaults by big borrowers in connivance with bank officials.

Politicians exploit illiterate farmers for vote banks. Babus (bureaucrats) wield power, armed with complex regulations. Investors limp under tainted democracy, engineered by politicians with the support of Babus.

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav has realized that it would be very difficult to retain power in 2017 assembly polls.

Has anyone ever seen a debate on an adjournment motion without the Prime Minister? One wonders if there is a rule under which voting is not mandatory on an adjournment motion, amounting to censuring the government. It was witnessed when Lok Sabha took up for discussion an adjournment on the penultimate day of the current monsoon session. Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not seen at all as the debate progressed. The general practice over the years has been that the Prime Minister replies to the debate but, in this debate, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley deputized for him. If the PM, who is the leader of the house, shows such apathy to highest institution of the land, why blame a member who disrupts proceedings or for unbecoming behaviour.

Global financial markets were thrown into an unexpected turmoil over China's sudden devaluation of its Renminbi (RMB) vis-a -vis US dollar on two successive days, August 11 and 12, by around 2 per cent both days, the steepest in two decades, sending new shocks for the world currency system and broader economy as well.

The poll bugle has sounded in Bihar and the players are getting active. The October Assembly polls will be unique in the sense it is a fight between the Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister Nitish Kumar. Normally Assembly polls are fought on local issues and on the charisma of the local leaders but consciously this time it is a clash of personalities and not on issues. Unlike Delhi, when the BJP was shying away from a fight between Kejriwal versus Modi, there is no such hesitance in Bihar. Both camps are trying to sell the ‘Brand Modi’ versus ‘Brand Nitish.’ Prime Minister will also take on his ally the RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav. All three are great communicators and have a direct approach to the people with the result the fight will be a clash of titans using all the weapons in their armor.

Safety in Indian Railways becomes a subject of discussion when there is an accident. The review of train accidents of the last 5 years (2009-10 to 2013-14) for which the data is available indicates that a large number of accidents happen because of derailments & at level crossing. It is also clear that more than 80 per cent of the accidents are caused by human failure (railway staff or otherwise). The good sign however is that the number of accidents per million kilometers run and number of casualties per million passengers carried has come down in the last few years.

China has shocked the world by suddenly devaluing its currency –renminbi—in two successive days by nearly two per cent on Tuesday and again by 1.6 per cent on Wednesday. This has set in motion in huge adjustment in financial and commodity markets across the world. This is the biggest yuan loss since 1994.