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BHOPAL: Madhya Pradesh has joined the club of leading agricultural states because of its excellent performance in agricultural production. It has got awarded for it at national level. Three years ago the Centre had instituted Krishi Karman Award. MP has won this prize twice and it is likely to win it third time, because it has found place in the list of states chosen for the award.

Will the ensuing Assembly polls to Haryana and Maharashtra be seen as a referendum on the new Modi government? No doubt stakes are high for both Prime Minister Narendra Modi who feels on the top of the world after his landslide victory and congress President Sonia Gandhi, who is suffering from the most humiliating defeat in the recent Lok Sabha polls. It is virtually a Sonia Gandhi versus Modi fight as Rahul Gandhi has taken a back seat this time. The success or failure in these polls will set the stage for the next Assembly polls in Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Jharkhand. On the face of it the BJP is in an upbeat mood while the Congress is facing the anti incumbency, infighting and a demoralized cadre.

BHOPAL: The first day of Global Investors Summit in Indore got underway on October 8 with convention of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME). Union Minister for Micro and Small Industries Kalraj Mishra inaugurated Convention of MSMEs. It was the second time in Madhya Pradesh when the first day of Global Investors Summit organized convention of MSMEs. MSMEs feared about their market and status when the MP government invited large and multinational companies to invest in the state. The state government organised a convention of MSMEs first and gave many facilities to them. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan announced the constitution of a separate ministry for MSMEs and Laghu Udyog Samvardhan Board to be headed by the Chief Minister. It is a positive step of government. To give a boost to the medium and small industries in the state.

LUCKNOW: In the name of memorial for late Prime Minister Charan Singh, various political parties are coming together to face the challenge from BJP in Uttar Pradesh.

The inexorable humid weather in the capital in the festive month of October has robbed the exuberant moments of celebrations, even as the weather patterns across the country seem to be swinging in extremes. India and other developing countries may continue to be in a denial mood that weather-related aberrations are not directly due to the broad climate change that is sweeping the universe due to the disproportionate spurt in greenhouse gases (GHC). They might persist with the folly of following the principles on equity and common but differentiated responsibilities, citing the case of how advanced countries had the prime mover advantage in exploiting the energy potentials to prime their industrial development in the last century when the rest of the world was in penury. But this in no way detracts the significance of doing something right now by all to reduce the noxious pollutions the planet is exposed to day in and day out in the name of economic growth and development that bear hardly any relationship to human happiness and well-being.

Believe it or not, the half-a-million-employee-strong postal department of the government of India faces the biggest threat to its 150-odd years’ existence from no other than the world’s largest courier conglomerate, Deutsche Post AG, a $55-billion German behemoth. Already a victim of governmental apathy and the Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh-led 1991-92 reform that led to a massive overhaul of the then departments of posts and telecommunications and corporatization of the telecom function leaving the loss-making postal department in the cold, India Post ended 2013-14 with a turnover of only around $1.7 billion (Rs.10,000 crore) leaving a one-billion-dollar (Rs. 6,000 crore) hole in the exchequer’s pocket to cover the revenue deficit. And, now Deutsche Post is breathing down its weak, business-wary, over-aged, wrinkled neck.

A good doctor is approachable, confident, decisive, intelligent, interested, compassionate and caring, being able to absorb patient’s pain and anxieties without losing focus, treating patients as humans rather than a symptom. Dr. Pawan Vasudeva is one such doctor, who embodies in himself all such qualities. Putting patients at ease and making a difference in their lives are his other attributes. His patients are mostly senior citizens, in their twilight years. No wonder, patients left behind by celebrated former urological oncologist, head of the department-cum-professor of urology, Dr. N.K.Mohanty, following his retirement in January 2013, were taken over by him. Dr. Vasudeva is an Associate Professor, Urology, Vardhman Mahaveer Medical College and a leading consulting urological oncologist in the prestigious Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi.

In September every year, leaders of more than 190 states across the world, whether big or small, get a chance to make long speeches at the United Nations General Assembly’s inaugural session, which are usually attended by nobody except their own countries’ diplomats and journalists (typically flown in and hosted by the domestic taxpayer). They use lofty rhetoric about improving the international climate while scoring points against their adversaries—their speeches’ real target.

The world economy is yet to make a full exit of the 2008 financial crisis and its recessionary aftermath, so that growth prospects for 2014, the sixth year, have had to be revised down, with the disappointing and uneven recovery, mainly among advanced nations. And geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, with limited impact so far, may hold greater risks going forward.

Even as the secular – sorry, “sickular” – brigade is upset over the live telecast of RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat’s speech on Doordarshan, they seem to have missed a few tell-tale omissions in his address to the Hindu nation. For instance, there was no mention of the Ram temple or love jehad or conversions – issues that have agitated the saffronites for years and have enabled them to mobilize the communal-minded Hindus by arousing anti-minority feelings.