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The likely face off between Indian and Chinese troops at the line of actual control (LAC) in Ladakh has been averted. Thanks to efforts of the Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her counterpart Wang Yi at the margins of the UN General Assembly. The Chinese troops have begun withdrawing from Chumar in Ladakh following the flag meeting between two sides. The Indian side agreed to dismantle its observation posts in the area, while the Chinese agreed to discontinue the construction of road there. About 750 Chinese troops began incursions into Indian territory about a fortnight ago and remained there even the Chinese President Xi Jinping was on a visit to India.

BHOPAL: Brisk preparations are on for the mega investors' summit to be held in Indore in the first week of October. Chief Minister Shivraj Singh is hopeful that the summit will open the doors for massive investments in Madhya Pradesh. Almost all the important and leading industrial houses of the country are likely to be present in the summit. According to a government spokesman, Mukesh Ambani, Essar group chairman Shashi Ruia, Videocon representative Anirudh Dhoot and several others leading industrial tycoons have given their consent to participate in the Indore meet. Besides Ambassadors and representative of foreign countries have also accepted MP government's invitation.

Tamil Nadu, noted for stability and good governance through decades, may be in for political uncertainty, without a robust leader at the helm like Ms. Jayalalithaa, the convicted and jailed Chief Minister. But this is dependant on the outcome of the 2016 assembly elections. Meanwhile, her ruling AIADMK will hold the fort firm.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala CPI(M)’s proclivity to take unilateral decisions and impose the same on the Left Democratic Font (LDF) headed by it has drawn heavy flak from the party’s allies.

Shiv Sena and NCP could not have committed a bigger mistake than snapping their time-tested alliance with the BJP and the Congress respectively. The Shiv Sena-BJP alliance is 25 years old and its split marks end of a robust and stormy era in coalition politics in Maharashtra. Likewise 15-year-old Congress and NCP alliance saw many ups and downs and survived many a crisis. NCP had also remained a dependable ally of the Congress at the centre through thick and thin, enabling the UPA government to survive. Paths of both parties are different now.

The recent incident of Jadavpur University, though expanded into a separate phenomenon of students’ dissent altogether, essentially began as a protest against the entrenched patriarchy in the field of academia. From an outsider’s point of view, the academic centres of excellence often appear to be institutes devoted to pristine form of knowledge and wisdom devoid of the burden of hegemonies of mundane outside world.

Maharashtra is now headed for the assembly elections on October 15 this year which will be marked by unprecedented bitterness and mudslinging between the contesting political parties as all the major political parties have broken their respective alliances to fight on their own.BJP has severed its pact with Shiv Sena while the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has announced that its alliance with the Congress Party is over. The last day of nomination is September 27 and there is a big rush among all the four major parties to field candidates in the assembly constituencies.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in the United States of America on September 26, on a landmark visit, as a strong leader of the world’s largest democracy, with a dynamically changing economy and widely acknowledged global power status. The Obama Administration is giving a red carpet welcome to the Indian leader.

LUCKNOW: BJP leaders feel that aggressive dose of Hindutva and making Yogi Adityanath as main face of BJP in the by-elections were main factors behind the tremendous loss of party in recently concluded by-elections in Uttar Pradesh.

It is extremely unusual of a governor of a country’s central bank, who normally carries an image of a conservative tough-talking and always word-watching stiff-necked super monetary regulator, to constantly making public statements and sermonizing the government! Why is the present Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor, Raghuram Govinda Rajan, handpicked for the coveted job by ex-finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, acting flippant often to the consternation of the new government, his inheritor? Behind his well-groomed formal appearance, Rajan appears to be most informal and accessible person promoting a trait that is generally considered unsuitable for the high post. During this month of September alone, the RBI governor has made nearly a dozen public statements, several of them being directly critical of the government. His statements also rendered unsolicited advises to the government. And, at least one of them had a spine-chilling impact on the Indian business community, known for using the historically high debt-equity ratio norms to their best advantage to multiply personal wealth at the cost of lenders to their interconnected group enterprises by fudging accounts and creating false mortgages.