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The stage is set for India becoming a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at its summit at Ufa in Russian Federation on July 9 and 10 this year. So far this SCO group founded in Shanghai in 2001, had six members led by China and Russia. Other four members are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The full membership will give India the access to participation in vital discussions regarding the security and development in the Asian region, mainly the central Asia. Significantly the BRICS summit is also being held simultaneously at the same venue and this will give India the advantage of having discussions with other two members Brazil and South Africa.

The element of trust deficit has been primarily responsible for the reluctance of the BJP central leadership to announce the name of the probable chief ministerial candidate for the ensuing assembly elections. Though the BJP’s central leadership appears to be apprehensive of sabotage by other aspirants in case a face was projected, the primary reason for keeping it wrapped in secrecy is the inability of the aspirants to take head on the Nitish Kumar challenge. The leadership is not in the proper mental frame to initiate any step in this matter as it would prove to be detrimental to the party in a do-or-die battle.

The ongoing Lalit Modi drama is not going to go away soon as many expected with the narrative changing by the hour. It has so many angles including political, sports, power of the rich and mighty and so on but what began as sports rivalry has now blown into a first rate political crisis. Naturally it has given fodder to the opposition starved of any real issues. There is no doubt that the real target is Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself.

A Panel on Railway Restructuring, headed by Bibek Debroy, member of the NITI Ayog, which presented its final report to the Government in the Ministry of Railways on June 12, 2015, has recommended far reaching measures to change both the form and content of Indian Railways. If implemented together with 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) already allowed by Narendra Modi led Union Government, Indian Railways are in for fragmenting its present integrated unitary character under a single management, putting at risks the time tested integrated coordinated mechanism of command and control in the Ministry of Railways.

With the Modi Government anniversary bash behind, there is a general criticism that the BJP government with its pronounced pro-business bias, has miserably flunked the test of sailing through the land acquisition as also the Goods and Services Tax (GST) bills without due spadework and by unduly resorting to an avoidable altercation and standoffishness with the rest of the political parties. As a result, both the crucial bills for ease of doing business in India got stuck in legislative impasse, dashing the entrepreneurial élan.

Myanmar Operation was enough a message to the insurgents that New Delhi can no longer tolerate their nefarious activities engineered from the soil of a neighbouring country. It is not the issue at this moment of counting casualties on either side. It is an issue of retaliation in right time to save civilian casualties deliberately planned by insurgents.

Will India’s new defence procurement policy (DPP) elicit smiles or frowns from the armed forces, industry, and foreign firms? This is the billion dollar question as the government prepares to unveil the latest avatar of the principal manual for defence acquisitions in the country. Considering that many of India’s acquisition bids are dogged by delays and controversies, a lot depends on the new policy’s potential to shake up the system. Sources at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) say that the draft of the revised DPP has already been circulated in the industry as well as the three services. In fact, a ten-member ministerial committee has apparently even finalized its recommendations on the document.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is one of the delicious ironies of Kerala CPI(M) politics. The more the State CPI(M) leadership tries to marginalize VS, the more he bounces back with greater force!

LUCKNOW: BSP supremo Mayawati is making preparations for Mission 2017 to capture power in Uttar Pradesh.

Has a secular anti-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance at last been sealed in Bihar, following Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Laloo Prasad’s declaration that he would consume “poison” by fighting the coming Assembly elections jointly with the Janata Dal (United) and the Congress, and proposing Nitish Kumar as its Chief Ministerial candidate in the presence of JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav?