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A little highlighted fact during the recent visit of the Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi to China is the intensified cooperation in non-fossil-fuel sources that New Delhi sought from the Middle Kingdom and succeeded in securing. Academic scholars contend that 2014 was the second year in a row in which China added more generating capacity from non-fossil-fuel sources than from fossil-fuel ones. China augmented its ability to generate electricity from fossil fuels by 45 gigawatts to reach a total of 916 gigawatts. At the same time, it also enhanced its capacity to produce electricity from non-fossil-fuel sources by 56 gigawatts, achieving a total of 444 gigawatts in which wind, water, and solar power plants added 51 gigawatts of generating capacity.

Barely two weeks after a major earthquake which killed more than 8,000 people, Nepal suffered a powerful aftershock, adding to its misery and killing over 100 people. More than 3.5 million people are still in need of food assistance; 479,000 houses have been destroyed and 263,000 damaged; and only five percent of the $415 million aid Nepal needs has reached it. Given the extensive destruction and caving in of hill roads, it has been near-impossible to reach relief material to those in dire need.

Normally, the murder of five persons belonging to the one family of scheduled-caste origin would create some furore in the land of West Bengal with politicians across the board and media competing in their solidarity with the deceased among the downtrodden. High-caste ‘progressives’ of various hues would have also competed to lead the outrage, lest their ‘traditional’ self-appointed spokesperson role come under any threat. However, that wasn’t the case when three men and two women died in the Naoda village near Juranpur of Nadia district, West Bengal. The murderers, in this case, were Muslims. In some twisted calculus that goes by the name of secularism and maintenance of communal harmony, the governing party of West Bengal and the principal opposition party have had nothing to say about the matter. Major Bengali media organisations, with a few honourable exceptions, have not reported the matter at all. This conspiracy of silence has a predictable past.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi cast himself a new wonder of the world by the electoral heights he scaled at home in May 2014 Lok Sabha polls and by the frenetic pace of his travels over a year, to assert India’s rising stature with its fast-growing economy, reckoned as one of key drivers of global growth. He scored huge gains in the matter of foreign capital financing for long-term development.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress in Kerala has been jolted by two recent developments: plain-speaking by senior Congress leader, A. K. Antony and fresh eruption of group war in the party in its wake.

CHANDIGARH: Haryana’s six-month-old Khattar-led BJP government is going to face testing times. Last week’s two developments are a pointer. The first development is the agitation launched by the Congress against the Khattar regime making political vendetta and government’s “failures” as its core issues. The second development is saffronising of education.

With the Congress now positioning itself on the “left of Karl Marx”, as finance minister Arun Jaitley has said, and its adherence to “semi-socialist” policies being confirmed by the Congress M.P., Kamal Nath, the party can be said to have returned to its original path of Nehruvian socialism.

The global warming, air pollution and climate change are danger signals that all is not too well with environment and Narendra Modi government has rightly taken some major green initiative for sustainable energy development during the last one year. Solar energy, which is abundantly available in the country is being given new thrust. The solar energy which accounted for mere one per cent of nearly two lakh mw of power generated in the country, is being pursued with renewed vigour. The target of 20,000 Mw of solar power proposed to be installed in the country has been reset by the NDA government to achieve five time more at one lakh mw of solar power by 2022. The target, which looked overambitious, now seems to be within the realms of reality with some state already witnessing silent revolution on rooftop solar power generation with the launch of net metering in the country.

Time moves fast in Delhi; Narendra Modi completes one-year in office on May 26 this year. It is time to take stock of his government’s achievements and failures rather than fashionable credo of the first 100 days. Doubtless, he has brought decisiveness to decision-making, being recognized as the leader of his party and government in contrast to his predecessor. First seven months of his rule—from May 26 to December, 2014—demonstrated spectacular success on many fronts, raising the expectations of the people. But in the year 2015, his popularity graph appears to be dipping. With the euphoria of victory in the Lok Sabha elections getting over, he faces tough problems domestically.

HONG KONG: The government's knee jerk policy changes to rein in black money will not only lead to flight of capital from the country but also shy away Non Resident Indians (NRIs), the new found constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from looking at India as an investment destination.