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Private sector investment in important sectors such as infrastructure, food security and climate change mitigation has seldom been on a desirable scale and scope in developing and emerging economies as they are classified as public goods to be taken care of by the Government. This thinking needs to be altered in the context of the ascendancy and sway of market forces for more than two decades in most of the world, though whether any re-thinking has taken place on this score remains a moot point. With country after country failing to fund capital-intensive public works encompassing physical and social infrastructure for want of resources, the private sector has also not galvanized itself to fill the gap as it has been finding the going tough in a milieu of meager returns on massive investments so laboriously and meticulously marshaled against inadequate flow of credit from formal banking channels.

New Delhi railway station’s escalators continue to remain shut for over a few months now. The reasons may be anything, from shoddy manufacturing to callous maintenance, but definitely it is a glaring case of bad governance. The station managers seem to be ignorant about the word quality.

Like nature, politics abhors a vacuum. It will be unrealistic to believe, therefore, that a majority in parliament ensures trouble-free governance. Even after the opposition has been comprehensively routed, as in the present case, the party in power can still face critics from its own ranks.

KOLKATA: The disastrous defeat of the Congress in the Lok Sabha elections along with its very poor performance in Assam has considerably weakened the ‘High Command’s` hold on the party. So much so, that it is unable to find an answer to a simple question: should Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi continue or quit? Frequent air-dashes to Delhi by the Gogoi loyalists and dissidents and their attempts at winning over the High Command to their respective points of view have not been able to resolve the Shakespearean dilemma: Gogoi to be or not to be the CM ?

Agriculture in India is ceasing to be a profitable enterprise. The most unfortunate part is the growing distress among the farmers, the giver of country's food security. The incidences of farmers' suicides remain high and previous governments had done little to wipe out farmers' woos.

A countrywide protest against the steep fare hike for passengers announced by the railways is a foretaste for the Modi Government of a rough ride ahead in bringing public finance under control, linked inevitably to more burdens that the forthcoming Union Budget is expected to unfold.

NDA Government appeared to be in a fix as to whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi should visit Japan before the BRICS summit and budget session. Never before the visit of any Indian Prime Minister to Japan was hyped as the visit of Mr Modi did. Mr Modi is known for his special preference for Japan for development. Media was hogged with the reports that Japan would be the first bilateral visit of Mr Modi and he would visit in the first week of July. The euphoria was buried when it was decided that he would visit after budget session.

It is unfortunate but true; the gubernatorial office is used for rehabilitation of political leaders who have been rejected by the people, could not be accommoded in the government, battled-scared veterans and favourite officers. Both the Congress and the BJP have used Raj Bhavans as retired homes for politicians who have to be dropped from the ministry and favoured officers who have to be rewarded for services rendered by them.

A journalist isn’t generally expected to comment on news items in which s/he personally figures as an actor. But I’m compelled to do so in respect of a leaked report prepared by the Intelligence Bureau, which received wide coverage, and which names me as part of a conspiracy by “foreign-funded” non-governmental organisations to “take down” Indian development projects, set the country’s economy back, and halt this society’s forward march.

BHOPAL: “Baat niklegi to phir door talak jayegi”. This line from a Ghazal sung by the famous singer, Late Jagjit Singh is on the lips of many a person, who are keeping an eye on the implications of the arrest of Laxmikant Sharma, who was a very important and powerful member of the Shivraj Singh Chauhan, on June 15 on the charge of recommending the appointment of many persons to various posts through exams conducted by the Professional Examination Board (Vyapam), an agency under him. Sharma was an important member of the Shivraj Singh Chauhan cabinet till December 2014, when he lost the Vidhan Sabha elections from his home constituency Sironj in the neighbouring Vidisha district.