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By choosing Japan for his first major diplomatic port of call outside India’s neighbourhood, Narendra Modi has only confirmed what his critics and admirers have by now settled for that he is not only the most unconventional but also most pragmatic of all Indian prime ministers in thoughts and actions, so far. Last week, the prime minister first stepped out of the country to meet India’s most trusted and friendly neighbour, Bhutan, a land-locked historically royal state turned the youngest republic in the region, at its premises to throw open the country’s economy and agriculture for the benefit of the people of Bhutan, help develop Bhutan’s natural resources, including energy, and buy back the surplus for the economic benefit of both the neighbours. Bhutan is India’s only border state that had consciously stayed away from Chinese any major assistance for economic development until now.

Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP’s political tactics in West Bengal have left Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee pretty much clueless, and her party sharply divided, in working out an effective response.

The notion that advanced economies are on a steady course of recovery and growth, has taken a sudden knock with incipient risks, especially for the already struggling emerging economies like India. EMEs' role as principal growth driver had recently diminished somewhat in juxtaposition to the relatively more robust recovery and growth in USA and in a few other advanced economies other than the euro-zone.

Like the proverbial Bourbons, the Congress learns nothing and forgets nothing. For the party, the latest electoral drubbing does not seem to have been too bothersome. It had promised “deep introspection” after it lost four assembly elections last year. That it did nothing of the sort was evident only a few months later in the second thrashing which it received at the electorate’s hands.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address to party cadres Saturday was a timely lament that Indian media fails yet again to address the need to report on what the new government has started to do about skills and entrepreneurship education.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done well to tell the people in advance that this is no time for 'goodies' but for 'tough decisions', which should mean some hardships somewhere, and that is realism creeping in when you get down to governance away from pulpit protestations.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proved his diplomatic mettle in his first foreign trip to Bhutan by restoring trust in the tiny Himalayan kingdom about Indian sincerity in protecting the interests of that country. Modi was quite candid in underlining that Bhutan can depend on India for both political and economic support and it should not feel insecure as a result of domineering attitude of China.

The two-day meeting of 80-plus member central committee of India’s largest Leftist political outfit, Communist Party of India ( Marxist) last week failed to adopt a proper review on the disastrous performance of the Party in the recent Lok Sabha elections. And for the first time the party could not prepare and release the communiqué immediately after the end of CC meeting. And all this brought despair to the committed members of CPI(M) and fellow-travellers.

After long years—more than a decade—both the houses of Parliament heard a Prime Minister speak extempore, without notes or even talking points; Narendra Modi’s maiden speech, heart rendering and reassuring, was example of powerful oratory. His reply to the debate on the President’s address was, perhaps, the best in his political career, marked by clarity, striking of right note on development, no evidence of triumphalism and invention of new phrases like—allegations are bad but criticism is never, Ek Bharat, Shreshtha Bharat, Scam India to Skill India and the country is bigger than our parties……let us put the bitterness of the past behind us.

BHOPAL: There is no end to scams in Madhya Pradesh. Only recently, a mega scam had come to light, which emanated from the irregularities in a government board that handles the task of recruiting non-gazetted government employees and also holds tests for admission to medical, engineering and other professional colleges and technical institutions. The board is called Professional Examination Board (PEB).