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The end of eventful innings of two great women who had lifelong penchant for a just society in early July this year marks the severance of link between the present generation of women’s struggle for social emancipation and elimination of gender discrimination. One was, Zohra Sehgal (born as Sahibzadi Zohra Begum Mumtaz-ullah Khan), who stopped breathing at the age of 102. She was arguably the greatest performing artist of the 20th Century- a dancer of international repute from the mid-1930s when she earned appreciation of discriminating dance critics in Europe while participating under the famous Uday Shankar’s roving troupe (Uday Shankar Ballet Company), an all time -great stage artist and one of the greatest woman actor s on the celluloid. She made a mark as a choreographer too. The other was Vidya Munshi, the first woman journalist of Calcutta in the late 1940s who left the media and plunged into the women’s struggle under the concerned mass front of undivided Communist Party of India. She was 95 when she breathed her last and but she was alert and agile till the end.

NEW DELHI: The Union Budget is yet short of a roadmap for skills education in this fiscal. Mr Jaitley’s maiden budget seems to be a beginning. It reads as a silent indicator to a better tomorrow with the initial allocation for the Rural-Urban connectivity, the Rs. 500-crore Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Rurban Scheme (SPMRS).

By taking a decision to retain the Maharashtra chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, the Congress leadership has confirmed once again that it is a status quo party. Only a few days ago the Haryana chief minister B.S. Hooda got a reprieve when it was announced that he too was not going to be changed. Both the states are going for polls in the next few months. It is nobody’s case that changing the chief minister just a few months before the elections is the answer to the problem but the party has also to take note of the rebellion within and outside. The only relief is that the uncertainty has ended. The Congress rebels and the NCP who had serious reservations about Chavan are now expected to work with him. Will they?

New Delhi: A report prepared by a group of top police officials of the country has revealed that Muslims see police as “communal, biased and insensitive... ill-informed and corrupt”. The report admits 'a trust deficit among Muslims' and has urged the Centre to take appropriate measures to restore their confidence on police force.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The BJP’s efforts to forge a third front in Kerala, dominated by the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) and the CPI(M)-headed Left Democratic Front(LDF), seem to have gained traction, post Lok Sabha elections.

Budget for 2014-15 dampened the hopes of foreign investors, who reposed high confidence on Modi’s concept for rebooting the manufacturing sector as the base for growth. The euphoric BJP manifesto, which said that “We should not remain a market for the global industry. Rather, we should become a Global Manufacturing Hub “, lost its sheen with his first Budget which could have acted a precursor to Modi’s bent towards foreign investment to create a manufacturing hub.

The launching of a one-hundred billion dollar New Development Bank at the Sixth BRICS Summit in Brazil on July 15, 2014 is a historic financing initiative among emerging economies, virtually throwing a challenge at the legitimacy of the post-war Bretton Woods Institutions with all their failings of the past.

Why is India so touchy about allowing foreign defence manufacturing giants to set up military hardware production shops in the country? Like many others, Narendra Modi too had been asking this question to himself as well and spoken at public gatherings on the need for strengthening the domestic base of military hardware production even before he aspired to become India’s prime minister. His scientific mind found no logic towards the country’s long-standing distrust for domestic private initiative in manufacturing weapons, battle tanks, missiles, guns, rockets, combat aircraft, submarine, battle ships, electronic surveillance gadgets and security devices while the government went on spending large foreign exchange in procuring those military hardware from foreign private and government-backed companies based outside the country at huge costs, decades after decades. Therefore, the 49 per cent FDI in defence production announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley would appear to be a right step in the right direction.

Good beginning but needs to be worked on India’s financial sector is undergoing a transformation currently and Arun Jaitley’s first budget has sought to address some of the issues upfront.

The fact that sectarian sentiments based on caste or region or religion are not as deeply rooted as is common supposed but are really bubbles on the surface of the country’s political life becomes evident every time there is a wave of sort on the eve of an election.