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The Congress’ star campaigner RaGa (Rajiv Gandhi) and the BJP’s new poster boy NaMo (Narendra Modi) have shifted their focus to Karnataka quietly to test their vote catching ability. The feverish comparison between the two potential prime ministerial candidates has come down in the media as both have chosen a low profile campaign. While there was expectation that Karnataka would be a battleground for the two leaders to test their charisma, neither of them has shown interest in clashing with each other before the 2014 polls. The ground reality shows that neither Rahul not Modi want to be a win or lose factor. They don’t want to stick their neck out for reasons best known to themselves.

The government is planning another sell out of farmers’ interest at the altar of the proposed India-EU Bilateral Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA). Several rounds of negotiations have taken place and the talks are at an advanced stage.

As the shadow of corruption is getting larger after each passing day, Indian democracy is facing unprecedented crisis. This crisis seems to be deeper than what we witnessed during Emergency of 1970s. At that time, there was a majority government in Delhi and the opposition was very week in the Parliament. But today, numerically speaking, opposition is in majority in the both Houses of our Parliament. After the exit of AITMC led by Mamata Banerjee and DMK led by M. Karunanidhi, the ruling alliance has reduced to minority even in Lok Sabha.

There is no denying of the fact that the entire coal bock allocation scandal that came to be known to the public after a CAG report pointing finger at the UPA government’s lease license policy leading to a huge loss to the exchequer is a creation of the government’s own panic reaction to the super auditors’ surmise, which ignored the national interest and economic compulsion behind the executive decision.

An important item in the free trade agreement being negotiated between India and the European Union is automobiles. The EU is pressing for a reduction in the customs duty on fully built cars imported into India from 60 percent to under 30 percent. The Indian government is reportedly caving in. This is opposed by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers, a powerful lobby that has done much to promote cars.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Shape up or ship out. That is the crux of the succinct message delivered by the Nair Service Society (NSS) and the Sree Narayana Dharma Paripalana Yogam (SNDP) to the Oommen Chandy Government.

Even as the inboxes of Internet users are flooded with messages from Tamil activists favouring the cause of a separate homeland for Tamils in Sri Lanka, it has become obvious that the rest of India has little interest in Eelam.

NEW DELHI: In the backdrop of Chinese troops’ incursion by 10-km inside Ladakh, new anxieties dog the Indian psyche over the missed opportunities, squandered during its 60’s, 70’s and 80’s in the many areas.

With Lok Sabha and Haryana Assembly elections 12 and 18 months away, Haryana’s political scene is showing signs of change. The perceived change may lead to political realignments during the run-up to 2014 elections.

Notwithstanding the combined assault on the murky West Bengal chit fund operator, Sudipta Sen, his associates and group companies by the CBI, SEBI and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, it is business as usual for the country’s multi-lakh-crore rupee micro-finance and chit fund industry, including some 160 outfits from four eastern states - Assam, Bihar, Orissa and Bengal. The chit fund business is booming across the country with the expansion of economy. The rigorous banking regulations, restrictions on offering certain types of loans, regulated deposit and lending rates, the banking industry’s limited reach and growing underworld fund needs have led to a flourishing chit fund business across the country.