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BHOPAL: There seems to be no end to the travails and troubles of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan. The outcome of the poll survey done by CNN-IBN and Hindu – which predicted a landslide victory for his party, the BJP, in the general elections in Madhya Pradesh – had boosted his morale but the disclosure of entries in the diaries seized by the Income Tax Department has seriously dented the reputation of the BJP.

Political expediency by the Congress leaders finally won over reasoning in deciding to bifurcate Andhra Pradesh and creating the new state of Telengana. The question posed in political circles is: Will Andhra’s loss be Congress Party’s gain? Many in the ruling party say that dividing a prosperous state like Andhra Pradesh was a grave mistake.

New Delhi: Following the final report of the Technical Expert Committee (TEC) appointed by the apex court in the country to deliberate on the safety of genetically modified (GM) crops, the Indian Government has called for “a healthy scientific debate” on this “contentious” topic that has generated “strong opinions on both sides.”

At the end of a marathon session in Hawaii (on Mauna Kea), India signed up the ‘Thirty Meter Telescope’ along with USA, Canada, Japan and China on 25 July. TMT, the next-generation astronomical observatory, will be on stream in 2022 on, Hawaii. A unique and vibrant collaboration among universities in the USA and Canada, China, India and Japan, it will aim at an unprecedented scientific endeavour with global reach.

If some of the categorisations preferred by former US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld, such as ‘known knowns’ and ‘known unknowns’, are applied to the next general election, the first phrase will seem apt for assessing Narendra Modi’s influence on the BJP’s prospects.

It was the bloodiest of all state-level village panchayat elections, which symbolise India’s grass-root democracy. The recently concluded five-phase West Bengal panchayat elections made a mockery of the mercifully police and paramilitary-protected Indian democratic system leaving nearly 30 people dead, hundreds injured and thousands homeless in state-wide political violence, arson and looting. The final death toll taking into account those critically-injured fighting for life in hospitals may touch 50.

Politicians have a way of trivialising even the most serious issues. Immediately after the latest estimate of poverty was released by the government earlier this week, tongues started wagging not about the major insights thrown up by the figures but about how much was needed to buy a meal in different parts of the country. The buyers were the politicians, who, by all admission, would never take a meal that they claimed were available for Rs 5 or Rs 15. However, clamour started and the one-upmanship went out of control. In the end, it turned out to be a ridiculous show of ignorance.

NEW DELHI: What is the common thread running through the sad stories like Delhi gang rape, rain-fed disaster in Char Dham and the poisoning of mid-day meals that killed 27 innocent hungry schoolchildren in a Bihar village in Saran district? It is the absence of a system, a process in governance vital for running the daily routine in order.

Communication between Arunachal Pradesh and other parts of the country would improve in a major way once India’s longest road-cum-rail bridge (4.98 kilometres) is built on the mighty Brahmaputra River.

Wittingly or unwittingly, the Nobel laureate and Bharat Ratna awardee, Amartya Sen, has treaded on grounds that have a distinct political colour. He has said in interviews “as an Indian citizen I don’t want Narendra Modi as the Prime Minister; he has not done enough for minorities or for the majority.” There is nothing wrong in this but, at the same time, it is not just quite right for a man of his stature to make a politically loaded remark, may be unwittingly.