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New Delhi: A Chinese think tank is not pleased with India’s presence in Afghanistan. It has alleged that US has been promoting India to play a greater role in Afghanistan which would eventually amount to an “Indian takeover” of the war-ravaged country in the event of slated withdrawal of NATO forces in 2014.

It’s an irony of history that an adversary can sometimes rescue you from trouble better than a friend. So when Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov proposed that the United States should defer its planned military attack on Syria if Damascus surrenders its stockpile of chemical weapons within a week, President Barack Obama eagerly grabbed the opportunity. That saved Mr Obama the embarrassment of facing the virtually certain rejection of his military-strike plan by the US Congress.

Having chosen Narendra Modi as the prime ministerial candidate under pressure from the RSS, the BJP has no option but to tout the selection as a ‘winning’ proposition although a few saffron sympathisers have acknowledged that if the party fails to win at least 180 seats in the Lok Sabha, its hopes of attracting allies will fall flat. It has also been admitted that in that case, LK Advani will have the last laugh.

Punjab seldom skips making headlines. State’s well wishers were, however, surprised to see last week’s two headlines. One quoted the Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh describing the reports about Punjab being cash-starved ‘as unfounded impression’. He said, ‘The state has never defaulted on payment of wages to its employees and held back pensions.’ He blamed the media for creating a fear psychosis among potential investors by ‘propagating’ that the ‘debt-ridden Punjab is facing financial crisis.’

This week’s release of data regarding industrial production shows a mild growth of 2.6 per cent. But that has been hailed as a sign of a rebound in the industrial sector. Admittedly, this was an improvement of sorts from a situation when the industrial output was shrinking. It shrank by 1.8 per cent in June and by 2.8 per cent in May. But such is the level of desperation that even this green shoot of growth in industry is being viewed as enough of a cause for celebration as many commentators and media did.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The acquittal of 20 of the accused in Revolutionary Marxist Party (RMP) leader TP Chandrashekharan murder case has sharpened the group rivalries in the Congress in the State.

No one can question L K Advani’s contribution to the growth of the BJP from two seats in 1984 to 182 seats in 1999. He should, therefore, had been taken seriously when he stressed that Narendra Modi’s name as BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate, should be announced after coming assembly elections. In the event of BJP losing in assembly poll or putting up a poor performance, this may have impact on May, 2014 Lok Sabha election. Advani does not want to lose when the Congress appears to be sliding down and BJP’s prospects look bright. The BJP’s tallest leader feels that winning the Lok Sabha election is of far more importance than losing or winning few states.

New Delhi: While the Indian Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid has left the country for a visit Kyrgyz Republic the Defence Minister of that country Major General TaalaibekOmuraliev is on an official visit to India. He met the Indian Defence Minister AK Antony over a delegation talks here on Friday.

Five years after the global financial meltdown of 2008 and a Great Recession, which enveloped advanced nations, the world economy is still struggling to enter a path of sustained recovery while facing bleak prospects of a growth rebound in the near term. Post-crisis, global growth averaged 1.7 per cent (2008-12) at a much slower pace than in earlier recession episodes since 1970s, and as against the 4 per cent average in the pre-crisis boom years (2005-07).

Since he occupied the hot seat at the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) a few days ago, the country’s principal markets dealing in corporate stocks, government bonds, commodities, bullions and foreign exchange have been showing somewhat irrational exuberance, according 50-year-old hallowed MIT doctorate and former chief economist with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Raghuram Rajan a rock-star’s welcome. The market sentiment has turned bullish. It seems happy days are to be here again. However, time alone can tell what is in store for the Indian currency and economy, especially in few months down the line.