View Articles

Manmohan Singh has apparently seen the writing on the wall. A few months ago, when he was returning from Durban after the BRICS summit, he gave the impression that he was ready for another term as prime minister in UPA-3. Now, while returning from Moscow after the G-20 conclave, he rooted for Rahul Gandhi as his successor and added that he is prepared to work under him in the Congress party.

Notwithstanding paranoia looming over weak external economies of the country, WEF (IMF) forecasted that emerging and developing economies, including China and India, will contribute 60 percent to the world economic growth during 2010-1018. In other words, India still holds the image of an important wing for world economic growth.

BHOPAL: Battle lines for the November Vidhan Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh have been drawn. While the Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is continuing with his whirlwind 'Jan Ashirwad Yatra', the Congress has constituted several committees to take care of various election-related tasks.

New Delhi: The Union Home Ministry is busy preparing a note for discussions in the Union Cabinet on the issue relating to carving out Telangana from Andhra Pradesh.

Never since the economic crisis of 1991, had India undertaken so many economic policy reforms and moves as initiated in the last one week. The policy moves were an afterthought in the wake of continuously rapid slide in the rupee’s exchange rate. There were fears of losing grip over external payments and rising import and repayments bills. Some felt we were in for a similar deep crisis as 1991.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Is Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on the way out in view of the fact that the image of the CM and the UDF Government headed by him have been tarnished ‘beyond repair’ by the solar scam? Is the highly respected senior Congress leader V M Sudheeran being readied for a larger role in the State Congress politics? Speculation has mounted following two rounds of talks Sudheeran recently had in Delhi with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi.

“MPs fight to keep criminals in power”, screamed a newspaper headline. The Supreme Court has ruled that politicians convicted of serious crimes must step down but the lawmakers are fighting back. They are striving hard to restore the earlier position, allowing the convicted MPs and legislators to get stay of their conviction and stay on in political contests. The Representation of the People (second amendment and validating) Bill, 2013 seeks to negate the apex court judgment of July 10, which said that if any sitting MP or MLA is convicted, he would have to resign from the legislature.

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party is all set to discuss the possibility of third front at a two-day national executive meeting beginning September 10 at Agra.

Why make so much fuss about India’s poor and the government’s so-called poverty alleviation programmes? Under the Planning Commission definition, even rag pickers may not qualify to be identified as ‘poor.’ It isn’t easy to define poverty, leave alone attaching an income benchmark to it, in a highly complex and predominantly impoverished society such as India and the sundry nature of jobs that the poor – urban or rural – are forced to take up to stay alive. In fact, the poor are those who earn to stay alive and not live in the true sense of the term.

New Delhi: The suspended Indian Olympic Association (IOA) is in a defiant mood as the International Olympic Committee (IOC) shoots down its compromise formula.