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NEW DELHI: The ‘Falana Singh’ oath episode of panchs and sarpanchs in Punjab’s Bhatinda district on last Saturday gives a classic example of how uneasy lies the head that wears the crown, in the Panchayati Raj system. Yet, the scenario gives a bright perspective of bringing the grassroots people into the system of governance, which is the motto of Panchayati Raj Institutions.

Introspection induces realism. It is time those preparing for the 2014 Lok Sabha and Haryana Assembly elections, which are 9 and 13 months away respectively, undertake the exercise. This would help in the search for the proverbial light at the end of the elections tunnel.

A fairly long interregnum after the budget session enabled the UPA-II Government to further shake off its policy weariness, in the face of worsening economic trends, and put up a fighting show with some bold gestures, especially the long-thundered FDI reforms of the Finance Minister. That it may have come too late to draw investors back and give us some positives is another matter. India is truly caught up in the whirls of global spillovers.

It is a laudable and a humble effort by a panel headed by Justice Mukul Mudgal to propose a legislation for introducing transparency in the national Olympic committee and national sports federations. But this proposed law is not effective to curb the menace of betting and spot-fixing. The panel has deliberately left it out as the Union Law Ministry has promised to draft a law to deal with spot-fixing.

The medical students of the country took to the street last month in the capital of the nation against the impending imposition of rural posting upon them. The Medical Council of India, the governing body of the medical education of the nation, is yet to make this official and already the ire, the uncertainty and the precariousness of the medical students of the country along with the rest of the medical community is being vociferated against the forthcoming mandate that would compel the MBBS pass outs to work in a rural centre for a year in order to be deemed as eligible to pursue higher study and specialisation.

LUCKNOW: While BSP supremo Mayawati has announced her party’s support for Food protection bill of UPA government in forthcoming monsoon session of Parliament, the Samajwadi Party national chief Mulayam Singh Yadav could bargain relief in his (disproportionate assets) DA case to support crucial for UPA.

In a recent interview, BJP’s prospective prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi asserted that because he is a born Hindu and a nationalist as well, we can call him a ‘Hindu nationalist.’ Reading this statement in the Reuters interview I recalled what Gellner ruled about ‘nationalism’ in the early 60’s. In his book Thought and Change Ernest Gellner asserted, ‘Nationalism is not the awakening of nations to self-consciousness: it invents nations where they do not exist.’ Modi rightly understood that in order to spread his message across the board, the targeted voters have to be distinguished not for their genuine or false identities, but by the manner in which they could be imagined.

And the show begins: an innocuous comment made by the Nobel laureate economist about Narendra Modi not being his personal choice as the future prime minister of India and the situation does not take long to escalate into pandemonium. The media, quick as ever, sprung to cater on the silliest of assumptions that Sen’s personal view stated on the English speaking cable network would influence, let alone determine, the matter how the billion will elect their future leader.

An excessive burden of debt – local and external – coupled with economic slowdown threatens to turn entire India Inc sick. If the rating company Crisil’s latest scale-down of the country’s economic growth forecast for the current financial year from 5.5 per cent to five per cent becomes true and Rupee’s slide against US Dollar continues, Indian industry has reasons to seriously worry about its financial health. Corporate profitability in 2013-14 (FY 14) is bound to come under stress on account of lower-than-projected top and bottom lines due to low demand and high input and debt servicing costs. The country’s continuous economic mismanagement and weak fundamentals cast a heavy shadow on the performance of the corporate sector in the near term.

New Delhi: Indian Navy will join the group of five by launching its first 40,000 tonne indigenous aircraft carrier on August 12 at Kochi.