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As the new president of the United States takes charge in his second term, Barrack Obama faces major challenge of reviving the US economy. In fact,, his rival Mitt Romney had directed a good deal of his energy to highlight the failures of the incumbent president in turning around the economy and hardship of the common American. It did not obviously cut much ice with the electorates.

The three big global powers - United States, China and Russia have positioned themselves aggressively to influence the East Asian nations on the eve of the East Asia Summit (EAS) scheduled at Phnom Penh on November 19 and 20 this year. China is already dominant in the region and its supremacy in political and economic issues of the region is recognized though many of the member nations are not happy with it. The US has its own strategy for the region and it is working for a policy of restraining Chinese domination by encouraging Japan and some of the other nations including Vietnam who have apprehensions about the Chinese ambitions in the maritime seas.

The BJP President, Nitin Gadkari, will have ultimately to go; it is a matter of time. The party may allow him to complete the present term but desist from giving him another stint in office. However, in the event of pressure mounting and the RSS and the BJP unable to resist the coercion, they may ask Gadkari to quit forthwith. A polarised and fractious BJP may not like an unnecessary controversy like the one created by Gadkari to hit them with the general elections knocking at the door. If Gadkari goes down in disgrace, it will be an embarrassment to the RSS, who propped up an unknown person to the top post of a national party.

Rs 47,500 crore as compensation to farmers in Nagapattinam (Tamil Nadu), may not affect ONGC’s financial health, but definitely it tells about its lack of operational excellence, despite its having over 33,000 staff on pay roll.

The Congress Party’s massive rally in New Delhi on November 4 was like sounding the bugle of its battle-readiness in the run-up to the 2014 elections, even if it was primarily intended to convey the UPA-II resolve to push ahead with its reforms agenda, including the most controversial FDI in multi-brand retail, for its brand of “inclusive growth”. Whatever the limited impact of FDI in retail trade, the agenda is yet to come up with resolving vital concerns of the people.

What was union minister Srikant Jena from Odisha’s Balasore doing all these years when illegal mining was taking place at next door Keonjhar? Presumably, he had known this even as a young minister of state for industry in 1979-80 in the then Janata Dal-led Orissa (now Odisha) government and later as a union minister of state for small-scale, agro and rural industries during April-November, 1990, again representing Janata Dal.

The European Union and 10 Latin American countries signed an agreement on 8 November 2012 settling the longest-running series of disputes in the history of the multilateral trading system.