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New Delhi: The ambitious four nation Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) gas pipeline project is likely to be completed by 2017. It has been decided to set up an international company, TAPI Ltd and select a suitable consortium leader outside the four countries to implement the project within the timeline.

Will Telengana become a separate state? The vexed problem is about to be solved if one goes by the mood in the Congress Party. The lawmakers from Telangana have so far accused the Centre of following a ‘one-step-forward-two-backward’ approach when it comes to addressing their demand for a separate state but the leadership cannot afford to dillydally anymore. The AICC General Secretary in charge of Andhra Pradesh Digvijaya Singh has just submitted his report to the party chief. Coming down to two options – to keep it as a united Andhra or to give Telengana – the leadership has to take a call this week.

New Delhi: Pending the resolution of the dispute over the South China Sea, Vietnam said that India’s presence in oil exploration blocks fall in its exclusive economic zones (EEZs), indicating that the issue is one of bilateral nature between the two countries.

Situation in Egypt with the ouster of the elected President Mohamed Morsi by a military coup is one, which may be interpreted as being back to square one. But in the neighbourhood, a lamp is recently lighted sending out a ray of hope after the 64-year old moderate cleric Hassan Rouhani was elected as President of Iran.

LUCKNOW: The BJP’s march for bagging the centre of power under the leadership of Narendra Modi and Rajnath Singh will face major challenges in Uttar Pradesh from BSP supremo Mayawati, SP national president Mulayam Singh Yadav and Rahul Gandhi of Congress (I).

The serial bomb blasts at Mahabodhi Temple at Bodhgaya may not have damaged the world known shrine, but it has dented the image of Nitish Kumar and he has suffered irreparable damage to his image of a strong administrator. Nitish Kumar is an image conscious politician and he has acquired his present status in the national politics because of his image of a clean and able administrator. Despite being a leader of a small regional party, if he was considered to be a prospective Prime Minister of India, it was only because of his good image.

Global economy’s “growing pains” in 2013 has forced IMF to slash its earlier projections for all economies - advanced, emerging and other developing - so that global growth this year would be no better than 3.1 per cent as in 2012. For India, it is marginal reduction for fiscal 2014 from 5.7 to 5.6 per cent.

Had the United Progressive Alliance intended to court unpopularity ahead of the next Lok Sabha elections, it couldn’t have done so more effectively than by dithering on progressive measures like the food security Act, land acquisition Bill, universal healthcare, and social security for unorganised workers. The UPA finally passed a food security ordinance—but only after greatly diluting the universal food provision recommended by the National Advisory Council.

The desperate hurry with which the Manmohan Singh government pushed through the food security ordinance showed that the Congress had realised that it had nothing to show for its last four and a half years in office. The economy has slumped, inflation has risen and foreign investments have dried up. To deepen the mood of doom and gloom, the prime minister has become even more tongue-tied while the finance minister’s occasional attempts to talk up the economy impress no one.

New Delhi: Following the serial bomb blasts at Bodhgaya, India has assured Myanmar that the sacred Buddhist pilgrim site would remain to be peaceful in future and the safety of foreign pilgrims would be assured.