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New Delhi: Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows to India dropped by 29% to be at $26 billion in 2012. This is primarily due to slow growth rate and associated risks of high price inflation which eroded investors’ confidence.

Looking at Indian political scenario nowadays, one has to wonder in what direction it is heading. An unstable India could be the worst thing to happen to this, already trouble-fraught, region of South Asia. Would the system of coalition politics that they have devised over the years collapse and lead towards unknown possibilities? Or, a new model of the same is in the offing? Or, even remotely, is there any possibility of reverting to the relative stability of one dominant party that encompasses all the segments of that gigantic society?

KOLKATA: Elections to Assam’s premier civic body, the Guwahati Municipal Corporation, were held on June 19. The results were declared this Monday. The Congress has won, bagging 17 of the 31 seats. But that’s about all. The results give no cause for exultation to the party or to rest on its laurels. The BJP closely tailed the Congress, winning 11 seats, while the regional party AGP, which had led the famous ‘Assam movement’ from 1979 to 1985 and ruled the State for ten years in two terms has been all but wiped out: it has managed to win only one seat. The Left – the CPI and the CPI-M – failed to open an account.

The tragedy of Uttarakhand is attracting the attention of environmentalists, who are blaming the government for this natural calamity which resulted into the death of thousands of people and destruction of property worth of thousands of crores. This natural disaster may be the making of men, but the response of the government after the calamity was far less than adequate.

Conditions for Indian and Pakistani prisoners in held in various jails have not improved, although both countries seem to be taking more interest in the matter at present.

While Nitish Kumar refrained from naming Narendra Modi during his interactions with the media after the Janata Dal (United)’s departure from the NDA, references to the riots of 2002 have turned up again like a bad coin.

New Delhi: India and US signed four Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) at institutional level for cooperation in education.

New Delhi: The Government of India has decided to set up Wakf Development Corporation to fund the State Wakf Boards to develop their properties for commercial use.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is a palpable sense of relief in the camp of Kerala CPI(M) led by State secretary Pinarayi Vijayan over the latest High Court verdict in the SNC Lavalin case.

When double-face and hypocrisy become tools of political functioning and governance, it leads to serious consequences for the polity. Punjab’s ruling Akali leadership finds itself caught in the cobweb of two such cases. One is its stand on building of memorials. The second is its praise and active support to those who have been charged with organising massacre of minorities and practicing communal politics.