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As we wait for the bruises and the collective disgust at the Zakir Hussain-Subhmania Bharti Marg to heal and dissipate, we cannot but wonder what the State Chief Secretaries and police chiefs will come up with on January 4, 2013. Amendments to criminal law regarding sexual assault cases are probably in the pipeline.

How unethical the medical practice in private hospitals even in a country such as the United States of America — known for having one of the world’s strongest healthcare regulatory systems — could become was best exemplified by an investigative report recently published by The New York Times.

With the third consecutive victory of Narendra Milosevic Modi in its state Assembly, Gujarat has taken a big step backwards and India has suffered a political setback. The result will raise Mr Modi’s ambition to play a major role in national politics, as he so clearly indicated by delivering his victory speech in Hindi. But it will also infuse more strife, tension and communal poison into Indian politics without removing the major obstacles that Mr Modi faces in his search to win the National Democratic Alliance’s nomination as its Prime Ministerial candidate.

What is India’s paramount task and its promise to the Next Generation? Ensure that India reaps the Demographic Dividend. The alternative is social and economic chaos, such as in the middle-eastern countries that have young, unemployed populations.

It is too early to say what will be the political fallout in the long run of the outpouring of grief and anger over the gang rape and death of a young woman who has been accepted by the nation as a daughter. But, at least a few sensitive individuals in the government may have realised how wide is the present rift and how deep the disconnect between the politicians and the urban middle class.

KOLKATA: It appears that Gorkhas are not as united over the demand for a separate state of Gorkhaland as projected over the years by their community leaders.