View Articles

Delhi is the rape-capital of South Asia. No amount of regular manicuring of Lutyens lawns and New Delhi-Gurgaon-style ‘cosmopolitanism’ can take away that fact. The rape-capital epithet comes from simple numbers. Delhi is comparable in population size to Kolkata and Mumbai. If rape were to be considered a ‘natural’ human pathology, the number of rapes would be proportional to the number of humans. The thing is, when it comes to cities within the territory of the Indian Union, it is not.

As expected, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has done a hat-trick. The question is that whether he will become the Prime Ministerial candidate in the 2014 polls? Will he be projected against the Gandhi scion Rahul Gandhi? What happens to the other aspirants in the BJP and the NDA? Modi has become larger than life. In fact, the fight this time in Gujarat was Modi versus the rest. Modi has done well for himself by selling the brand Modi successfully.

The Canadian economy slowed in 2012, with the uncertain global environment weighing on exports and business investment. Economic growth is expected to pick up above its potential rate over the course of 2013, although downside risks from external headwinds continue to loom large.

This is a very bad case of déjà vu. It’s all the more horrible because an entire country seems to have accepted gun massacres as mundane and routine occurrence. America is becoming a serial mourner of a nation; it’s lamenting the loss of lives oh so theatrically. Their president is choking on his own (genuine) tears, as the shell-shocked parents put their little ones to their final sleep, knowing that no lullaby can wake their darlings up ever again.

The European Commission has sanctified an agreement among finance ministers of the 27-nation EU for placing some 200 large and systemically important banks under a single supervisory body under the European Central Bank. Under the new dispensation and rules, the larger European banks and eventually all banks in Europe, will have to work under same rules and regulations. This thus paves way to banking integration of the continent.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. It seems life is never easy for those who become Chief Ministers of West Bengal. After the late Ajoy Mukherjee, now it is the turn of Ms. Mamata Banerjee to declare her utter helplessness as the ruling Chief Minister.

The Reserve Bank of India, in its mid-quarter policy review, as 2012 winds down, has left all key rates of interest unchanged but provides a clear indication of a shift to easing policy to support growth, if current pace of moderation in inflation is maintained going into 2013. A tangible move in this regard is likely in RBI’s Third Quarter Policy Review on January 29.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Factionalism in the Congress in Kerala is set to acquire a sharper dimension with Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s rejection of the demand from K Muraleedharan, MLA, for action against the police officers who probed the infamous ISRO espionage case.