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A friend who had worked in China some thirty years back in the petroleum sector, told me the other day that ordinary Chinese during his time in that country could hardly make out a visitor’s nationality. They were so unaccustomed to seeing a foreigner that any one from outside was indistinguishable. As an Indian he was apprehensive that the memories of the 1962 war will still have some residuals left over in their attitude to Indians. To his great relief, he found most people were unaware of the war whatsoever.

When BJP prepares a list of the failures of the Centre, it places price rise at top, but it seems that it is not aware of the truth of price rise in Gujarat. I headed towards Gujarat on November 30 from Jabalpur through Somnath Express. When the train entered Gujarat, I took a cup of tea. The tea vendor asked me Rs 10 for that. I told him that nowhere a cup of tea costs this much. Other co-passengers agreed with him that a cup of tea costs Rs 10 here.

It may be a coincidence, but on the day parliament rejected the opposition’s motion against FDI in retail, a BJP member introduced a private member’s bill seeking to amend the Constitution to bar the election of foreign nationals to the posts of president, vice-president and prime minister.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will help grow access to Islamic finance in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, and Pakistan with a $750,000 technical assistance (TA) grant to help implement prudential standards developed by the Islamic Finances Services Board (IFSB).

The General Council today paved the way for Tajikistan’s membership of the WTO by approving its accession package. Tajikistan would have to ratify the deal by 7 June 2013 and would become a WTO member 30 days after the ratification.

Is Punjab joining the list of India’s worst governed states? Yes, if one goes by the spate of events that have been taking place in the state. The latest is the case of law and order. One of the major criteria to judge the state of governance, it has witnessed deterioration nobody could have imagined a few years ago.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The vindictive politics being practised with a vengeance by the Oommen Chandy-led United Democratic Front (UDF) Government suffered a telling blow when a single bench of the Kerala High Court quashed the FIR against former chief minister V S Achuthanandan in a land allotment case.

During my five-day visit to Gujarat (Dec 3-7), I interacted with people belonging to various sections of the society. I met teachers, doctors, traders, auto drivers, workers employed in hotels and other establishments, government employees and journalists.