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KOLKATA: SAARC countries are examining a proposal to set up a regional police force, to handle the problem of mounting crimes like terrorism, drug dealing and human trafficking.

Nitin Gadkari, who is just six months into office, has already become a target for his many failures. The rumour mills within the party churn out juicy stories as to how he had messed up issues like the Narendra Modi-Nitish Kumar spat, government crisis in Karnataka and interactions with the RSS. True, Gadkari, a provincial leader, lacks the stature to command a national party. It is also true that he took months to name his team and was not able to fix their work. He came with lofty ideas like performance audit for the cadre.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The speed with which the Left Democratic Front (LDF) Government has gone about the task of tackling terrorism in the State has earned praise - even from quarters which are otherwise ill-disposed towards it.

After its first quarterly review of the monetary policy in the current financial year, the Reserve Bank of India has raised the key interest rates once again. The rates have thus been raised for the 4th time in the current year.

The issue is no longer what the USA can do for India and its people to achieve better mutual trust and acceptance. It now seems to be on the other way round - what India and people-of-Indian-origin (PIOs) can do for America. While the Obama administration - the local approval rating of which has dropped to an all-time low at 40 per cent as per various pre-poll surveys ahead of the forthcoming November election for both the House of Representatives and Senate - may be concerned over low-paid job outsourcing to India by some of the large US firms, Indian corporations and PIOs are here to help boost the otherwise depressed US economy with fresh investments in growing numbers, sharing management expertise, sending students to expensive educational institutions and supporting and creating thousands of jobs in America, steadily and silently.

Increasingly, the UPA-II, one would hope, is re-learning from bitter experiences over decades of relative neglect of what basically ails India - alarmingly revealed by the Maoist challenge, dubbed as the “greatest threat” to internal security - in the headlong rush to higher growth as the 'mantra' for all ills and for the country to take its legitimate place in the hierarchy of nations.

The Congress and the BJP appear to be sailing in the same boat struggling to deal with their defiant rebels in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The three Reddys (Jagan Mohan in Andhra and Janardhan and Karunakar in Karnataka) hold the key for the survival of the two governments.

Amidst the string of agreements on civil nuclear cooperation that India has signed in the year gone by, it is the Canada-India nuclear agreement that merits top ranking for its wide-ranging impact on developing India's nuclear capability and operational benefits. Superior in some respects to the accords with big nuclear capability nations - France, Russia and the United States.

LUCKNOW: The manner in which Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav sought apology from Muslim community for having joined hands with Kalyan Singh in 2009 Lok Sabha polls has accelerated fight for Muslim votes for 2012 assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh.

The wave of protests that gripped the Kashmir Valley for a month has abated with the calling in of the Army. But the public's anger against the targeted killing of Kashmiris—in daily confrontations between stone-pelting youth and armed police—isn't likely to vanish soon. The restoration of order has claimed a high political price: the Army had to be called into Kashmir for crowd control for the first time since the azaadi movement erupted in 1989.