View Articles

President Obama began his India trip on the wrong foot by virtually ruling out India's chances of becoming a permanent member of the UN Security Council. But the promptness with which he changed his view was surprising. It is unclear whether the change had anything to do with Republican leader John McCain's observation that the US should support India's case for permanent membership and that India should not be “demonised” on the outsourcing issue since the practice has become a feature of the new global economy.

Politics is said to be the art of the possible. But it is also the art of planning for meeting future challenges. Although there are still four years to go for Haryana Assembly elections, there are already signs of the state's two main rival parties Congress and Indian National Lok Dal unfolding their strategies for their 2014 electoral battle. Their main focus seems to be on three points: to consolidate their respective support bases and win back those sections of the electorate which had shifted away from them; to check their rivals from making inroads into their areas of influence; and, to expand their footprints among the non-committed sections of the electorate. Understandingly, the exercise is based on their experiences of 2005 and 2009 elections.

The International Monetary Fund has taken a transformative step to reflect realities of 21st century by providing for greater voice and representation for emerging economies and other developing countries in decision-making, and thus enhance its relevance and legitimacy. This is a historic change since the founding of the Bretton Woods twins (MF and World Bank) in 1944, and for six decades, IMF policies and actions were largely guided by the richer countries, especially USA.

New Delhi: India on Monday got a major boost from the most powerful nation for its candidature for the permanent seat in the UN Security Council.

The name ‘Nilgiris’ or ‘The Blue Mountains’ is as poetic as the place itself. The Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu is home for the Toda, Kota, Kurumba, Irula, Paniyan and Kattunaicken tribes. The Government of India has identified all these six tribes as Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs). The verdant forest of the blue mountains has been their home for ages. Living amid the beautiful surroundings has probably made them artisans of equally beautiful handicrafts.

Whoever may have engineered the exposure of Mumbai's high-rise Adarsh Co-operative Society scandal with whatever real intent behind, the issue has once again brought to the fore the politician-bureaucrat-servicemen nexus which has perpetuated public assets grab cheaply ever since early sixties. The Kargil war widows association, which fronted the land grab at Colaba in South Mumbai, one of the world's most expensive real estate sites, for politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen and living generals, is a glaring example of this.

Unlike in the past, the G20 meet of the finance ministers in Seoul has proved to be more productive than most pundits had anticipated. Before the meeting, the US had proposed some quantitative restrictions on the trade surplus countries should be allowed to run. Tentatively, this has been pegged at about 4% of GDP. This also implied certain norms for intervention in the currency markets to manage the exchange rates. It was feared that China would reject it out of court. But surprisingly, the proposal seems to have been somewhat tacitly agreed to by two most important players, United States who mooted it. And China, for whom this salvo was primarily meant, seems to have not disagreed with the formulation.

New Delhi, Nov 4 : Political and economic analysts are eagerly awaiting the outcome of the visit of the US President, Barack Obama to India. But Obama is not visiting India alone. He will be visiting Indonesia, South Korea and Japan as well.

AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi might not have expected his handpicked Maharashtra chief minister Ashok Chavan to fail so soon or that he may have to look for a replacement. After all Chavan had the full backing of the centre. The young chief minister has landed himself into a land scam, which is slowly blowing into a big political crisis involving three chief ministers - Narayan Rane, Vilasrao Deshmukh and Sushil Kumar Shinde. It has taken a toll of the current chief minister as Chavan has tendered resignation and has a grace period until the visit of the U.S. President Obama on November 6 to Mumbai. How could the Congress leadership afford to have an embarrassing situation with a hurriedly elected new chief minister receive the visiting president? That is why Chavan's resignation has been kept in abeyance. The fact that Chavan was asked to resign shows that he has earned the displeasure of the high command.

New Delhi, Nov 3 : India has decided to reopen its diplomatic mission in Malawi as the two countries agreed to negotiate an Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement and a Treaty on Avoidance of Double Taxation.