View Articles

The world is painfully reminded on the second anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers in New York, which triggered a free fall in US financial market in September 2008 and a follow-on severe recession, dragging most nations into a destabilizing downturn and unemployment on a mass scale. Even as the global economy is yet to recover with confidence and weak data keep world markets depressed, especially in USA and Europe, there are new uncertainties including the sovereign debt crisis in EU zone.

The high level of understanding between Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh was a key feature of UPA-I. Such unity of views between the Congress president and prime minister was rarely seen before. Although the differences did surface over the nuclear deal, especially when Sonia openly said that the communists had a point in their opposition, they were resolved amicably enough, presumably because of Rahul Gandhi's intervention in favour of the deal.

JAIPUR: A disturbing drama by the corrupt in Rajasthan is being played on the streets in Jaipur. The central point in the event is huge money provided by the central government for the implementation of its prestigious scheme - the National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme. There is a naked nexus between the politicians at the village and district levels and the officials of the State government. They have joined to shout the slogan : Let corruption prevail unhindered and unchecked. And Let corrupt prosper.

With the Himachal Pradesh politics having currently taken a back seat, the spotlight has shifted to the economic issues facing the state. The most important among them is the problems facing the apple growers whose produce, apart from hydropower and tourism, is the state's highest revenue earning source. The matter assumes added importance in view of the fact that Himachal is India's largest apple producing state and has reaped a record produce of 2.5/3 crore apple boxes this year.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Will the controversy-hit Smart City project become a reality? Or will it be strangled by the red tape? An answer to this question may be available by the 15th of this month.

During his interaction with editors, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had referred to the 'hard lobbying' by industry groups against certain provisions of the just passed nuclear liability bill. But their demand could not be met due to the opposition in Parliament. He then pointed out that the Indian suppliers will be the biggest beneficiaries of the massive nuclear power investment in the coming years. The tone and tenor of this part of PM's exposition was that such lobbying has now become normal part of the system, and there was nothing abnormal about it.

Food first. It is rather amusing that India's Supreme Court should be suddenly waking up to the problem of precious foodgrains rotting in government godowns because of inadequate storage facility and 'order' that food going waste in godowns be distributed free to the poor. Equally amusing was the government's response to it. Poor Sharad Pawar, the union agriculture and food minister, who first thought it was only an apex court 'suggestion' and his ministry would examine if and how it could be implemented!

KOLKATA: These days, the non-left print and electronic media in West Bengal have stopped giving publicity as before to left leaders who congratulate themselves on carrying out a successful strike, bandh or some other disruption of normal life.

Faltering economic recovery without any significant dent on unemployment has lately been the biggest worry for President Barack Obama, as successive polls lowered his rating in crisis management and threaten the Democrat majority in midterm elections while Republicans are glowing with hopes of regaining control. Economic outlook has remained uncertain till now while unemployment is stuck at 9.6 per cent. Until recently, the President had not more demonstrably used his political capital as much as the economy needed beyond assuring Americans that recovery is on track but that it would take time to impact on jobs.

Eyebrows are raised at the aggressive posture of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during one of his rare interaction with a group of editors this week. What does it mean? Is the PM fed up of criticism against him not only from the opposition but also from the media and the party? Has he reached the limit of his patience?