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It has never been easy to shake the 125-year-old lumbering behemoth called the Indian National Congress into wakefulness and activity. This becomes the more difficult when the party comes under Opposition attack and instinctively retreats into denial and unconvincing defence, especially on issues of malfeasance and corruption.

The certificates which the prime minister has received from Amartya Sen and Nitish Kumar will be a matter of discomfort for his critics both inside and outside the Congress. To start with the latter, the Bihar chief minister’s belief that Manmohan Singh is not “responsible” for the corruption which has engulfed the Congress cannot but detract from the BJP’s single-minded pursuit of an agenda in favour of a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the scams.

2010 is ending. The year-end is the time to take stock of the outgoing year’s events. However, it should also be the time to visualise what the New Year may have in store. This piece will dwell on the likely political scenarios that may develop in Punjab and Haryana in 2011.

Till just a few years ago, nuclear power operations were widely taken with skepticism, and the media added some spice to the low capacity factors at which the first batch of Indian indigenous pressurized heavy water reactors performed. Lately, the general perception has changed, and there is now acceptance that indigenous PHW reactors were improving, and hopefully, nuclear power might contribute in relieving the acute power shortage.

Despite a shocking reverse in the November midterm elections which cost his Democrats 63 seats and control of House of Representatives, President Barack Obama looked the winner year-end with a string of successful bi-partisan votes for some of his domestic and foreign policy priorities, so much as to make him declare “we are not doomed to endless gridlocks”.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) will provide a technical assistance grant to help countries in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) achieve greater connectivity through coordinated railway development.

MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The Government of Sweden is extending an additional SEK35,000,000 (about $5 million equivalent) to an Asian Development Bank (ADB)-administered trust fund which is helping combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific.

New York: The United Nations refugee agency said it has registered 14,000 Ivorians who fled their country for Liberia amid the post-electoral crisis, and warned that humanitarian needs are growing both for the mostly women and children refugees and for the villagers hosting them.

New Delhi: A round table was organized by the All India Council for Technical Education, (AICTE) for the development of a national vocational education qualification framework with regard to the IT, ITES and Telecom Industry, here, last evening.

New Delhi: The Finance Minister Mr Mukherjee said that there are issues such as bottlenecks in the availability and quality of physical infrastructure, inadequacy of regulatory institutions in areas where private sector is coming up as a major player, rule of law and the larger issue of governance reforms that have a direct bearing on the competitive character of our economy and need to be addressed on a priority. More importantly, the success in addressing some of these issues at the national level has to be urgently replicated at the State and sub-State level, he added.