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New York: A United Nations treaty designed to empower people to uphold their economic, social and cultural rights edged closer to entering into force today when one country ratified it and two others signed the document.

The popularity rating for the US President Barack Obama is rapidly declining in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan if one goes by a recent Gallop poll. Obama's approval rate in India has fallen to the lowest since he took over in 2009. Could it be due to the Obama administration's policies pertaining to India? If so, how would the Americans and Indians make the impending Obama visit to New Delhi in early November a success? No doubt the Indo-US relations have moved forward and India is seen as an “indispensable partner” by the US, but there is more expectation in India from Obama.

A new series of Wholesale Price Index with base year 2004-05, published on September 14, announces a moderation in inflation with the all-commodity index down from double digits of recent months to 8.5 per cent in August, after sliding to 9.8 per cent in July. This comes as relief above all to our growth-minded Finance Minister Mr Pranab Mukherjee, but as he himself notes, uncertainties ahead leave no room for complacency. How the overhauled WPI moves in coming months will depend on the economy's supply-demand balance and volatile food, oil and other international commodity prices.

BHOPAL: Two tragic events over the last fortnight in Madhya Pradesh have exposed how innocent citizens have to pay the price of a corrupt system and callous administration with their lives.

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh is in grip of unprecedented fear psychosis in view of forthcoming verdict on title suit on Babri Masjid by Lucknow bench of Allahabad High Court.

In his September 6 interaction with newspaper editors, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hinted that he might soon reshuffle his Cabinet. Given that he made only two changes in his first Prime Ministerial term—dropping Home Minister Shivraj Patil after 26/11 and taking Petroleum away from Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar—it's hard to predict the new team's composition. But one thing is near-certain. If Dr Singh prevails, junior minister in independent charge of the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) Jairam Ramesh will probably be told to make way for someone more pliable and pro-industry.

L.K. Advani's decision to camp in Somnath on the day the Ayodhya judgment is delivered is a reminder that neither he nor his party can forget the episode which pitchforked them into the centre of power from the sidelines of Indian politics. While the party rode on Advani's Somnath-to-Ayodhya rath yatra of 1990 to attain what was unthinkable for it earlier - a stint at the centre - the rider himself was transformed for a brief period from being the party's perennial No. 2 to Atal Behari Vajpayee to the position of the primus inter pares. Given the heady atmosphere of those days two decade ago, who will not want to recreate some of the lost glory through an exercise in makebelieve, which is what Advani wants to do.

As the Great Recession in USA rolled on, the grimmer social dimension gets into bolder relief, with a significant rise in its hitherto comparatively limited rate of poverty rising to 14.3 per cent, the highest since 1994 impacting 43.6 million in a population of 304 billion. The longest downturn, with recession yet to be formally lifted after 34 months of its course, had already thrown over eight million American workers out of jobs. Unemployment remains stuck at 9.6 per cent, the massive stimulus of 2009 and other supplementary measures notwithstanding.

Jat politics has returned to Haryana with vengeance. The latest example is the violent agitation by Jats over the issue of the community's inclusion in the OBC list for reservation in jobs. It has come in quick succession of the nation-wide controversy over the Jat-dominated Khap Panchayats issuing diktats against the same-gotra and same-village marriages and the Mirchpur violence in which Jats set afire Dalits houses burning alive a man and his handicapped daughter.

The ignorance of the politicians about technology development and application is proverbial. The attitude of the administrative bureaucracy on which the politicians in power in India depend for policy-making is malicious towards technocracy. Research & Development (R&D) has, therefore, been retarded and distorted. Indian has indeed gone through many ups and downs in R&D in its development perspective after gaining political independence. But position on R&D has gravely worsened in the era of market-oriented economic growth policy.