Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami is to preside over a meeting in the North Block on Thursday with seven secretaries to discuss about the formation of Telangana.
Nirmala Sitharaman's elevation not only to full Cabinet minister but also pitchforking her to the elite Cabinet Committee on Security group with the defence portfolio is undoubtedly the biggest takeaway from Sunday's reshuffle, says Rajeev Sharma.
With the government claiming that the economy has been growing robustly and the Opposition refuting these claims, the common man is none the wiser, says Rajeev Sharma.
In diplomacy, a prime ministerial visit should be viewed as a rare event, not a routine one, which should be taken recourse to only when other options like ministerial visits are not available. But Modi has a different style of functioning. He wants to do everything himself, says Rajeev Sharma
A section within the RSS feels Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani should be projected as the BJP's CM candidate in UP, says Rajeev Sharma.
'With this it is clear who stands with India in the international community and who doesn't and this enables India to take counter measures without being seen as overly pro-US,'says Rajeev Sharma.
Bangladesh's decision to execute Jamaat-e-Islami chief Motiur Rahman Nizami for war crimes committed in 1971 has provoked anger across the Muslim world. Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar arrived in Dhaka hours after the execution, an important expression of India's support to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, explains Rajeev Sharma.
The increase in home-grown radicalised Islamic groups and the rise of Islamic State and Al Qaeda in Bangladesh should be a matter of worry for India, which shares a 4,100 km border with its eastern neighbour, says Rajeev Sharma.
The rejig may take place before the assembly election results for Assam, Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.
'With 27 days to go, the total bank deposits has come tantalisingly close to the Rs 14 lakh crores of banned notes which was in the financial system on November 8.' 'Black money hoarders may have actually laundered their black money into white,' argues Rajeev Sharma.
Major Gogoi thought like Chanakya when he tied a Kashmiri man on an army jeep to keep the stone pelters at bay, argues Rajeev Sharma.
Considering the huge stakes, the Modi government is not averse to make more diplomatic efforts to see whatever it can salvage.
The BSP-Congress tie-up is a done deal. Only the formalities need to be gone through and announced.
'India's worst fears have come true because the Pakistan investigating team has, obediently and dutifully, done its masters' bidding by giving a clean chit to Pakistan, the Jaish, the ISI and all other well known actors,' says Rajeev Sharma.
'Dealing with Pakistan can become dangerous, and even suicidal, for the powers that be in New Delhi,' warns Rajeev Sharma.
Denying the Pakistani investigators access to the Pathankot base on operational grounds would not, the government felt, compromise national security, reveals Rajeev Sharma.
'India's counter-terrorism network needs to keep potential jihadists under a scanner all the time,' says Rajeev Sharma.
India should put a check on its cheque book diplomacy with Nepal. Nepal must be made to bear the costs of its strategic provocations.
How the two South Asian neighbours will interact with each other in the coming months will be decided by the two prime ministers in Washington.
'The Modi government can't ignore the political symbolism that the perceived perpetrators are being allowed inside an Indian military base which was attacked by their puppets, either by tacit approval or compliance of the Pakistani military establishment,' says Rajeev Sharma.
'It is possible elements within the Pakistani establishment felt bad about eating humble pie and wanted to avenge the humiliation through a terror attack.' 'After all, lodging an FIR in Pakistan about the Pathankot attack amounted to an admission of Pakistani involvement,' says Rajeev Sharma.
'The bad dream can turn into a ghoulish nightmare for the BJP if the Gujjars in Rajasthan and the Patels in Gujarat, both BJP-ruled states, were to fish in troubled waters and relaunch their respective agitations for quotas in government jobs,' warns Rajeev Sharma.
A Chinese government newspaper accuses the Modi government of manipulating economic data to project the 'myth' that India has caught up with the US and surpassed China.
This is the first time since the Pathankot terror attack that the country's top security czar has spoken about India's strategy in dealing with terror, says Rajeev Sharma.
'If the Congress allows Arunachal Pradesh to slip out of its control, then it sends negative signals to its leaders and allies across the country,' says Rajeev Sharma.
On his recent visit to China, the President made eminently sensible suggestions to improve relations except that they can't work in the present atmosphere.
'The Modi government knows that much cannot be expected of Pakistan till the Kulbhushan Jadhav issue is resolved,' says Rajeev Sharma.
If Pakistan finally and officially rules out the possibility of an Indian investigation team's reciprocal visit for the Pathankot probe, it should also be seen as the Chinese "hidden veto" in the India-Pakistan bilateral context, says Rajeev Sharma.
'An authoritative source in the government tells me that India has emerged as the net security provider of the Maldives,' says Rajeev Sharma.
'Now is the time for India, our biggest neighbour and oldest friend, to bring the full array of international policy instruments to bear.'
'The Pakistani game plan in making its envoy in India to perform the last rites of a fledgling peace process is madness with a method.'
It is because of the feared domestic backlash that the Modi government is now stepping up pressure on Pakistan to accommodate Indian interests.
The Indian intelligence brass may have snared a key Pakistani spy and Jadhav's arrest is Pakistan's way of getting even with India, says Rajeev Sharma.
If Pakistan allows India to send its investigation team to question Azhar it would take the India-Pakistan camaraderie to a new level, says Rajeev Sharma.
It is quite likely that the Pakistanis are cleverly using the Jadhav card to derail the outcome of the JIT process.
'It is for the first time that Modi has chosen someone as CM who happens to be a mass leader, a polarising figure, a vote catcher, a powerful orator and a Hindu mascot all at once -- qualities usually associated with Modi,' points out Rajeev Sharma.
'It is not possible for New Delhi to take sides between Beijing and Washington.'
'While China has been hiking its defence spending, India has done precious little in implementing the Manmohan Singh government's decision of raising a 90,000-strong China-centric Mountain Strike Corps,' says Rajeev Sharma.
US admiral's suggestion for a revival of a strategic maritime quadrilateral with Japan, Australia and India leaves China livid, says Rajeev Sharma.
'The BJP has everything to lose if it performs poorly in UP. It dreads a repeat of Bihar,' says Rajeev Sharma.
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