The Bharatiya Janata Party's forward march has slowed down. Can Arvind Kejriwal eclipse Narendra Modi in the upcoming general election? Modi, feels Praful Bidwai, may have peaked too soon and Arvind Kajriwal's politics may find new takers.
As for structural reform, there are signs if one looks hard enough.
Jaitley has managed the difficult feat of sticking to the fiscal correction.
A case that J Jayalalitha 'does not want' is back and in the Supreme Court. N Sathiya Moorthy reports on the possible repercussions of the disproportionate assets case on Tamil Nadu politics.
However, the budget arithmetic is slightly optimistic.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday warned of "tough decisions" over the next couple of years to improve the country's financial health, which he said may not go down well with some sections, and attacked the way the previous UPA government had handled the economy.
'The people of the state can be won over by love, and not by swords.'
Politically, it will not be easy for Modi to take hard decisions such as raising fuel prices in the first budget, given the risk of higher inflation.
'There are a lot of positive things these reforms are bringing about and it is only a matter of some quarters before the growth rate picks up momentum.' 'Until then we need to be a little bit patient.'
The consolidation of the Muslim vote behind Lalu Yadav in Bihar and Mulayam Singh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh may have forced Modi to spin Priyanka Gandhi's neech rajniti statement as a insult to his OBC status, says Dharmendra Singh.
Dharmendra Kumar Singh explains the importance of getting 28 percent of the vote in Uttar Pradesh, which is witnessing a five-cornered contest.
'The foundation of the 2014 triumph was Narendra Modi's appeal to voters in the Hindi belt. The Bihar Vidhan Sabha polls will demonstrate if he continues to appeal to them,' says T V R Shenoy.
'Modi swept the 2014 elections for two main reasons: First, the disgust with the Congress government with a non-functional prime minister, and second, more importantly, his promise of performance and hope.' 'He cannot expect to win 2019 on these planks again. His own success in finishing the Congress will take away one plank, and with five years of reign on his CV, he will need to flaunt performance more than promise.'
'In essence, while I appreciate your earnest care for the nation's welfare, your eagerness in returning the awards seems not be driven by data. The data is at worst favouring the present disposition or it provides an inconclusive result. It seems to be directed at Narendra Damordas Modi and nothing else,' says Sriram Balasubramanian in an open letter.
'The greatness of Indian democracy is that it never lets any political pundit master the pulse of the electorate. Sometimes people vote for change and sometimes they vote for the status quo.'
This is the Centre's highest-ever budgeted capital outlay.
RBI's surprise rate cut has revived sentiments of India Inc.
Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Ahmedabad on Wednesday on a three-day visit, which is expected to define the relationship between the two neighbours who have had a troubled past.
The Uttar Pradesh by-election will be the real test for the Modi government. By-election results are not a referendum on Modi but the time has come to analyse whether the Modi government is succeeding in assuring people that the promises it made would be fulfilled, says Dharmendra Kumar Singh.
Dreams must be accompanied with a reality check on what they actually imply.
Consider each and every answer choice and eliminate the wrong ones.
'Despite frequent high-level interactions there has been little traction on substantive issues between India and France,' says Mohan Guruswamy.
'Learning by doing is in our genes.' 'We are applying the wrong method by making our children sit in a classroom for eight hours, listening to someone talk.'
'Having learnt her lesson in popular democracy, Jaya would become more populist than the DMK and more so than the imagery that mentor MGR had created in the Tamil voter's mind, both as an individual and as an elected ruler.'
"Governance, governance, governance," was what Nitish Kumar said were his three priorities when he took the helm of Bihar in 2005.
The Budget is remarkably coherent.
'The Opposition has no option but to make it an 'All versus One' fight to even think about winning.'
Getting the balance between fiscal restraint and growth-contracting policy remains a problem.
Mufti's political graph shows his fondness for courting unpopular, politically hazardous ventures in pursuit of his ultimate objective to vindicate his leadership. Towards the end of his life, Mufti's public profile had come to assume the dimensions of statesmanship. One reason being his willingness to learn from his experience, says Mohammad Sayeed Malik.
'What I mean by the BJP's political mafia raj is they descend in such a way that they want to form the government anyhow and murder democracy, no matter what.' 'Knowing Amit Shah, knowing Parrikar, knowing their style of working, they will engineer a split in the Congress.'
Congress leader Kantilal Bhuria, who wrested the Ratlam Lok Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh from the BJP recently, speaks to Prasanna D Zore.
Sohini Deb who cracked CAT 2013 with 98.11 percentile and secured admission at IIM Kozhikode shares her study secrets.
Arun Jaitley had a tough fiscal hill to climb.
Meet the richest and poorest candidates contesting the election to the richest civic body in the country.
Finance minister Arun Jaitley has delivered a Arun Jaitley delivered a bold, far sighted budget
Contrary to the bragging that marked its two-year anniversary, the government's timidity on reform is simply astounding.
Nandan Nilekani and his wife Rohini are trying to improve education across India.
'Will people who buy iPhones stop buying iPhones to help swadeshi models?' 'There should be some advantage for the consumer to make them buy a Made in India product.' 'Patriotism and nationalism are good words, but in business, it won't work.'
'In the next two years, we might see a new kind of realignment across India.' 'I don't see political alliances working against the BJP until an alternative political agenda is created.'
The apex court's decision, which was handed down in eight minutes, has dashed any hopes for the Jayalalithaa aide to become CM.
