'The new government will have to contend with slowing economic growth, weak private investment, anaemic exports and vulnerable external imbalances, a stressed financial system, mounting fiscal pressures (including high government debt-to-GDP ratios) and an exceptionally bad employment situation,' says Shankar Acharya, former chief economic adviser to the Government of India.
'Embedded with the divisive regime, they administer heavy doses of the opium of religion and nationalism day in and day out,' observes Mohammad Sajjad.
Rediff poll: Can Mamata transform Kolkata into London?
Members of Parliament on Sunday bid adieu to outgoing President Pranab Mukherjee.
Markets finished lower for the sixth consecutive day as hopes of the Goods and Services tax (GST) bill being passed in the current session of the Parliament faded considerably.
The ruling AIADMK is leaving no stone unturned to win the Vellore Lok Sabha poll and push its tally to two in the state, with its candidate even donning the skull cap to woo minority votes. But the DMK's stars are clearly on the ascendant in the lone constituency that goes to the polls on August 5. A Ganesh Nadar reports.
The note ban is Modi's make-or-break gambit for 2019. Opposition leaders see a vulnerability and won't gift pre-eminence to the Congress, says Shekhar Gupta.
The move that comes in the backdrop of the massive controversy over alleged anti-India protests in the JNU.
'We had to convince our people that we were doing nothing that would erode our strategic programme. We were all the time arguing that we are not doing anything, which will remotely impact on our strategic programme.'
Pai is the fourth Indian-American to become part of Trump's administration.
'You can't go on creating division and rhetoric of hate.' 'It comes to roost. We are seeing the first glimpses of that in the state elections.'
By 2030 India will be among top three countries in science and technology: PM
With political parties using him as punching bag in the highly charged election campaign, Adani Group head Gautam Adani on Sunday said he got no special favours from Narendra Modi and his group has since 1993 acquired only barren waste land for infrastructure projects.
'By the time he came out after nearly five hours, he had a one-to-one conversation with the President, a delegation-level meeting, a reception, a dinner, a tour of the White House and a joint statement of a kind none of his predecessors ever had,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was hurt mildly on his forehead in stone throwing by Left Democratic Front workers protesting against the solar panel scam in Kannur on Sunday.
According to HSBC, the 'storm has abated' for the Indian markets as the US Fed has deferred tapering of its quantitative easing stimulus, and as the new Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan has taken steps to contain the rupee fall.
Gandhi said when the Congress was in power, the Opposition would allege that all money was going to Amethi and now they say nothing has been done here.
There are indications that India may be shedding its Stockholm Syndrome vis-a-vis the Modi government, says Bharat Bhushan.
Beleaguered Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who is under attack from the Communist Party of India - Marxist-led Left Democratic Front opposition ever since the solar scam broke out in June, has got a breather after the Front called off its two-day secretariat siege on Tuesday.
'... For the India-US relationship to continue its positive trajectory, it will require India to adapt to a different approach.' Nisha Desai Biswal -- who as the Obama administration's point person for South Asia was in the inner circle of all the Obama-Modi Summits -- tells Rediff.com's Monali Sarkar why she is hopeful that India and the US are on an irreversible forward course.
'The BJP has no presence where the regional parties are strong.' 'And we should think of the Congress and support the Congress in those places where it is the dominant regional party.' 'The leaders of the other parties (have to) get together on this simple principle of one candidate against the BJP candidate.'
The rupee resumed higher at 61.75 as against the last closing level of 62.05 per dollar at the Interbank Foreign Exchange (Forex) Market and firmed up further to a one-month high of 61.53 before quoting at 61.59 per dollar at 1045 hours.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who recently completed one year in office, has, in an exclusive interview with Smita Prakash, editor, ANI, said the opposition alleging that his government is a "suit boot ki sarkar" is definitely better and more acceptable than being labelled a "suitcase" (ki sarkar), and satirically added, that after ruling for sixty years, the Congress has suddenly remembered the poor.
What is the road ahead for Rahul Gandhi? Shehzad Poonawalla offers a blueprint.
'The BJP should know that simple caste arithmetic may have ceased to follow the basic law of addition.' 'Adding up seemingly distinct vote banks can even cause overall reduction in numbers,' says Sudhir Bisht.
Greetings from all quarters, including his political rivals, poured in on Monday for Prime Minister Narendra Modi who celebrated his 68th birthday in his parliamentary constituency Varanasi.
The winter session of Lok Sabha was adjourned sine die on Tuesday after passing 18 legislations, including amendment bills on amend coal mines allocation and labour laws, in 22 sittings.
The government has given up plans to reconvene a parliament session to secure approval for a common goods and services tax.
US President Barack Obama said there is natural convergence between India and the United States.
'Everybody says 5G and communication is important.' 'Everybody says automation, robotics, human computing interfaces -- people and machines working together -- is the future.' 'Everybody agrees that cybersecurity is something that is here to stay.' 'Everybody agrees that synthetic biology is important.' 'Instead of outlining thinking about industries for tomorrow and the future, let the evolutionary pathway be built in a way that it promotes robust, creative, thinking.'
RBI has cited at least 10 areas where it has no control over PSBs.
Rahul Gandhi has the potential to grow into a good, effective, leader of the Opposition provided he puts his heart and soul into it, with a willingness to learn, says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant who worked closely with India's first three prime ministers.
In a veiled attack on Congress and Samajwadi Party, Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused them of continuing to practice vote-bank politics to divide society and asserted that disturbance of peace and harmony will not be tolerated.
Interacting with representatives from NGOs, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Monday asked opposition parties to fix a date to help government pass bills on which there is general consensus.
India will raise the issue of illegal immigration, a "major cause of concern" for the country. Nayanima Basu reports
In Tamil Nadu politics J Jayalalithaa is the queen of all she surveys today, But there are some ground realities that may still dent her high ambition. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt's fascinating new column where she reveals the ground realities in the Battle for India.
'The BJP suddenly seems vulnerable. This is not entirely surprising. In the past too, governments and leaders who won a thumping Lok Sabha majority lost popularity in a matter of months... The by-polls results shows that a degree of disenchantment with the Modi government is setting in,' says Praful Bidwai.
Anti-nuclear activist S P Udayakumar, who has been called a threat to the economic security of India by the Intelligence Bureau, speaks to A Ganesh Nadar.
'It is not going to be a fight between the AIADMK and the DMK; that fight is over.' 'The fight is going to be between the BJP's attempt to finish the Dravidian era and the DMK and the others trying to prevent the BJP from doing so.'
Leaders of Muslim world are suffering from an "acute inferiority complex", which stems from the "legacy of the colonial era", Justice Muhammed Al-Ghazali of Supreme Court of Pakistan said.
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