President Ram Nath Kovind, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu and other top leaders paid rich tributes to senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who died on Saturday.
If Modi wants to be a man of history, he must make hard choices that will pay off down the road, says T N Ninan.
It would be a miracle if demonetisation doesn't extract a political price from the BJP and Modi, says T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
While Rahul Gandhi led Congress has a pan Indian presence, Naidu described regional leaders, including himself, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Stalin and Deve Gowda as strong leaders in their respective states, who are coming together against the BJP.
Given the international practice, it is inexplicable why the government is going with anonymous electoral bonds.
''The Congress has forgotten how to mobilise people on political issues,' says Aakar Patel.
The party's research centre, overseen by chief Sonia Gandhi, provides members with solid facts that can be used to target the Centre.
'Our government has created 10 million jobs when the Indian unemployment rate is at a 45-year high.'
The focus shifts almost immediately from celebrations to the challenges faced by the man who powered his party to 303 seats in the Lok Sabha.
'Emboldened by the BJP victory, the upper castes feel they must assert themselves and regain dominance over the rural power structure.'
'Amartya Sen is a citizen of the country who has every right to criticise or give his opinion on a policy decision.' 'Get back at him! Why get back at Harvard?'
'It will be our attempt that in order to get the country out of the condition it is in because of their (the BJP) coming to power, the Congress will go to them (leaders of parties opposed to the BJP) and if there is need for support we shall do so too.'
Rising oil prices, sharp slowdown in mutual fund inflows and steep valuations remain the key risks for Indian investors going ahead.
Over 20 political parties, except the Biju Janata Dal and the Communist Party of India-Marxist-led Left Front, took part in the massive rally.
'There was outside intervention which is what led to the initial violence.' 'Once the violence started, there was a brutal lathi-charge by the police.'
M R Venkatesh, chartered accountant turned political commentator tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com that Modi's war is not against the opposition parties or the Congress but against the bureaucracy and the establishment.
Will a time come when people will look beyond what they see as Modi'S strengths and begin to wonder why they have got poorer or sicker under his rule, asks Vir Sanghvi.
'I say Modi was India's last chance.' 'Because the kind of work this government has done -- I'm talking about physical delivery -- is fantastic, like no time in our history.'
The department had sent SMSes and emails to 18 lakh people who made suspicious deposits of over Rs 500,000 during the 50-day demonetisation period.
He said the Congress party might give a surprise or two in the Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh 'about what the party is capable of doing and to mobilise people'.
Softening the demonetisation blow, the Budget for 2017-18 on Wednesday halved the tax to 5 per cent on incomes up to Rs 500,000 but proposed a new surcharge of 10 per cent on incomes between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore and raised duties on cigarettes and pan masala while stepping up allocations for infrastructure, rural, agriculture and social sectors.
Barry Eichengreen, professor of economics and political science, University of California, Berkeley, analyzes the transparency of the Reserve Bank of India, the growth rate of the Indian economy and why he feels globalisation can never be rolled back.
Nilekani says life has come a full circle for him, as he heads back to the company he co-founded over three decades ago.
Punjab has around 19.7 million voters, of whom 53% are below the age of 40 years.
Today no big militant can dream of committing terror acts, the MoD said.
'Modi and his team have read the message from the ground.' 'People have started questioning what they have achieved by putting Modi in power.'
Whatever Mr Modi's other shortcomings be, his consistent efforts to motivate have created an aura of positivity, hopefully stable. He has also shown that he is not averse to taking decisions with possibly negative implications for him, says Shreekant Sambrani.
'The world's economy is booming and growing at 3%. But even in this environment, India's growth has declined.' 'This is because of the deliberate slowing down induced by eccentric actions like demonetisation,' argues Aakar Patel.
Kenneth Rogoff, professor of public policy and economics at the Harvard University, tells Dilasha Seth on the sidelines of the Delhi Economics Conclave that public sector banks will need to take a one-time haircut to address non-performing assets.
'Karti Chidambaram may be the beginning of a larger can of worms that the government has waited thus far to pop open,' says Vikram Johri.
Modi said there was a time when families would celebrate getting gas connections as if they have got home a Mercedes.
Rarely have we seen such intoxication over power, which ignores the cries of those dying, notes Jyoti Punwani.
'Jaitley was one of the earliest politicians to sense the changing political scenario in Delhi. He had closely watched the rise of the BJP and declining fortunes of the Congress party during the L K Advani era. But it was between 2009 and 2014 as the Leader of the Opposition that he began to read the tea leaves. 'And thus it was that he introduced Modi-Amit Shah duo to Lutyens Delhi,' says senior journalist R Rajagopalan who had known Jaitley since 1975.
Gandhi said India has been devastated by demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax (GST).
The surge in export, domestic demand and public spending in infrastructure projects might revive private investment during 2017-18.
'Nitish Kumar has only done what any smart politician will do in his place,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
This finance minister has come of age. That's not condescension. It is a praise, says Omkar Goswami.
'The common man in India who doesn't have anything to hide will have to put up with this short period of discomfort.' 'It will not last more than 10 days at the most.'
'I called my mother here, to spend some time with her, but I was not able to do that due to my hectic schedule'
"All opposition parties should work together. It should be a one-to-one fight against the BJP. All opposition parties should help the strongest one in the state against the BJP," Banerjee said.
