The extent of the agrarian crisis has not been understood by those residing in India, while Bharat is parched. As many as nine states — Karnataka, Odisha, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have declared drought like conditions. What Indian agriculture requires is urgent structural reform. Instead, we provide lip service as we obsess over manufacturing and gloat over our services led growth model.
India faces difficult challenges of separatism and violence. Chanting slogans will not help us to overcome them. There is a need for the government and the political leadership to understand that the need of the day is astute and sensitive political leadership. The Kashmir problem was not created today — nor will it go away in a hurry.
If Pakistan is simply going through the motions of an investigation and has no intention of acting against the perpetrators of the Pathankot attack, that will mar the prospects of the resumption of the foreign secretary–level dialogue with India.
The Paris Agreement recognises the role of carbon markets in helping countries achieve their climate targets through the implementation of the carbon markets–related provisions. And, increasing numbers of countries are coming up with domestic carbon markets which promise to the world that a viable carbon market would indeed be a reality. However, a lot of work remains to be done.
The American concerns about nuclear weapons, material falling into wrong hands cannot be over–stressed. It’s for real. But Pakistan alone should have been the target of American concerns and that of the rest of the world, beginning with the Indian and Afghan neighbours of Pakistan, but not ending there.
A strategic re–imagining of the potential of Aadhaar and UIDAI is necessary. There is a larger market out there, well beyond the shores and borders of India, that it can tap into. First, Aadhaar–like services and numbers need to be made accessible to the Indian diaspora. This is particularly so for the working class economic migrants from India who labour hard in West Asia, in the Gulf states, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and so on.
The British, on assuming control of the Ottoman Empire after the first World War, created the nation of Iraq by drawing a line of boundary, clubbing three provinces of Mosul, Baghdad and Basra. This unwieldy patchwork of provinces, which ignored the political
and cultural sensibilities of the local inhabitants, had been and would be a huge challenge for the rulers.
The government's new FDI policy, allowing 100% in e-commerce, is like three steps backwards and one step forward as the flawed reform is going against the very edifice of free market economics. A rush of capital flowed in is now being held to ransom by government policy.
India could consider a number of different options as Prime Minister Narendra Modi goes to Washington for the Nuclear Security Summit, beginning March 31. India could offer to take the process forward and agree to host the next Nuclear Security Summit in India. India has nothing to lose and everything to gain through such an exercise.
What would the national parties hope to gain from the Assembly elections in five States, beginning April 4? For BJP, a victory in Assam and a forceful performance in Kerala are priorities. If Mamata wins in Kolkata — and more importantly, CPM-Congress lose — and if Jayalalithaa comes back in Chennai, it will add to the Narendra Modi government’s hopes for deals in Parliament.