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If Narenda Modi could turn around Gujarat's agriculture so dramatically, he can be instrumental in turning around agricultural productivity, marketing and storage in all States. He has to act quickly. Otherwise, there would be more problems of large scale migration from the rural to cities.

All that the government has to do is to focus on providing basic goods -- high quality primary education and healthcare, toilets and housing for all. When there is so much money in India in private and public hands, why is it taking so long for the government to do something to change the lives of millions of people?

Though India dreams of replicating the shale gas successes of the US, it cannot enjoy the luxury of easily acquiring land for shale gas operations. In the US, landowners, besides owning surface rights, also own mineral rights. Consequently, they receive huge financial incentives directly from oil and gas companies.

In an ironic situation, President Obama finds his own party, the Democrats, his key opponents while, the Republicans, his greatest allies as he pushes for the Trans Pacific Partnership agreement.

Taliban's origins are very much in the Pakistan's State agencies and hence it cannot be called a non-State actor. It is too large and too fragmented to be taken up as one enemy. For PM Nawaz Sheriff to declare that there is 'no good or bad Taliban' is just an empty rhetoric and still part of the same old double-speak.

Conflicts in the Middle East have been exacerbated by competition over natural resources. Within the United States, there is growing bipartisan interest in reducing dependence on foreign oil.

Russia's military intervention in Syria in September, 2015, is a new gambit by its president, Vladimir Putin. It could change the course of history, and even geography, in that region or bog down Russia in a West Asian quagmire.

Compared to India and Norway, South Africa may have entered Sri Lanka first and re-entered now to a relatively positive start, or so it seemed. Their timing now proves to be wrong, and their proposals thus may not either be heard, or acted upon.

The contradictions in the path of India's global rise and its accompanying stature as an important player in international affairs, while it grapples with issues of food security, rising prices, inflation and governance challenges, were highlighted by senior academician Dr. Mira Kamdar at a talk titled "Can the Centre hold?" at Observer Research Foundation recently (February 17).

The compulsion of states to trawl ever increasing volumes of data must also be understood. Besides criminal activities like child pornography, money laundering and online fraud, the Internet is also an important vehicle for the jihadist terrorist. A great deal of recruitment and motivation takes place online.

A common enemy does often become a powerful uniting force, but the fact that the US has so many friends and not a single ally to fight the Islamic State speaks volumes about its foreign and defence policies in Wes Asia.

2004 is a significant year for Europe. In May of this year, the European Union (EU) will induct ten new members, eight of which were part of the former Communist regime of the Soviet Union. While four of these East European states (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) are struggling with mounting budget deficits and contemplating awkward spending cuts, France and Germany (the dominant European powers) are immersed in a deep economic

A civil nuclear agreement is one of the key outcomes New Delhi is pushing for in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Japan that starts on August 30. Recently, in Naypidaw, Myanmar, foreign minister Sushma Swaraj called on her Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida to "bring talks on civil nuclear agreement to their logical conclusion".

Can good sense prevail in Washington once again? Military action in Libya will generate anti Americanism, which will swell the ranks of Al Qaeda and cause the "Arab Youth" bulge to find a frightening outlet.

In China, villages have the same facilities in housing, water, drainage, medical care as in towns. If the government of India wishes to reduce the migratory flows, then each village has to be transformed to a small town ? at least in infrastructure.

Accusing the US and the EU of practising double-standards, Russian Consul General in Chennai, Dr Nikolay A Listopadov, has said the interests of the EU and the US would be accepted as long as they did not come in the way of Russia's.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Canada this week should help rejuvenate an important relationship that has long been neglected in New Delhi. If real political differences alienated India and Canada during the Cold War, it is Delhi that has not been sufficiently attentive to the possibilities with Canada in recent years.

Canada's Deputy NSA Claude Vigneault says his country's decade-old presence in Afghanistan as part of American coalition has given them a better sense of India's security concerns and is keen to collaborate with it.

The new generation challenge for our diplomats and policy makers today is to capture the American mindspace. This is a task that requires subtlety, but its crucial asset is the human capital connect that we have established with the US.

Since France has said that it will not be continually involved in African intervention, the solution to security problems in Africa must come from the Africans themselves. The establishment of a pan-African force to react to crisis with support from Europe has been suggested by France.

By not backing the political demand of the RJD ally for the exit of then Election Commissioners, B B Tandon and N Gopalswamy, the Centre and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh have silenced avoidable criticism of the constitutional body entrusted with the task of ensuring common man¿s continued faith in parliamentary democracy.

The Nepalese government¿s offer of surrender and rehabilitation to Maoist insurgents¿announced by Foreign Minister Kamal Thapa on December 18, 2003¿¿whose deadline concluded on the eve of the eighth anniversary of the Maoist ¿People¿s War¿, on February 12, 2004, has met with partial success.

The UPA's cash transfer scheme, delivering over Rs.3.2 lakh crore in subsidies and welfare programmes to the poor directly to their bank accounts, if executed well would not only reduce poverty faster would curb a lot of the wasteful spending that has fattened vested interests at all levels.

There is an urgent need to accept the reality of cattle trade across the Indo-Bangladesh border and the challenge is to bring about a change in the mindset of people on this issue, according experts and former policy makers.

The Centre's Notification of the Cauvery Award should encourage Karnataka and Tamil Nadu to work with the Centre and the other two riparian stake-holders to revive the proposal to build an additional reservoir to store the excess waters, to be shared among them.

Much in departure to this existing thinking of water being State subject, thereby, leading to divergent definitions of property rights, the Supreme Court has observed that water of the Cauvery river was a “national asset and no single state could claim ownership over it”.

The media in India enjoys a great deal of freedom and when it is threatened, the response is vociferous. Nevertheless, there is the need to maintain a balance between free expression and other community and individual rights; this responsibility should not be borne by the judiciary alone, but by all those who enjoy these rights.  

Chemical-Biological and Radiological (CBR) threats are being increasingly perceived as the new face of terrorism. The possibility of non-state actors employing non-conventional weapons using CBR materials.

Indian Vice-President Hamid Ansari's recent State visit, coming after the visit by another important Minister (for Commerce and Industry), Anand Sharma, to Bangladesh, has highlighted New Delhi'sefforts and sincerity at improving the burgeoning relationship with its neighbour even more.

There is a need to fix the BRICS, by altering growth strategies, reducing external dependence, securing domestic demand and investments, providing jobs to the unemployed, and aiming at lowering untenable inequality.

The BRICS is growing more relevant and increasingly institutionalised. Economic growth rates continue to outpace the rest of the developing world. According to the UNDP, Brazil, China and India's combined GDP will be greater than the combined GDP of the US, the UK, Canada, France, Germany and Italy by 2020.

In two sets of visits to the Central Asian region in 2013 and 2014, Xi Jinping set a scorching pace for Modi to follow. Unfortunately for India, even a super-star Prime Minister cannot do the impossible. He lacks the vast investible resources that China has already deployed and is deploying in the region.

Days before the historic talks between the separatist amalgam, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference under the leadership of Maulana Ansari, and the Government of India, there is widespread speculation as to the outcome of the same. After all this is the first time

The labour laws certainly represent a small step but the introduction of even small reforms in labour legislations was long awaited to keep at bay the rising discontent among domestic as well as foreign entrepreneurs from India's manufacturing sector.

While the debate on federalism is likely to continue before a consensus can be arrived at for amending the Constitution to strike a fresh balance between the States and Centre, it is worthwhile to explore possibilities for pushing the developmental agenda meant essentially for the people.

There is need for greater transparency in the Free Trade Agreement negotiations. There could be more information sharing with civil society groups and the general public so that the content of the negotiations would get public approval faster, making it easier to conclude the FTA.

New Japanese Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda, known for his low profile political career, is now being called upon to manage his party (Democratic Party of Japan) that is driven more by internal power struggle than policies per se.

The new RBI Governor would have to restore the confidence of foreign investors in the economy's growth potential. Foreign investments are needed for infrastructure and industry. The Governor will also have to attract more FIIs. The choice before him would be: whether to control inflation or to promote growth.

When Dr. Hassan Rouhani takes charge as the new President of the Iranian republic on 4th August 2013, there are two most important challenges before him -- the mismanaged economy and the intractable nuclear negotiations that seem to have hit a road block.

The changing world order in the post cold war era has heralded the rise of economic globalization which has been dominated by the desire for symbiotic cooperation and economic intercourse between states.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's problem is the sheer scale of the challenges he confronts. He has to juggle several balls at the same time, and though he may vary the juggling routine, he cannot afford to let any of the balls drop.