Singh lived up to his reputation of being forthright and unsparing as he spoke extensively on a range of issues – from beef bans to alcohol restrictions, Punjab’s drugs problem, sedition and the future of his party.
In his first year, Modi has shown boldness and pragmatism, whatever the static over cow meat, ghar wapsi, and has successfully pulled his government from the set RSS/BJP construct of ideas.
The charge against Manmohan Singh, always, was that he was weak. Unwilling to shoo away encroachers on his authority and shy of defending his own policies.
The PM’s oath of office has an implicit responsibility to protect the preeminent decision-making authority of that office. So it is difficult to watch how Manmohan Singh is going down in history as somebody who so damaged it.
It is a touchingly funny spectacle, where every senior leader wants to be loved like Atal Bihari Vajpayee, but is beginning to speak the language of Modi of 2007, if not 2002.
The Indian voter is changing and doesn’t mind paying more for better services and goods. It is for the leaders to understand this welcome change and build a new politics around it.
In a shift from usual bilateral summits of minor tactical moves, US and India for the first time are talking less of Pakistan's compliance on incidents, but instead on its very future.
India will soon face an ageing population and labour shortages. This is why coherent approaches to engaging the silver generation in the economy are needed now.
Bangladesh is already reeling from low coal-fired power production & inability to import enough coal, gas. Now, Adani has cut supplies over unpaid dues. However, this could hurt Adani too.
Video call between two Army heads is their first interaction after political upheaval in Bangladesh forced former prime minister Sheikh Hasina to flee to India in August.
While we talk much about our military, we don’t put our national wallet where our mouth is. Nobody is saying we should double our defence spending, but current declining trend must be reversed.
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