Front Page

• India now a $2-trillion economy: India’s GDP has touched the $2-trillion mark in 2014. The last trillion has been added in the last seven years after 2007. But we still are amongst the lower middle income category of countries.

• For foreign scholars, MHA acts as tough guide: The Ministry of Home Affairs has overbearing powers when it comes to researchers coming to India from abroad. These research projects have to be cleared first by officials, and even the concept of “research” is not properly defined. So, they can reject applications that they feel will create controversy.

• Maharashtra to brand students of madrassas uneducated: Just keep this development in some remote corner of your mind, there is no need to take notes or remember thoroughly, because there will be editorials later regarding how some steps we sometimes take lead to the alienation of religious minorities.

Editorial/Opinion

• Crime and compromise: The Supreme Court ruling that rape is an offence that does not brook any compromise is a glaring indication of the nature by which the court sees these cases. The fact that the lower courts have forgotten a similar directive issued only two years ago is a matter of concern, though.

• A win-win deal: The thawing of the freeze in US-Cuba relations after 54 years is a proof that diplomacy can work in solving even complex situations rooted deep in historical and ideological hostility.

• Picking up the pieces in Nepal:  After the devastating earthquake, political instability and bickering in Nepal have the potential to disrupt the reconstruction and rehabilitation efforts. Indian contributions (a 1 billion dollar assistance package, and another 1 billion in terms of 40 per cent grant and 60% soft loans) need co-ordination of various Indian agencies with the newly set up Nepal Reconstruction Authority.

• Trade is booming; will diplomacy follow: On July 8, captains of Indian and British industry will meet in London for a high-profile conference on the “Future of U.K.-India Economic Relations” organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). But proliferation of bilateral trade has to be complemented by a coming together of the foreign policies between the two countries, too.

• A long way to go for America’s minorities: The recent hate crime in South Carolina, USA has shown up a disconnect between the spirit of the US Constitution and its interpretation at the local levels. India will also do well to look at this issue. We are as plural a nation as the US, and a matter that rears up its head there can also turn up here.

International/ World Affairs

• Govt. ‘may resign’ if it loses referendum: In elections earlier this year in Greece, a leftist political party had swept to power. That govt has indicated it could resign if the people vote on the referendum to accept the conditions of International debtors in exchange for new loans to secure the Greek economy.

Economy/Business

• Enough buffers to absorb Greek shock: The RBI has said that India will not see any visible impacts of the ongoing Greek crisis. Last time during the 2008 recession also, India had not been affected as much as most other countries. The RBI is also going to put in place a regulatory framework for a new kind of NBFC, which will act as an account aggregator to enable a person to see all his accounts across financial institutions in a common format. The idea of such an NBFC had emerged from the Financial Stability and Development Council.

• 23 firms show interest in train set project: Under a plan for improving the speed of Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains, the Railways had announced a global tender for procurement, manufacturing and maintenance of 15 electric multiple unit (EMU) train sets or 315 rail cars last month. Remember that this had happened and watch out for new developments.

• Growth slows down in Q4 for private non-financial firms: Data released by the RBI is showing that aggregate sales contracted in the fourth quarter of 2014-15 after a stagnation in the third quarter. India’s IT sector slowed down to the lowest level observed in five years.