The Maldives new President will make his first State visit, to India, on December 17. A high level team of three Cabinet ministers met with their counterparts in Delhi to prepare for deals to be signed then. Economy Minister Fayyaz Ismail told SNI’s Associate Editor Amitabh P Revi that Indian investors are being offered a trans-shipment port and Special Economic Zones. The new Maldivian government wants Indian investment to lead in building on economic development and reverse the last government’s frosty relations with New Delhi.
Enthusiasts think BRICS is taking on the US-led West. Critics think it is just a weak wannabe. In reality, BRICS is undergirding the new global order that will bring together friends and foes alike. A Deep Analysis by Drishtikone.
Swami Dhirendra Shastri called for a meat-free Navratri in Bengal. Parties answered by invoking Shakta tradition. A restricted rite, stripped of its disciplines, has become “culture”, and Bengal uses its first taste of political freedom in decades to flaunt the very decay that helped undo it.
