1. The north eastern region of India is surrounded by foreign countries, about 98 percent of the boundary having been bordered internationally. Thus the region appears almost detached from the mainland of the country, at the same time having no mutual contact with neighbouring countries. Inside the region, the states are separated from one another by hill tracks resulting in the own-styled growth of the states in respect of food habits, races and languages, economy, employment, culture etc. So the people of these states generally bear identities specific to the concerned states.

THE burden of bad loans of the banks has worsened in the last six months according to the latest Financial Stability Report of the Reserve Bank of India. According to the report, the gross non-performing assets (NAPs) ratio has risen sharply from 5.1 percent last September to 7.6 percent in March this year. The share of large borrowers of gross bad loans increased to 86.4 percent and their share of total loans is 58 percent in March 2016. According to one estimate, corporate debt worth Rs 6.7 lakh crore is facing the risk of default.

FRESH after their success in implementing regime change in Brazil through patently undemocratic means, the right wing in Latin America, aided and abetted by their allies in Washington, have now set their sights on Venezuela. The mainstream newspapers in the United States are busy writing the obituary of the Left in the American continent. An electoral setback for the Left in Argentina, where the Peronists lost the presidency by a narrow margin earlier in the year, was welcomed as great news in the West.

THE classic dictionary meaning of the word conspiracy is not that far from what Indian legal jurisprudence has evolved an understanding of. Simply put, the Oxford dictionary meaning explains, ‘A secret plan by a group to do something unlawful or harmful’.

IN the recent slew of measures aimed at liberalisation of norms for foreign direct investment (FDI), norms for the pharmaceuticals (medicine) sector have been further liberalised. Existing norms allowed for 100 percent FDI in the case of Greenfield projects (projects that involve infusion of FDI to set up a completely new facility) through the automatic route – ie, without prior permission from the government.