Govind Bhattacharjee

China respects strength and determination, as we have seen in Dokalam, and time has come to be assertive with China. Instead of wasting our diplomatic and political energy over a symbolic listing that serves little purpose in curbing terror, we must reckon the biggest supporter of the terror-propagating state and direct our energies towards sensitizing it to our concerns. In short, we must draw a red line with China too, as we have drawn with Pakistan in Balakot, and as China has drawn for us.

India has many options other than military intervention to deal with the "Deep State" in Pakistan comprising the Army and the ISI. Indus Water Treaty is one such, but the effort should be more meaningfully directed towards isolating Pakistan internationally by using all tools -economy, trade, commerce, sports and diplomacy. Such isolation will encourage and strengthen the voices of the civil society within Pakistan who are equally sick of terrorist tactics and loss of innocent lives, but whose feeble voices are today drowned by the loud jihadist chants of the terrorists and terror sympathisers. Unless the internal voices of dissent grow stronger, the Pakistani state is unlikely to mend their ways. War will never achieve this purpose.

The State Public Sector Enterprises in India have no raison d'être. They make huge losses, venture into areas they have no business to be in, and are permanent drags on the state economy . If they are to be rescued from the mess the governments have created for them, they need to be depoliticized and professionalized by keeping the bureaucrats and politicians out of their management.

Neither the current price support policies like the MSP not the Income Support Schemes being contemplated is going to end the distress of the farmers, without dismantling the APMC mechanism and simultaneously investing in irrigation, cold chain, food processing and marketing infrastructure, which the Governments have ignored during the last 70 years.

It may benefit any ruling dispensation in the short term to weaken the institution of the Comptroller & Auditor General of India, but it is extremely important for our democracy that the independence and objectivity of the institution as guaranteed in the Constitution be protected at all costs.

In the Indian system of governance, the concept of accountability is singularly missing. Those who are in positions of authority and power often wield enormous powers to destroy lives and liberties of citizens or inflict irreparable damage to the finances and international reputations of the country, but are allowed to go scot free.

The high growth in economy and exports, strong remittances, large forex reserves, and moderate inflation do indeed provide some assurance, but there are clouds over our economic horizon too, which may hurl the economy down a slippery slope.

The new Goods and Service Tax (GST) regime that was launched on July 1 2017 with great fanfare has now completed a year-a period that has seen much upheaval in the Indian economy. A year is rather a short time to evaluate a complex, disruptive and transformational tax reform like the GST. Only a naïve person could have expected that creating a country-wide, unfragmented and unified market by eliminating the cascading of taxes and freeing the movement of goods and services throughout the country by removing all entry barriers would not exact its prices. These came in the form of disruptions and inconveniences to various sections of dealers, manufacturers and exporters, numbing pains for the informal sector everywhere, decline in economic growth, soaring inflation in the immediate aftermath of its launch and several shocks to the economy. All these are essential attributes of the creative destruction process a transformational reform that fuels innovation and growth entails everywhere – they were not unexpected and fortunately proved to be temporary. The past year indeed has seen many more downsides than upsides for the new indirect tax regime and invited constant criticism from the political opposition as well as others, but by now everyone has probably realized that GST has come here to stay, and not to be rolled back like what Malaysia has done for very different reasons. Since the old order has changed irreversibly, it is also time to look back, take stock of the implementation glitches, and formulate pragmatic and appropriate strategies for the future. Experts and even government officials have been pointing towards the urgent need to effect various changes in the GST architecture like doing away with the 28% tax bracket and moving towards fewer tax-slabs by converging 12% and 18% rates, bringing in petroleum products, real estate sector and electricity under its ambit in a phased manner and simplify the compliance by doing away with so many returns to be submitted at so frequent intervals, besides improving the robustness of anti-evasion measures. All these are desirable, but may be easier said than done. However, some issues need urgent attention if we are to leverage the potential of GST to accelerate the growth of our economy in short to medium term, even though India's biggest tax reform will remain a work in progress for quite some time yet. The compliance has been simplified to a large extent by dispensing many of the returns originally envisaged, but it is still beset with the problems of refund and the steady accumulated under the Integrated GST (IGST) levied in respect of interstate trade and imports (exports are zero rated under GST). Although 13 returns (12 monthly and one annual) are prescribed under the GST, there are basically three monthly returns (GSTR-1, 2 and 3), plus an annual return GSTR 9, meant for most resident taxpayers. While GSTR-1 includes the details of outward supplies of taxable goods and services, GSTR-2 includes the details of inward supplies of taxable goods and services for claiming input tax credit (ITC). GSTR-3 is an auto-filled return generated by the software system after matching the details of GSTR-1 and GSTR-2 returns and forms the basis for refund and adjustment of ITC. Since matching of data between GSTR-1

The Central Civil Services (Conduct) Rules, 1964, which apply to all public servants in the country, date from colonial times and are reflective of a colonial mindset. Civil servants no longer want to be treated as unruly kids ignorant of their roles and responsibilities. These dated rules must be consigned to the dustbin of history and replaced by a new code of ethics based on self-regulation, accountability, and transparency.

While science attempts to explain consciousness in terms of the electrochemical properties of the brain cells or neurons, philosophy, both oriental and occidental, assert that consciousness is the ultimate reality and that the external reality is constructed by and exists only in consciousness. Different systems of philosophy deal with the subject of consciousness differently, but all concur in the primacy of mind over matter. The paper discusses the exploration of the subject of consciousness by prominent western thinkers during eighteenth to twentieth centuries including Rudolf Steiner, Jean Gebser and Immanual Kant. It then goes on to describe the treatment of consciousness in ancient Indian philosophical systems like Advaita Vedanta, Samkhya, Yoga and Buddhism, before attempting a synthesis between the ideas propounded by science and philosophy.

Demonetisation was a bold and courageous step fraught with huge political and economic risks, but Its benefits are only now beginning to show. It has beyond doubt increased tax compliance, and its adverse impact on economic growth, if any, seem to be over by now with economic parameters showing definite signs of improvement. But most importantly, it has immense potential to transform the economy into a highly digitised economy to realise which determination and resolve of the government are as important as the cooperation of citizens.

The verdict of the Special CBI Judge in the 2G case is a sham, and overlooks the obvious irregularities in the scam which the Supreme Court had earlier condemned in no uncertain terms. The judge has clearly failed to uphold the law in this case.

Decades of liberal Central funding has failed to address the problems of poverty and development of the north eastern states by generating meaningful productive employment or facilitating economic growth. Central assistance alone, without consideration of the relevant geographical factors including the isolation and remoteness of the region, may not be able to address their infrastructural bottlenecks and developmental impediments. Rather a unified, cohesive approach for development of the region as a single integrated unit may help.

India's experience of GST is nothing different from the other countries and the temporary fall in growth is nothing to worry about. Once GST stabilises, the system will automatically find its equilibrium and growth will surge, as in every other country.

From time to time, people both from within and outside the Government have talked about the necessity and feasibility of taxing agricultural income. There are no two opinions about the need for bringing this hitherto untaxed sector within the tax net and correct the distortions it is causing otherwise in the economy, as the agricultural sector remains a conduit for money laundering and concealment of black income. Committee after committees have recommended in favour of taxing large agricultural incomes but successive Governments have shied away from this for fear of losing potentially large vote banks. The paper argues that while the loss of potential vote banks remains a myth, the available data clearly prove that the small and marginal farmers would not be affected by any tax imposed on agricultural income.

In pronouncing their judgment on triple talaq, the Hon'ble judges of the Supreme Court (SC) ought to have depended on Constitution rather than religion. It makes a travesty of justice that religious arguments have been given primacy over Constitutional rights, even though the judgment was right.

" To sleep, perchance to dream-ay, there's the rub. " Hamlet Why do we sleep? There are various theories-and none explains it fully. We know that deprivation of sleep causes various problems including irritability, lack of focus and concentration, and interferes in our ability to learn complex tasks and also in recalling from our memories. Evidence suggests that during the deepest sleep, the body secretes useful enzymes and growth hormones in higher amounts – this may partly explain why children during their growing periods sleep most of the time. EEG studies allow us to monitor the activities of the brain during sleep. From these studies we know that there are basically two types of sleep: REM (Rapid Eye Movement) and Non-REM (NREM) sleep. REM sleep is relatively active in which the eyes move rapidly under our eyelids, and most of our dreams occur during REM sleep only. Non-REM is a much deeper and restful sleep during which there are no eye movements; even if we dream during this type of sleep, we usually do not remember them upon waking. It has also been proved that we dream in real time and that the body is usually paralysed during dreaming to protect it from injuries arising from the movement of limbs that may be triggered by the dreams. Scientists have identified five types of waves in the brain: (1) the high frequency gamma waves (40-100 cycles per second), which are important for learning, memory and information processing, and are associated with higher cognitive tasks. (2) The active mental state corresponds to what is known as beta waves, vibrating at frequency of 12-40 cycles per second, which are commonly observed when we are awake and active, and engaged in logical thinking and problem solving. (3) The alpha waves with a frequency range 8-12 cycles per second help promote deep relaxation; these waves are also triggered by psychedelic drugs like marijuana or alcohol. There are believed to be the gateway to our subconscious mind lying at the base of our conscious awareness. (4) Theta waves predominate during what is known as REM sleep; these trigger experiences of intuition, relaxation and creative surges. These are present during light meditation and sleep, including the all-important REM dream state. (5) Finally, the deep sleep patterns correspond to delta waves in the brain vibrating at frequencies of 0.1 to 4 cycles per second; these are associated with the deepest levels of relaxation. The Delta frequency is the slowest of the frequencies and is experienced in deep, dreamless non-REM sleep and in very deep, transcendental meditation. It is believed to be in the realm of the unconscious. 1 The author is a senior civil servant and also a writer of popular science as also a commentator on socioeconomic issues.

- A pioneering and extensive study of the 11 special category states of India, their socio-political and economic conditions
-Uses economic and public finance data since 1969, when the first special category states were formed, for analysis
- Attempts ranking of the special category states according to performance
- Provides pragmatic alternatives for future