As winter arrives on the Line of Actual Control (LAC), the latest round of talks — the thirteenth — between India and China ended with no resolution in sight, leaving tens of thousands of soldiers facing the prospect of another harsh cold season on the heights of Eastern Ladakh. The contrasting statements sharply underlined the deadlock. The Indian Army’s statement on Monday morning noted that while India made “constructive suggestions” for resolving the remaining areas, the Chinese side “was not agreeable and also could not provide any forward-looking proposals”. A Chinese statement on Sunday night accused India of making “unreasonable and unrealistic demands”. There was no joint statement, as in the last round in August, when agreement was reached to disengage at Gogra. The only surprise is that the discord is now fully out in the open, in contrast to the anodyne declarations of both sides in August to “enhance trust” and “expeditiously resolve” issues that have already dragged on
  • 24mins

The RBI’s latest monetary policy statement and accompanying actions reflect the dilemma confronting monetary authorities. While the RBI’s Monetary Policy Committee voted unanimously to keep benchmark interest rates unchanged as part of its efforts to support growth as the economy recovers, one of the six members on the MPC demurred yet again and voted against continuing with an accommodative stance for ‘as long as necessary’. Prof. Jayanth Varma had at the last meeting in August flagged the risks that prolonged monetary accommodation posed to the inflation outlook by ‘stimulating asset price inflation’ even as he posited that its impact in ‘mitigating the distress in the economy’ was arguably far more marginal. The MPC’s own current inflation outlook is a mixed bag. The projection for average inflation for the full fiscal year has been cut by 40 basis points to 5.3% even as the committee stresses that with core inflation ‘persisting at an elevated level’, the Centre and States would
  • 24mins
 
Lead

A ‘Taiwan flashpoint’ in the Indo-Pacific

Shyam Saran
 
Comment

A lengthening shadow of Tamil nativism

Vignesh Karthik K.R. Karthick Ram Manoharan
 
Comment

The many questions arising from QES data

K.R. Shyam Sundar

My official statement

G. Sampath

The double delight of the well-hit six — all this and distance too

Suresh Menon

The future of commentary must work harder to get there

Suresh Menon
 
Open Page

A river’s birthday

Atul Kanakk
Emotions set. Girl hiding face behind signboard with drawn smileys. Collage of indifferent, winking, happy, surprised, and sad emoticons.
Open Page

The name game

Sarangapani Bashyam
Dandi March Statue.
Open Page

The town of many Gandhians

Sujith Sandur