Prime Minister Narendra Modi is setting up a new system to ensure that his speeches get the attention and importance they deserve. Sample this: Ahead of the recently held Global Investors’ Summit in Indore, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) sent key portions of Modi’s speech to the office of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan.

The PMO wanted the CMO to avoid repetitions in the two speeches. One point exclusive in the Prime Minister’s speech was that the State has a 40 per cent share of the total organic agriculture produce in the country. He urged the State to market this organic produce in the West and quipped that he did not want to look at papers to cite Madhya Pradesh’s statistics. Chauhan had apparently been looking at some papers while quoting the investment figures in his welcome address.

Why worry about diesel?

The Maharashtra and Haryana elections held up a decision, but the diesel price cut was once again a hot topic this week.

When a top bureaucrat of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Ministry was asked about this, he replied with a smirk, “Diesel? I don’t know about diesel prices, I drive a petrol car!”

On a spending spree

A certain Bangalore-based corporate house well known for being very careful with money is witnessing an extremely interesting time after the induction of a new chief executive officer.

The CEO has literally thrown open the treasury and has not only awarded the employees higher salaries and bonuses but also seen to it that he travels in style along with an entourage. The promoters aren’t exactly pleased with the new order.

All systems go

For journalists starved of news ever since Finance Minister Arun Jaitley took ill, the appointment of Arvind Subramanian as chief economic advisor was a godsend. They did not spare Subramanian even on his first day in office.

Thankfully, the former Dennis Weatherstone Senior Fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and IMF economist was not flustered by the barrage of questions thrown at him. They wanted his views on growth, inflation, investment, fiscal deficit… He came out a winner with short and crisp responses on a myriad economic issues.

Stony silence

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh continues to maintain his steadfast silence. Singh, a member of the high profile Finance Standing Committee, has not made any intervention in the debates on the ministry so far.

The committee, headed by former minister Veerappa Moily, has held more than half-a-dozen meetings in the last two months. Yes, he did utter a sentence once but it was inaudible to most members. “He remains a silent spectator,” said an Opposition MP, “although he keenly attends all meetings of the panel.” He is not writing either — Singh recently denied reports that he was working on a book.

Indi-Chini

It isn’t a coincidence that chini (sugar) is synonymous with India’s neighbour across the Himalayas. Wang Xuefeng, Consul-General of China in Kolkata, was surprised to discover that it was a token of recognition. India knew how to extract brown sugar but it learnt to refine it into white sugar from China. This was part of a long tradition of friendly exchanges between the two civilisations.

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