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The Times of India looks at four decades of the BJP party's presence in India's largest state Uttar Pradesh. The first BJP prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is from this Hindi speaking region.

In the 2022 Uttar Pradesh elections the BJP party increased its vote percentage from 39% to 42%. The BJP plans for rapid economic development in the state were affected by the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and 2021, as resources were diverted to tackle vaccination and healthcare priorities. Uttar Pradesh is India's largest state with a population of 250 million. Much of India's development agenda is being shaped by the state's leadership and the federal government with the Master Plan of Gati Shakti and development from the grassroots to new airports, logistics for export markets and Made in India, new highways and modernized rail networks, infrastructure development, and industry.

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In his farewell speech Boris Johnson, with true British resilient spirit,  says "I will be giving fervent support to Liz Truss and her government every step of the way." Johnson likened his transfer of power to Ms Truss to a relay race. "The baton will be handed over," saying it "unexpectedly turned into a relay race, they changed the rules halfway through." But he expressed no feelings of regret, having come to terms with the arrangement in his own way. More likely Johnson is without saying it still determining the policies and direction of the government, perhaps more so now with Liz Truss and his loyalists the only persons in the cabinet and running the British government. Johnson addressed people's fears about the energy price increases- "the UK would continue to have the strength to give people cash they need to get through this energy crisis that is caused by Putin's vicious war."  He listed his government's achievements- the response to Covid. Some of this is forgotten as the UK not the EU leadership was first to move forward with vaccination plans. Johnson put his government's faith in the vaccine invented at Oxford University and committed early while the EU languished under Merkel and her protege Ursula Von der Leyen. The EU fell behind in providing vaccine leadership as Britain forged ahead early, giving hope to the rest of the world's population including India that adopted the Oxford vaccine. Johnson likened his role to the missions to the planets- "Let me say I am now like one of those booster rockets that has fulfilled its function and I will be re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down invisibly into some remote and obscure corner of the Pacific." Johnson has taken the situation in a truly British way without any rancor and gracefully. With Liz Truss in charge he even gets a break after the difficult period handling the once in a century pandemic, handing over to a younger member of his group, and yet deciding on many of the policies and guiding the government for the term it was elected for to 2024. History will look at him favorably for his handling of the pandemic and vaccination, and for his instincts about the Ukraine war and Britain's unwavering support, and now in guiding Truss to provide Britain with strong support for the cost of living crisis caused by the war. His failings stem partly from his exuberance and optimistic spirit, but nowhere near detract from these achievements. ...

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Announcing 80,000 crore rupees investment in Uttar Pradesh Mr. Modi praised UP's administration for speeding up the modernization effort with new highways, rail and logistics centers. He referred to the eastern and western freight corridors, two multi-modal transport and logistcs hubs at Greater Noida and Varanasi, and defense sector projects. The cooperation of the federal and state governments in UP, good governance and investment in infrastructure and people provides a model for the rest of India in its modernization effort to 2030. Looking at the global situation Mr. Modi sees a big opportunity for India as the US and the European Union seek to bring more manufacturing back to the home countries and build an entirely new supply chain in friendly countries. "The current global situation presents a big opportunity for us. The world is looking for a reliable partner, and only democratic India has the capability to accept the challenge. Today, the world is looking at India's potential and also praising its performance."   ...

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Joydeep Gupta, director for South Asia at North Pole, environmental news site, says 2050 is important but even more important is what India does now. This is why what Modi promised at COP26 Glasgow for 2030 matters- achieving 500 gigawatts of renewable energy capacity, improvements of 45% in reducing carbon intensity, and cutting carbon emissions by 1 billion tons. Here Gupta looks at what India will be doing, the obstacles and ways of achieving these goals.

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Adirondack National Park with its 2 million acres of wilderness has St Regis Canoe Area, a canoeing part of the wilderness. Here The Guardian shows Megan Bergman taking up the challenge of going up the Seven Carries route in this wilderness finding peace and mental health in the waters  with her backpack in the canoe. Take this trip up the rivers and ponds in the area and through portages which are carrying of the 15 pound light Kevlar canoes on one's shoulders or arms for the sections of land that connect the ponds and rivers. The American Indian and the early French and British explorers made their way through upstate New York and around the Great lakes in Michigan in this way.  Megan says she wanted that sense of calm, of transcendence, and the fierce delight of putting her backpack into the canoe after the portage. She says she felt content out on the water in the wilderness with a friend. I wanted to feel reverent and at peace with this wilderness which felt safe, she says. ...

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Improving performance of Toyota, Nissan and Honda in the U.S., Japan and emerging markets. Japanese automakers report higher profits in the fiscal fourth quarter. Sales for 2012 are expected to quadruple for Toyota in the 2012 fiscal year compared to fiscal 2011, according to analyst estimates. Part of the recovery is from weakening of the yen from 75 to the U.S. dollar in October 2011 to 81 in the March-April 2012 period. Profit margins are expected to improve for Toyota from 1.5% to 5.1% for Toyota, 5.4% to 7% for Nissan and 2.5% to 6.8% for Honda.

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South African captain Dean Elgar reflects on how he is handling the leadership role for the cricket team building understanding and trust of players from different cultures and social backgrounds in the team- white, black, Afrikaans, English Afrikaans, Indian. He brings a remarkable sensitivity to his role and describes his style of listening and acting as a friend off the field to learn about the players on his team. It is a role like no other captain of a sports team faces. Elgar says he does'nt think there is another country in the world that has to deal with this kind of dynamics in society.   He says there is always light at the end of the tunnel, a glimmer of hope, as he take on all this pressure without showing it. Seeing him as many will on television on the cricket field during the 3 Test series at Centurion, Johannesburg and Cape Town, one senses the kind of change in South Africa that gives so much hope and optimism for the future. He say he always thinks we must'nt stop learning from each other, we must sit down and listen more. This has made him more concerned and wary about the past and even more emotionally attached to the players, as he handles the huge amount of diversity- a massive learning curve with a lot of humility. On the day of the death of Desmond Tutu as cricket commentators talk about his humble and unselfish spirit, Dean Elgar appears to have defined his own role in just the right way.   ...

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In a time of relative prosperity in the first months after the boom years uptil 2007, in April 2008 to be specific, it is strange but true that food crisis is overshadowing the credit and housing crisis in the USA. At the G7 meeting, World Bank president, Zoellick, made a passionate statement about the crisis that is developing across Asia and developing countries elsewhere as food prices go through the roof. The World Bank and the IMF are stepping in, but the focus at the G7 meeting was on the US dollar and the world financial system. There have been serious problems about food shortages in Philippines, Indonesia, Haiti and Egypt, and even in other countries like China and India the increase in the price of rice by 146% makes for a serious food crisis. See the link to this.

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The NYT's Kristof gives this exceptional report on the use of cancer causing chemicals all around us in many consumer products. With the increased use of chemicals has come the tripling of asthma rates in the last 25 years, leukemia up by 1% a year, increasing obesity, and breast cancer rates increasing from 1% in 1975 to 12% today with only some of it from better detection. Doctors at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York, say American girls who had puberty at the age of 17 in 1800, now have puberty at the age of 14, even 12. Earlier menstrual cycles increase the risk of breast cancer because of increased exposure to estrogen. Studies show exposure to pesticides, PCB's and other cancer causing chemicals increase the risk of cancer, and a link to early puberty. Asian women moving to the U.S. are also experiencing higher rates of breast cancer as they move to societies with higher use of chemicals in daily life, say experts at Mt. Sinai. Poor eating habits and lifestyles with less exercize are also to blame, but chemicals also play a role. Americans are moving towards shunning packaged processed foods for fresh food in their diet, and more are learning the benefits of regular exercize, but the same degree of public awareness is lacking for the extensive use of chemicals in our consumer society. In other societies around the world that are copying us such as in China, India and Brazil, the situation is even worse, with the spread of a reckless idea that modernization requires jettisoning health safety concerns. Even a simple pizza box has PFAC's chemicals made to make the box resistant to grease. In 2015 where products are labeled environmentally friendly by large companies to attract buyers and build the right image in the minds of consumers, consumers asking questions and making better choices make a difference by offering a seal of approval. Carpets have chemicals, and most disposable plastic containers contain chemicals that could seep into the food if heated. The use of plastic containers and microwaves is common practice in todays society, where less cooking is done on the stove than in the period before 1960. The sheer size of the chemicals developed since 1950 is staggering- more than 80,000 chemicals according to the Children's Environmental Health Center at Mt. Sinai. And this Center says less than 20% have been tested for toxicity. ...

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Internet penetration is about 30% in India, compared to 50% in China and 87% in the U.S., according to the World Bank. The number of internet users increased from 375 million in Oct. 2015 to 402 million in Dec. 2015, according to Internet and Mobile Asssociation of India. Growth of internet users is increasing with the falling price of smartphones and mobile data usage.

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India depends on oil imports for 85% of its needs. $110 a barrel oil imposes severe hardship in a country with a population of 1.2 billion people. Russian oil is offered at a $20-$25 discount says this report in DW.com. Higher oil prices are already making a recovery from the pandemic more difficult in India.

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Former World Bank chief Zoellick points to the need for investments in human capital and productivity improvements in emerging markets such as India, China and Brazil to overcome the problem of slow growth in 2013.

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Politicians, militant groups, intelligence agencies and security forces, unsettle the Kashmir valley, at a time when Pakistan faces a serious economic crisis, and India faces a slowing down and inflation also. Changing the demography of Kashmir and the dispute over 99 acres seems rather phony and it shows that political unrest can be whipped up when there is such a long legacy of conflict even when the conditions worldwide in developing Asian countries are shifting to modernization.

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Bret Stephens of the WSJ puts the -question what is Pakistan? And looks at possible answers. Starting with Mohammed Ali Jinnah, who he says had aquite different idea from that of the Taliban. He quotes Jinnah 'you will find that in the course of time Hindus would cease to be Hindus, and Muslims cease to be Muslims , not in the religious sense, because this is the personal faith of each individual, but in the political sense as citizens of the State." His idea was of religion as apolitical identification of the state as opposed to asecular idea like that of India, not of a religious state in a religious sense.This Bret Stephens says is why a majority of Pakistanis have rejected religious parties at the polls but still find the idea of political religion identification appealing. He sees these aims as immodest or overreaching in the modern world of technology, mass communications and economic deveopment. Only by remaining backward can such aspirations be supported because economic development, technology and mass communications can only supplant such religious politcal identification with aspirations for higher standards of living. Witness the current general elections in India with 730 million people voters. The common driving force for all parties is how they can deliver on the economic aspirations of people for better living standards, better infrastructure, and better services such as health care and education. And communal parties like the BJP also have to shift their focus to delivering on these aspirations to get support. So Bret Sephens makes the point quite effectively when he says that the threat to Pakistan is existential, so he would like to put the point existentially - just accept simple countryhood, or face nothingness. ...

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Musharraf's efforts at economic growth were not broad enough or deep enough to create a measurable difference in the lives of the Pakistani people. And improvements in industry and agriculture may have been shallow compared to the potential. The wars or conflicts one or the other with India and the failure of political leaders may have been too big a distraction to achieve the significant effort needed to make a serious improvement in the lives of ordinary people and grow the middle class. Inflation is up by 24% year to year in July and rising, which is really an intolerable burden in a poor developing country. Now what little progress was made in Pakistan for the lives of ordinary people and the middle class is unraveling in the face of increase in the price of food, and fuel. And the the fall in the value of the Pakistan ruppee to Rs 75 for one American dollar, a 24% decline in value since January 2008 in only 8 months, shows a serious loss of confidence in the economy. The fall in the foreign exchange reserves is striking from $16 billion in November to $9.92 billion at this time. Pakistan appears to be heading in the direction of a serious refocussing of its economy, its politics, its educational institutions, and government and private industry, and its military in the direction of improving the lives of ordinary people, building industry and agriculture and building its infrastructure. If left unattended this crisis can only get worse and none of the past experience the old military approaches, the religious politics, the corruption in politics, the old political slogans, the conflict building with India, is going to be of much help in tackling the real day to day problems of improvement in industry, agriculture, infrastructure, and building better lives....

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Elections in 5 Indian states and India's ruling Congress party in Feb. 2012.