During the last few months many journalists have raged against perceived excesses and moral lapses of the Indian government. In turn, the journalists have been criticised in the social media for their hypocrisy.
Many historians have also piled on in their criticism of the government. One old worthy went as far as to say that the RSS and ISIS are quite like each other. A scribe countered: “Anyone who compares the RSS & ISIS should visit both. One will behead him, the other will give him a lecture on Vedic science.” There are those who consider a lecture on Vedic science as intolerable as a beheading.
So what is this about Vedic science that gets people worked up? One specific matter that angered was the claims by ministers that ancient India had science, and not all that is admirable outside of religion, yoga, and the symbol for zero has come from outside. After some very nasty columns accused the ministers of chauvinism, communalism and made-up history, I was approached, as a historian of science, to deliver the coup de grace to this atavistic monster.
But the claims made by the ministers are broadly right and the journalists could have checked them out by a simple search on the internet. What can we do if it is true that the first atomic theory of matter was conceived in India, and the Pythagoras Theorem was proved in India several centuries before Greece? Likewise, Indian mathematics and astronomy were ahead of their European counterparts for centuries until the medieval times, and it was then that the adoption of the Indian numerals brought about a renaissance in European mathematics.
More recently, the idea of inoculation went from India and transformed Western medicine. Mendeleev was inspired by the Sanskrit alphabet to create his periodic table of elements. Schrodinger, one of the creators of quantum mechanics, credited the Upanishads for the idea of superposition that is central to that theory.
Even Indian technology was good. As just one example, Damascus steel, of which the best sword blades were made, was based on wootz steel imported from India. Economists tell us that for centuries, until the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century, about 30 per cent of the world economic output came from India, and this couldn’t have been done by naked sadhus alone! India had its artists, engineers, bankers, doctors, philosophers, and thinkers.
I am not trying to claim that everything important originated in India. Other civilisations made their own unique contributions to art and science and they may very well have lists as impressive as India’s. But it should not be a crime to acknowledge facts that are accepted by historians the world over.
What is fascinating is that the journalists have become a kind of a thought police. One is not allowed to speak of India’s past lest it amount to bragging that might hurt the sentiments of some minority groups in India or perhaps that of Europeans.
This is bizarre and patronising. Most people are reasonable. No one cares for the nostrums of the colonial times and people realise that in many ways the past doesn’t matter. The strength of a country or civilisation comes from the strength of its economy and its cultural and military power.
Some journalists want to counter this talk of Indian past by bashing current cultural practices and they do so by crossing ethical boundaries. It is perfectly all right for an activist or an opinion writer to express their disapproval of one thing or the other, but the anchor of a show (like the referee of match) is not to reveal his or her own biases and prejudices, nor disrespect any position. If a Western anchor were to do so even on Twitter, they will be sure to lose their job. Indian anchors do not appear to be bothered by this fine point and just the other day one of them poked fun at the Hindu custom of Karva Chauth when they would not dare to speak disparagingly of any other tradition.
Secularism means not being disrespectful to believers of any religion. Why criticise the immersion of images in the sea when remaining silent at the cutting down of countless trees for Christmas decoration? Journalists should calm down. It is not dangerous for people to be curious about their past. Indeed, one must know the past well in order to make the right choice for the future from the many that are possible
The countdown to the NDA government’s most important economic statement has begun and this noon Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley will let us know whether Budget 2015-16 is going to set the Yamuna on fire or will just be more of the same.
A caveat is in order: central budgets tend to get a huge billing in the media that is often out of proportion to their actual transformative potential. What happens in the remaining 364 days may matter more for the economy than what is said or done on budget day.
But some budgets do matter more than others. Manmohan Singh’s 1991 and 1992 budgets, for instance. They completely redirected the economy towards a market orientation. The first two budgets of any incoming government are also indicative of government intent, and so can be given higher importance than the rest that follow.
In this context, Arun Jaitley’s second budget, due on Saturday, 28 February – perhaps the one for which he has had more time to think and prepare – may be more important that his first, which was dismissed by one commentator as “Chidambaram’s budget with a saffron lipstick”. Jaitley has missed on opportunity to score; he can’t afford to miss a second time.
It is best not to speculate on what the finance minister will do and instead focus on what his challenges are. We can then check how his budget proposals tend to deal with these challenges. Budget 2015-16 has to be measured against 10 major economic challenges.
#1: The first challenge is reviving growth. Last year it was about dousing the fires of inflation; this time it is about reviving the investment cycle, now that inflation, as measured by any yardstick, seems tamed. Jaitley’s problem is that the animal spirits seen in the stock markets are missing when it comes to plonking down new money for new projects and investments, especially in infrastructure.
The reason is simple. As the Mid-Term Economic Analysis by Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian noted last December, India is facing a balance-sheet slowdown, a situation where the private sector is trying to pare down excess debt rather than invest. In this situation, he said, “it seems imperative to consider the case for reviving public investment as one of the key engines of growth going forward, not to replace private investment but to revive and complement it.”
His diagnosis is right, but his solution calls for care.
#2: This brings up the second challenge: fiscal deficit. How do you raise public investment without abandoning the fiscal deficit roadmap? How do you raise more money without just printing it, like the last government did? If the answer is to just let the deficit bloat, there is the risk of stoking inflation once more. Reserve Bank GovernorRaghuram Rajan, a skeptic on whether inflation is really dead or merely playing dead, will certainly not take kindly to any fiscal riot on Jaitley’s part.
One possibility is to continue on the fiscal path, but a bit more slowly that earlier planned. From 4.1 percent in 2014-15, the old roadmap talked of bringing this down to 3.6 percent in 2015-16 (which is what the next budget is for), and further to 3 percent in 2016-17. One sensible answer at a time when growth is slowing, both domestically and abroad, is to reduce the rate of deficit reduction. But a reduction of 0.2 percent instead of 0.5 percent will only yield around Rs 30,000 crore of additional leeway. Hardly the kind of energiser the economy needs right now.
#3: The critical challenge is thus raising additional money for public investment. Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha has talked of raising public investment by $25-50 billion. That’s Rs 1,50,000-3,00,000 crore at current rupee-dollar exchange rates. If the fiscal deficit easing gives him only Rs 30,000 crore, Jaitley will be Rs 1,20,000 crore short even at the bottom end of his targeted public investment range. Where will this level of additional money come in?
Two answers are already at hand and have been tried before. One is spectrum auctions at higher prices, which is already happening, and the other is raising more money from disinvestment and/or privatisation of state-owned assets. The government expects the auction of 3G and 2G spectrum in March to yield an additional Rs 25,000 crore in 2014-15 – and the balance of Rs 50,000-80,000 crore in subsequent years. Disinvestment is expected to yield another Rs 43,000-and-odd crore this year. With Coal India raising Rs 22,000-and-odd crore, that’s half the job done. But this pace of disinvestment will have to be stepped up in 2015-16 and beyond if the required moolah for public investment has to be drummed up. The best option is for the Modi government to start privatising non-core public sector assets like second-rung banks.
But for privatisation you not only need political will but a market in high spirits. We can’t count on the party to continue indefinitely. Other sources of non-tax revenue will also need to be discovered.
#4: More money will be needed to meet expected non-linear increases in expenditures. This is Jaitley’s fourth challenge. His fiscal deficit pressures are bound to be compounded by two additional claims on resources over the next two years: the recommendations of the 14th finance commission headed by former RBI Governor YV Reddy, which is sure to recommend a higher level of resource transfers to states; and the report of the Seventh Pay Commission for government employees, which too will recommend pay increases and impact central and state expenditures from 2016-17 onwards.
While resource transfers are not necessarily bad for growth since they will shift spending from centre to states and create new consumption demand from millions of government employees, the efficiency of public spending cannot be guaranteed. For public investments to rise and flow to critical areas like infrastructure, the centre will need more resources from unconventional sources. What could these be?
#5: Tapping black money through amnesty schemes will be one such option. Here, the challenge is not just to devise a scheme that will work, but to negotiate the political quicksand that is bound to develop, thanks to the unusual interest the Supreme Court is developing in bringing back black money from abroad. A Special Investigation Team is already at the job, and any amnesty scheme will raise judicial eyebrows a notch higher.
The problem is black money has been converted from an economic and ethical issue to one with very high moral overtones, and so sensible suggestions can backfire in the court of public opinion. However, with many major elections out of the way, and with a majority of its own in the Lok Sabha, the BJP can take a bold decision on this front. A no-questions-asked, zero-coupon tradable bearer bond could find lots of takers provided those declaring unaccounted money are guaranteed anonymity.
#6: Another challenge is to cut unproductive expenditures, including non-merit subsidies. A good start in this area has been made by the NDA government’s bold decision to shift LPG subsidies to cash paid directly into consumers’ bank accounts. More than 50 percent of consumers have already been shifted to this route, and all will be on direct cash transfers by 1 April. Hopefully, this will cut out bogus claimants, but once can’t be sure. Subsidy cuts will thus save little till the harder jobs of eliminating those ineligible for it are identified. This could even happen with LPG, but the real challenge is to try this out in politically more sensitive areas like kerosene, food and fertiliser subsidies. That may take a couple of years, and so the savings in 2015-16 may just be a small drop. But it has to be done.
#7: If costs can’t be cut fast, the next challenge is to get more tax and non-tax revenues. Jaitley has promised to implement the goods and services tax from 1 April 2016-17, which means any revenue gains will not happen next year as states and centre haggle over what goes into GST and what will be kept out. Even then, revenue growth may be tepid in the first year as the economy adjusts to the new tax. First year glitches in implementation and heartburn cannot be ruled out.
A second option is to get more out of existing investments in the public sector. In 2013-14, P Chidambaram extracted more dividends out of Coal India, but this process cannot be done endlessly. At some point Coal India, or other public sector companies like ONGC and Indian Oil, have to start investing, which means they have to retain more of their profits. The only way to get more out of them is by making them more efficient. It can’t be done in one year, but 2015-16 should at least attempt it.
#8: Tackling rural distress is another challenge. Thanks to slow growth over the last two years and the resultant slowdown in government spending, rural incomes are under pressure and wage growth has been very weak of late. This social problem cannot be ignored by any government as half the country depends on agriculture. With global food prices weakening, raising minimum support prices by large amounts is also not an option – especially in the context of the need to cut down the fiscal deficit.
This is where public spending on infrastructure comes in. If government addresses the challenge of raising more resources for public investment successfully, it will automatically be able to put more money in rural hands, and relieve rural distress.
#9: Generating confidence in the middle class is also important. While business investment spending has been weak, consumers too have been holding back. For example, the Index of Industrial Production showed drops of 35.2 percent and 14.5 percent in consumer durables spending in October and November 2014 – the latest months for which data were available at the time of writing. Putting money in the hands of the urban and semi-urban middle classes, including the lower middle classes, is important. The only way to do it is to cut income-tax rates. And this has to be managed without losing too much by way of revenue. Tough.
#10: Direct tax reforms must be pushed through. Implementing a simple and efficient direct taxes code, with higher exemptions for savings, and fewer exemptions for businesses, combined with a less adversarial tax regime, is overdue. Part of the code needs legislation through the financial bill, but more of it needs administrative empowerment and transparency in dealing with assesses. The government’s recent decision to not challenge a high court judgment in the Vodafone transfer pricing case is a good example of an effort to reduce tax terrorism. Advance agreements on such vexatious issues are another idea whose time has come. If business tax loopholes are reduced, then the minimum alternate tax can either be reduced of abolished in stages. Right now, tax concessions given with one hand are taken away partially through MAT. Not a rational state of affairs.
Jaitley has his plate of challenges full for one day. The rest he can handle in the 364 days after the budget is presented.
(A slightly different version of this article was first published in Forbes India 6)
Suresh Prabhu: We are preparing 5 year cooperate safety plan which will be ready by June 2015
12:56 PM
Prabhu: Construction of long loop lines will be expedited
12:56 PM
Safety is of paramount importance. Loss of human life is too heavy a price to pay
– Suresh Prabhu, Railway Minister
12:55 PM
Railways to engage private agencies in cleanliness drive. Waste-to-energy conversion plants to be set up. AtoZ Infra Engineering rallies 10.35% and Sintex Industries gains 3.49%
12:55 PM
Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu announces Delhi-Kolkata, Delhi-Mumbai overnight journey trains
12:55 PM
All India 24-7 helpline number will become operational: Suresh Prabhu
12:54 PM
Transformation of Railways offers great opportunity for Make In India initiative, says Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu
12:54 PM
9 hi-speed corridors, high speed trains to be introduced: Prabhu
Railways to introduce train sets saving 20% journey time within next 2 years: Prabhu
12:47 PM
Meghalaya has been included in the Railway map of India: Suresh Prabhu
12:46 PM
Rail minister cracks ‘Prabhu’ joke in Lok Sabha
12:46 PM
Stations to be redeveloped through simpler processes, monitoring cell to be constituted: Prabhu
12:46 PM
Railways to initiate SMS alert service to inform arrival &departure timings. To integrate banking system with our multilingual web portal: CMC declines 1% to day’s low of Rs 1,985.
12:45 PM
Railways to introduce satellite railway terminals in major cities, 10 select stations: Prabhu
Railways allots 67% more funds for passenger amenities
12:41 PM
Railways plan to augment women passenger security via Nirbhaya Fund. Surveillance cameras on select mainline and ladies compartments will be installed. Zicom Electronic Securituty gains 7.11%.
12:40 PM
Prabhu: Station redevelopment of select stations to be processed through simpler processors for faster redevelopment
12:40 PM
12:40 PM
We will be increasing number of general coaches in identified trains for benefit of common man
– Suresh Prabhu, Railway Minister
12:40 PM
Prabhu: Passengers can select own food while booking tickets, experiment launched in 108 trains
12:40 PM
Rail cleaning will be outsourced, newly-manufactured coaches will be braille enabled to ease travelling for the blind: Suresh Prabhu
12:38 PM
Online booking of wheelchairs for senior citizen, patients and differently-abled people will be made available
Prabhu: Railways may substantially regain freight market share
12:27 PM
Railways plan to raise annual freight capacity to 1.5 billion tonne from 1.0 billion tonne. Container Corporation of India is up 1.05% and Gateway Distriparks down 0.78%.
12:27 PM
Prabhu: No increase in Rail fares
12:26 PM
Prabhu: Railways has to keep tighter control on costs
12:26 PM
Rail Budget 2015: Investment in railways will create more jobs, says Prabhu
12:26 PM
Not to hike passenger fares
– Suresh Prabhu
12:26 PM
Prabhu: To invest Rs 8.5 lakh crores over 5 years in Railways
12:26 PM
Suresh Prabhu: I won’t be increasing the passenger fares
12:26 PM
To invest Rs 8.5 lk crores over 5 years in Railways: Suresh Prabhu
12:25 PM
It is important to harness the talent of our rail employees through training and development
– Suresh Prabhu, Railway Minister
12:25 PM
Prabhu: Indian Railways will continue to serve common man, people of India will own Railways
12:24 PM
Prabhu: Operating ratio proposed at 88.5%. Best ever in 9 years
12:24 PM
Transforming Railways will require us to partner with key stakeholders. We will work close with the states: Suresh Prabhu
12:24 PM
Prabhu: Railways has set four goals. Goal 1-Customer experience to receive a huge boost, Goal 2 – Safer Travel Goal 3 -Modernize infrastructure; Goal 4- Financially self-sustainable
12:23 PM
Suresh Prabhu: Railways will continue to be a national asset. People of India will always own the railways
12:22 PM
12:22 PM
I am convinced we can deliver. We have fixed goals for ourselves
Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat. India got off to an assured start with Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan refraining from playing their exuberant game. However, just when it seemed the opening partnership had steadied the shop for India, Rohit Sharma got out playing an ill-timed pull shot. ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 Schedule in IST: Time Table, Fixture & Venue Details of all WC 2015 Matches.
Virat Kohli added two good partnerships to steady India’s innings and give them a good platform to launch in the last few overs. First he put on 126 runs with Shikhar Dhawan for the second wicket and then added a half-century stand with Suresh Raina. Both Suresh Raina and Shikhar Dhawan scored a half-century each. Meanwhile, Virat Kohli went on to record his 22nd One-Day International (ODI) ton. He was dropped twice on way to the landmark ton, which also happens to be the first one by an Indian batsman against Pakistan in a World Cup.
Pakistan were looking well set in their chase of 301 eventhough they lost the early wicket of Younis Khan. Haris Sohail and Ahmed Shehzad consolidated the innings with a half-century second wicket stand. However, Pakistan lost the way from thereon. They lost four wickets in quick succession following the drinks break. Umesh Yadav struck twice in the 24th over. Misbahul-Haq scored a good half-century even as wickets continued to tumble from the other end for Pakistan. Eventually, India won the match comfortably.
India Playing XI: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk/c), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav
Pakistan Playing XI: Ahmed Shehzad, Younis Khan, Haris Sohail, Misbah-ul-Haq(c), Sohaib Maqsood, Umar Akmal(w), Shahid Afridi, Wahab Riaz, Yasir Shah, Sohail Khan, Mohammad Irfan
Now, India head to Melbourne to play South Africa on February 22. Pakistan will fly out to New Zealand to face Jason Holder’s West Indies on February 21 at Christchurch.
Brief scores: India 300 for 7 in 50 overs (Shikhar Dhawan 73, Virat Kohli 107, Suresh Raina 74; Sohail Khan 5 for 55) beat Pakistan 224 in 47 overs (Ahmed Shehzad 47, Haris Sohail 36, Misbah-ul-Haq 76; Mohammed Shami 4 for 35 for ,Mohit Sharma 2 for 35) by 76 runs.
Arvind Kejriwal had asked Delhi for a majority. It has given him an assembly with virtually no opposition. The Aam Aadmi Party has redefined the words absolute majority, now leading in 67 of Delhi’s 70 seats.
The 46-year-old Mr Kejriwal will take oath as Delhi’s Chief Minister at the Ramlila grounds on February 14. It was on February 14 last year that he had resigned after 49 tumultuous days as Delhi chief minister.
The BJP has registered a nightmare result. It is leading in only three seats now; its chief ministerial candidate Kiran Bedi has lost from a BJP safe seat. Nine months ago, the party had swept the capital’s seven Lok Sabha seats and was the single largest party in assembly elections held in December 2013 with 31 seats.
Mr Kejriwal, 46, was showered with flower petals as he stepped out to speak to the packed crowds outside his party office a little before noon. By his side his wife, Sunita, made a rare appearance.
“We will always walk the path of truth,” Mr Kejriwal said, to loud cheers, adding, “It is very scary, the kind of support the people of Delhi have given us.”
A whopping 53 per cent share of the vote has powered the AAP avalanche. The BJP’s vote share is almost unchanged from last time at 33 per cent
As the Congress was reduced to zero seats in Delhi, Ajay Maken, who led the party’s disastrous campaign, resigned as its general secretary.
“I believe I should take responsibility and therefore resign. I was face of the Congress campaign and haven’t been able to win the seat which I contested in as well,” Mr Maken told reporters, owning responsibility for his party’s decimation in Delhi, which has ruled for 15 straight years.
“This result has nothing to do with party leadership,” he added.
Mr Maken and all other 69 candidates of the Congress were defeated in the election.
Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi both congratulated Arvind Kejriwal for his Aam Aadmi Party’s landslide win.
In 2013, the Congress won eight of 70 seats, placing a distant third after the BJP and AAP. It was a massive jolt to the party as well as its chief campaigner Sheila Dikshit, a three-time chief minister.
This time, the Congress has performed far worse than was widely expected. Surveys had predicted that it would stay in single digits but no one had gone below two seats.
The scale of defeat is especially humiliating for Mr Maken, who does not share the best of ties with Sheila Dikshit.
For the Congress, yet another defeat meant a reenactment of familiar scenes outside the Congress headquarters – a group of workers clamouring for Sonia Gandhi’s daughter Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and shouting slogans of “Priyanka lao, Congress bachao!”
Insulating Rahul Gandhi from any blame, Mr Maken said the Delhi election was fought on local issues.
Some party leaders called for deep introspection and a relook into the party’s ideological construct.
Former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Omar Abdullah tweeted, “If there is lesson for the #Congress in this it is that Modi & BJP aren’t unbeatable if you take the fight to them, don’t wait for mistakes.”
Nothing sells like politics mixed with satire, the creators say.
Some words of politicians become catchphrases, others their albatross. Either way, they end up getting imprinted on the public mind. All these ingredients come together in the minimalist posters. Here is a look at them:
1) Breaking protocol, Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomed US President Barack Obama and wife Michelle at the airport.
2) US President Barack Obama scatters rose petals at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial at Rajghat in New Delhi
3) Signs of times to come for Indo-US ties? US President waters a sapling at Raj Ghat.
4) The note in visitor’s book, left by US President Barack Obama on his visit to Rajghat, New Delhi, as a part of his 3-day trip to India
5)Wing Commander Pooja Thakur stole the show at the presidential guard of honour as she led the ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan
6) In India, do as Indians do, is the adage US President Barack Obama seems to be following. He does the namaste to President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Rashtrapati Bhavan
7) Prime Minister Narendra Modi plays the gracious host, as he prepares a cup of tea for US President Barack Obama at the Hyderabad House.
8) Joint Address by both the country heads
9) President Pranab Mukherjee and US President Barack Obama during their meeting at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday.
10) Convoy of US president Barack Obama arrives at Rajpath to attend the 108 minutes of Republic day function during rain in New Delhi
11) President Parnab Mukherjee, President of the United States Barack Obama with wife Michelle Obama and PM Narendra Modi at the Republic Day.
12) A spectator displays a placard that reads “We Love Obama” during the 66th Republic Day parade at Rajpath.
13) U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama with Kailash Satyarthi at the Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi.
15) The crowd cheers as President Obama quotes from Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge – “Senorita, bade bade desho mein….. you know what I mean.”
15)
As for the rainy day yesterday, as you yourself said @WhiteHouse today morning, Bade Bade Deshon Mein… 🙂
Only With Modi. In his toast during a state dinner on Sunday in New Delhi, President Barack Obama gave an insight into his visit with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“I have often said that my life story could only happen in America, but, of course, prime minister, your story could only happen in India,” Mr. Obama said.
Here are some things we’d like to suggest could only happen during a visit to Mr. Modi.
He’ll Wear His Name on His Sleeve
Mr. Modi wore a pinstripe suit Sunday during talks with Mr. Obama.
Look very closely. The words “Narendra Damodardas Modi” were embroidered into the suit to make those stripes. No kidding
He’ll Out Sleep-Deprive You
As one of the world’s most-powerful men, Mr. Obama is probably used to winning the “I’m-more-sleep-deprived- than-you” game. Not this time.
“He was explaining to me today how he only needed three hours’ sleep, which made me feel bad; I thought I was doing okay with five,” Mr. Obama said
He’ll Tell You About His Fight With a Crocodile
“What I didn’t know until now is that he once survived an attack by a crocodile,” Mr. Obama said of Mr. Modi during his toast.
We’re not sure how this came up in conversation. They were supposed to be hammering out a civil-nuclear deal.
Up to now, this crocodile tale was the stuff of Narendra Modi comic book legend.
Other stories include the day a young Narendra in high school, climbed a tree to free a bird caught in a kite string. In the book, the bird was “thankful” and looked lovingly into Mr. Modi’s eyes before flying off.
He’ll Put Himself on the Menu
The menu for the lunch hosted for Mr. Obama on Sunday had Mr. Modi written all over it.
For starters: Nadru Ke Goolar, a spicy kebab made with lotus stem. The lotus, India’s national flower, is also the symbol of Mr. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
For the main: Buttermilk-laced Gujarati Kadhi from Mr. Modi’s home state, Gujarat.
And, for desert, Gajar Ka Halwa, or sweet-carrot pudding — in orange, the color of the BJP
This is something Mr. Obama almost acknowledged himself.
“And he also has style,” said Mr. Obama on Sunday of Mr. Modi. “One of our newspapers back home wrote, ‘Move aside, Michelle Obama. The world has a new fashion icon,’” he continued.
Mr. Modi met the U.S. President and the First Lady at the airport Sunday morning wearing a striking saffron-colored scarf with a paisley pattern. His fashion statement pulled focus even from Michelle Obama’s printed dress and coat ensemble from Bibhu Mohapatra’s spring collection.
In a poll of India Real Time readers, 85% of those who voted said Mr. Modi dressed best.
My Cup Of Chai 