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China’s dominance over India in overseas oil has been on clear display, but there is reason to believe that the competitive landscape may be changing The race between China and India for global oil resources was over before it started. From Central Asia to Africa, China’s large and powerful national oil companies outmuscled their smaller Indian counterparts. But the recent plummet in international oil prices, from a peak of $115 per barrel in mid-June to below $70 in early December, presents a rare opportunity to India. If lower oil prices are sustained throughout next year, Indian national oil companies will find the cost of overseas mergers and acquisitions more affordable. They may also discover Chinese competition to be less severe. China’s oil giants have slowed down their international activity of late and become preoccupied with developments at home.

Since Independence, secularism is increasingly opposed to communalism, with the nation no longer central to its definition. Does this indicate the failure of the nation to demonstrate its plurality, and therefore secularism? One of the peculiarities of Indian political debate is that everyone claims to be secular while accusing others of not being so. Secularism’s hegemony as an idea was made clear by L.K. Advani, when he   coined the now famous term   “pseudo-secular” to describe his political enemies. But if secularism is so dominant

Carbon-dioxide emissions at all-time high in 2013   4.2 % rise in India’s discharge of the greenhouse gas: study Global carbon-dioxide emissions from burning of fossil fuels and production of cement reached a high of 35.3 billion tonnes in 2013, mainly due to the continuing steady increase in energy use in emerging economies such as India, a new report says.