In the last few months there have been more than a few instances of sparring between the different state governments and the central government. So, if the Jaipur blasts became a bone of political contention about crucial intelligence reports, West Bengal becomes an election battleground where the allies at the Centre took pot shots at each other over the bungling of land acquisition for industrial purposes.

MANY HISTORIANS NOW CLAIM THAT LT IS AN APOCRYPHAL STORY, BUT the myth endures. Confronted with a shortage of bread among the peasantry over 200 years ago, French Queen Marie Antoinette reportedly said: "If they have no bread, then let them eat cake." Faced with global food shortages, modern day rulers cannot afford to be so callous and cavalier.

The economy is slowing down, foreign investors have turned wary, and there is an election to be won next year. So, will Finance Minister P. Chidambaram script Budget 2008 for votes or growth?
.SHALINIS. DAGAR

Investment gurus such as Jim Rogers saw it coming as early as 1999. Prices of agri-commodities are soaring in the face of sustained uptick in global demand and stagnating production. Notwithstanding the scorching economic growth in India, Indian agriculture is painfully ambling along at around 2 per cent due to decades of under-investment. That, however, is changing.