All roads lead to 2019

Government will possibly use the Budget to come up with a substantial plan for the rural economy, including a commitment to infrastructure

With a number of state elections scheduled this year and the big one in the first half of the next, 2018 will see much political activity, not to mention mudslinging, on the ground. To be sure, since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power in 2014, the sense that we are in perpetual election mode has not abated, but the feeling is likely to be heightened in 2018.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah can rightly claim credit for their recent victories in Gujarat and Himachal, even if the scale of the victory in the western