Having witnessed good policies translating into rapid improvement in economic fortunes, the Indian electorate now returns to power leaders who deliver such change without getting mired in corruption scandals. Simultaneously, it does not hesitate to give a boot to leaders who fail to perform or perform but indulge in blatant corruption. Unsurprisingly, analysts who remain wedded to the old voting model which postulates that caste and community equations are the best guide to voter behavior repeatedly get their election forecasts wrong. The state that best illustrates the power of the outcome based model is Odessa. Its chief minister Naveen Patnaik founded Biju Janata Dal in 1997 and managed to win nine out of seats in the elections. He then led his party to victory in the Odessa assembly elections and was inaugurated as the chief minister of the state on March The frequency with which National Green Tribunal orders are being appealed in Supreme Court and high courts should prod GoI to a review. In a recent order critiqued for mechanical and pre drafted orders after a construction firm complained that it was heard before a hefty penalty of Rest core was imposed on it. The tribunal with exclusive jurisdiction over environmental protection and pollution control matters has arguably not lived up to its billing. Some months ago, another bench had frowned upon tendency to set up expert committees, noting that its adjudicatory functions cannot be delegated in this manner. After the first two decades of liberalisation tribunals have lost favor. In case it was expected to quickly settle a growing number of environment related matters pending at constitutional courts and tap into expertise on environmental law available in India. And given rampant ecological degradation and related localised grievances such an adjudicatory body staffed with judicial and technical experts having significant powers came with a lot of promise. Though a number of rulings have held the field, some of its big bang orders de. Protests in Karakalpakstan broke out over plans to revise the Uzbek constitution that would change the autonomous region status and curtail its right to secede. Those plans have now been put on hold. Interestingly there are parallels here with the situation in Ukraine and its separatist Donbas region. However despite Karakalpakstan close ties with Russia, Moscow has backed Tashkent saying the unrest was Uzbekistan internal matter. That said any unrest in the Central Asian Republics is problematic for the whole region. Islamist extremism here received a second wind with the conflict in Syria. And though regional governments have been largely successful in containing extremist groups, the latter could still take advantage of any social, economic or political turmoil. That would be bad news given Taliban return in Afghanistan. Security implications stretch all the way to South Asia.