The honeymoon for new Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be over.  For three months, April though June 2014, Industrial Production in India averaged almost 4.0% real growth year-over-year.  The number for July has fallen to 0.5%.  The three consecutive months with y-o-y growth 3.4% or higher was the first such period in nearly three years.

Rajesh Kumar Singh writes:  The optimism fanned by Modi’s rise to power has already brought inflows of nearly $14 billion of foreign funds into Indian equities this year as investors bet that his drive to cut red tape will revive stalled projects and underpin the economic recovery.

The 50-share Nifty has gained over 30 percent in U.S. dollar terms this year to become the best-performing equity index in Asia. Goldman Sachs upgraded its target for the index this week, citing optimism over future earnings of Indian firms.

To sustain this euphoria, economists say, Modi must overhaul India’s strained public finances, stringent land acquisition laws, chaotic tax regime and rigid labour rules.

During his first 100 days in office, the new prime minister showed little appetite for such structural changes, and there is concern that sharply higher growth in the last quarter could reduce their urgency.

That could be damaging for an economy that is still hobbled by slack consumption and weak business investment. Persistently high inflation and years of stagnant growth have forced consumers to cut discretionary spending.

Andy Müller-Maguhn, Laura Poitras, Marcel Rosenbach, Michael Sontheimer and Christian Grothoff reporting:  When it comes to choosing code names for their secret operations, American and British agents demonstrate a flare for creativity. Sometimes they borrow from Mother Nature, with monikers such as “Evil Olive” and “Egoistic Giraffe.” Other times, they would seem to take their guidance from Hollywood. A program called Treasure Map even has its own logo, a skull superimposed onto a compass, the eye holes glowing in demonic red, reminiscent of a movie poster for the popular “Pirates of the Caribbean” series, starring Johnny Depp.

Treasure Map is anything but harmless entertainment. Rather, it is the mandate for a massive raid on the digital world. It aims to map the Internet, and not just the large traffic channels, such as telecommunications cables. It also seeks to identify the devices across which our data flows, so-called routers.

Furthermore, every single end device that is connected to the Internet somewhere in the world — every smartphone, tablet and computer — is to be made visible. Such a map doesn’t just reveal one treasure. There are millions of them.

The breathtaking mission is described in a Treasure Map presentation from the documents of the former intelligence service employee Edward Snowden which SPIEGEL has seen. It instructs analysts to “map the entire Internet — Any device, anywhere, all the time.”  The NSA Breach of Telekom and Other German Firms

Pyotr Romanov writes:  Divorce among couples rarely ends without problems, and all the more so with divorce between states. Those splits inevitably involve political and economic hardships, mutual recriminations and a complex and painful division of property. And even once this nightmare is over, the very presence of the other party causes interminable irritation and anger.

The only example that I can recall of a civilized “state divorce” in Europe was the peaceful division of Czechoslovakia into two parts.

Divorce and separation remains a very real problem for Europe. Scotland’s agitation to leave the U.K., Catalonia’s attempts to escape the custody of Madrid and Novorossia’s bloody fight to break away from Ukraine are all ongoing issues.

And although each case is very different, they share one aspect in common: London, Madrid and Kiev are exerting great efforts to prevent those disunions. However, a strict interpretation of international law indicates that, in all three cases, those advocating separatism have every right to at least advocate their cause.

In 1945, the right to self-determination was included in the United Nations Charter. Then, in 1966, this right was enshrined in the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.  Still later, this right was confirmed in documents of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.

In theory, the people living in the area affected should resolve these disputes, without any outside interference. The UN Charter states that “all states shall, in accordance with the provisions of the UN Charter, encourage the right to self-determination, and shall respect that right.” The only problem is that nobody “respects” that right.

The UN Charter also contains the contradictory principle of “the inviolability of borders” because after World War II the leading powers wanted to ensure stability by any means. The second reason is that the clause on self-determination was introduced during the collapse of the colonial system when the authors had the African states in mind.

The underlying problem with the current world order is that it has long outworn its original set of clothing and just plods on wearing the same old, uncomfortable and increasingly tattered rags. A prime example of this is the fact that the victors in World War II continue to control the UN Security Council, a completely inappropriate situation given the wealth and power of the world’s developing nations.

If Kiev and Moscow had enough sense, it would avoid all this bloodshed by letting Novorossia go in whichever direction it wanted. Thus freed from that heavy burden, Kiev could finally pursue meaningful integration with Europe.  However, Madrid will continue desperately clinging to Barcelona, London to Scotland and both Kiev and Moscow to the Donbass.  If only someone would follow the example set by Vaclav Havel.

Standard & Poor’s upgraded its debt rating for Greece on Friday, up from B minus to B, with a stable outlook for the rating. S&P had an optimistic forecast on Greece’s economy, predicting a slow recovery in 2014 after seven years of continuous economic downturn.

“‘The outlook is stable, balancing our view of Greece’s progress in fiscal consolidation against its still-weak economic recovery and political resolve to continue with structural and institutional reforms,’ said S&P in a news release on Friday.”

Greece’s current long-term sovereign credit rating of B indicates “more vulnerable to adverse business, financial and economic conditions but currently has the capacity to meet financial commitments.”

Greece was one of the many countries involved in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. In 2010, Greece received a “junk” rating on its debt and subsequently became locked out of private capital markets. The country then received a bailout from the rest of Europe and the International Monetary Fund totalling 240 billion euros.

In a “poll of polls” conducted in autumn 2013, the average support for Yes was at 32%, with no at 49%. When accounting for undecided voters, this translated into to 39% for Yes, and 61% for No.

But in the most recent poll of polls, the difference has narrowed to four percentage points, with 48% polling Yes and 52% polling No. Early polls indicated a gender gap, with women more likely to be in favour of the union, but this gap appears to have closed in recent weeks.

For most of the campaign, polls suggested a strong lead for the No campaign – but that now appears to have narrowed significantly.

A poll published on September 7 by YouGov indicated that the Yes campaign had in fact pulled slightly ahead in the polls. A survey by pollster TNS BMRB, published late the next day, showed that both sides were polling at 41% for those definitely going to vote, with the rest of the electorate undecided.    Scottish Independence- A Beginner’s Guide