'In the name of pluralism-secularism, the kind of politics that was pursued revealed to many that it was basically a favour to Muslim conservatism and communalism -- a politics of minority-ism, rather than of secularism.' 'This is how significant sections of Hindus have been made to loathe the very idea of Indian secularism by now,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
One needs to carefully tread the thin but solid line between the sublime & the ridiculous.
'In the final analysis, all Budgets everywhere are like the schemes hatched by A A Milne's lovable Winnie-the-Pooh.' 'They may be well-intended, but often go awry.' 'Although Pooh and his friends agree that he 'has very little brain', he is occasionally acknowledged to have a clever idea, usually driven by common sense.' 'This Budget at a first glance does not appear to belong to that latter category,' says economist Shreekant Sambrani.
The Unnao gold hunt is an exercise in softening Hindu sentiments in the bigger dig for votes in Uttar Pradesh in 2014
Instead of a consumption stimulus the government must address the NPA issue with a war footing and invest in infrastructure, affordable housing and exports, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
The YES Bank family tussle puts focus on RBI guidelines on appointment of directors.
The Information Technology Act needs another tweak to allow a different kind of information intermediary to flourish, says Ajit Balakrishnan.
Narendra Modi's meeting with J Jayalalithaa in Chennai has set the rumour mills abuzz. Will the Tamil Nadu chief minister ally with the BJP ahead of the 2016 polls, asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
'If you prove that a mandir was demolished and a mosque was constructed there, we will leave the place.'
'If there is any industry that is unfit for modern corporate form it is the diamond trade.' 'But no one was asking the right questions.' 'The music was playing and so the game was on,' says S Murlidharan, former MD, BNP Paribas.
Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his "blatant U-turn" on the issue of transparency.
With tiger stripes and India in its logo, Gautom Menon wants the world to drink Indian.
The city is becoming more democratic as the past embraces the future says Rahul Jacob.
Rahul is fascinated by history and ancient texts
Germany, as the locomotive of Europe, has much to teach India in manufacturing and process management, says Rajeev Srinivasan.
Experts tell you where to find the finest crusts with the most savoury toppings in these Indian cities
It is a film worth watching and recommending and loving, like a novel you can't wait to lend to friends you care about.
'There were days when there was no rice at home and we ate only jackfruit seeds.' 'They feel I, a lowliest human being, a tribal, have no right to go abroad and study.' 'The humiliation was so bad that I was broken inside.'
Cooperatives which earlier found it difficult to sell their wares have now found an online market via several e-commerce websites.
'Over the next 10 years we expect more than 100,000 new start ups to come up and create more than $500 billion in value and 3.5 million to be employed in these start ups.' 'And these are the start ups that will be solving India's problems.'
Entertainment has become a huge aspect of weddings.
Starting as a maker of hydraulic pumps, the Bengaluru-based company graduated to components for automakers like BMW and Audi, and then Airbus and Boeing
Currently a ton of cocoa costs about $1,845 (1,500) at the exchange, $25,610 (20,821) at big chocolate producers like Barry Callebaut and $32,082 (26,083) in the shop.
A combative Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday mounted a blistering attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, accusing him of running a government "of some people, by one person for a select few" and said he has not much to showcase even as the government completes one year.
'Rahul Gandhi accuses the Modi government of being in thrall to corporate fat cats at the expense of farmers and other common folk. But the facts do not bear out this argument, as Indian farmers are relatively better off compared to the really wretched of the earth, the unfortunate landless, often itinerant, labourer. And since Rahul's ancestors are the ones who failed them, it is a little disingenuous of him to ignore them in his rhetorical flourishes,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
At ATMs, as a step to avoid getting Rs 2,000 notes, people are withdrawing Rs 1,900 in Rs 100 notes and then putting another request for the balance Rs 600, so that they remain within the limit of Rs 2,500 per day of withdrawal.
The illegal trade in red sanders wood, which sells for up to Rs 80 lakh a tonne in some Asian countries, involves a complex nexus of smugglers and impoverished woodcutters.
'India today has to fight many a battle, all of which cry out for innovation. This is where the experience of the Diaspora could be the most productive well-spring.'
People from all over Maharashtra come to watch the Shivgarjana dhol-tasha band in action. Paloma Sharma/Rediff.com find out why.
It is a dark legacy bequeathed by Nehru to India. In its DNA lies the subconscious fount of India's schizophrenic geopolitics that forsook in one sweep all its historically-entrenched strategic interests in Tibet in favour of China, says R N Ravi, on the 60th anniversary of the Panchsheel Agreement.
Global retail behemoths seem to have read the signals right.
With fake products and machine-made mirrors making its way into the market, an age-old art form is under threat.
'In the newsroom, the thought process is about understanding the story and trying to look beyond the obvious. The fiction-writing process is similar in many ways but more internal.'
Shalini Krishnan discovers the amazing talent and creativity of tribal children in Odisha.
'I wondered what mistakes I made in my life to be a businessman. Deep down, I still have doubts about it.' Shobha Warrier meets the amazing Dilip Kapur who built a Rs 160 crore business with just Rs 25,000.
'I've seen the craze for English education even among the poorest. But that is only for their sons. Parents feel thrilled when they see their sons going to school wearing a tie. They don't mind paying for their sons' private tuitions too.' 'But daughters are sent to municipal schools, madarsas, small schools where teachers with no teaching skills are paid Rs 2,000 or Rs 4,000. That's why more girls come to my class.' Syed Feroze Ashraf, who has sent 500-odd girls (and a few boys) -- all first generation learners, children of grave-diggers, hawkers, rickshaw-drivers, tailors and watchmen -- to college, speaks to Jyoti Punwani. A Rediff.com Special.
'The Left's decline is now a reality, both nationally and in West Bengal.'Behind it lie: Ideological rigidity and confusion, outdated party programmes... a socially conservative upper-caste leadership,' says Praful Bidwai.
The new ordinance on land acquisition will allow land grabbers to deprive millions, destroy agriculture, horticulture, rivers, forests, tree cover and mangroves to extract minerals as well as ground water, without replenishment at a pace that will not leave anything for the next generation, warns activist Medha Patkar.
On Hrishikesh Mukherjee's 91st birth anniversary on September 30, we bring back excerpts from a Rediff interview with the brilliant filmmaker, just after the release of his last film, Jhoot Bole Kauwa Kate.
