Akal Takht head Gurbachan Singh's customary address on the occasion of Diwali drowned in the din on Wednesday amid slogan shouting by Sikh hardliners, even as parallely "appointed" jathedar of Akal Takht also managed to address the gathering but was arrested soon after.
While the Bharatiya Janata Party has gone out of its way to convert the upcoming Lok Sabha election as a contest between its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi and Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the Grand Old Party is pitching next month's polls as a battle of two opposing ideologies. Anita Katyal reports
With a population of more than 60 million, the delta region accounts for nearly 30 per cent of China's exports.
'The stage is set for increasing tensions in a highly volatile region as crucial as ever from a geopolitical standpoint,' predicts Claude Smadja.
Australian Daniel Ricciardo won the Belgian Grand Prix for Red Bull on Sunday while Mercedes title rivals Nico Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton provided the drama of the day by colliding on the second lap.
For a discipline that has given Indian athletes only the Olympian's tag, the country's track and field participants will begin their campaign in the Rio Olympics on Thursday, with little hope to break the 116-year-old medal jinx.
From the Syrian civil war to the Ukrainian crisis to the terror unleashed by the dreaded Islamic State, there was no lack of news in 2014. In this five-part series,rediff.com presents a selection of the year's most enduring moments year from around the world.
India has never had so many highly-ranked shuttlers.
How wonderful that this grand revival began in Kolkata, and under Clive Lloyd, the Windies' greatest captain, as the team manager, says V Gangadhar, a long-time fan of the West Indies team.
Indian Americans speak up about the daunting challenges on the 16th anniversary of the tragedy.
'There are major implications for India. Though there was a transparently thin attempt to project the troop reduction as intended to promote peace, the downsizing is actually part of plans to streamline and strengthen the PLA, capable of defending China's national interests at home and abroad,' says Jayadev Ranade.
Eighteen-year-old Aditi Ashok was the brightest star on the country's golfing circuit this year and was fittingly named the Ladies European Tour's Rookie of the Year for becoming the first Indian to win two back-to-back titles in her first year on the tour. Here is a look back at how India's golfers fared in 2016
China has relaxed its one-child policy and further freed up markets in order to put the world's second-largest economy on a more stable footing.
The Samajwadi Party government went overboard in deploying nearly 10,000 policemen to patrol the streets of Ayodhya to prevent the VHP from carrying out its 84-kosi parikrama, reports Sharat Pradhan
Pune, the city that made it to second spot in the Smart City Challenge competition earlier this year, is not new to the concept.
'In contrast to the generally buoyant tone of the Economic Survey in January, he sounds uncharacteristically pessimistic, saying that forces in the world economy -- slowing global trade, protectionism, robots -- will limit India's manufacturing to levels well below what propelled East Asia's economies decades ago.'
Indrani is clearly in charge in her little corner. She is speaking rapidly to a not-very-tall, pot-bellied, balding man, whom she repeatedly, decisively, asks, "Have you understood?" The tone is that of a boss talking to an employee. The words "cheque" and "two lakhs" float by.
'In Sanju, Rajkumar Hirani has essentially found a Rajkumar Hirani story buried inside Sanjay Dutt's life.' 'Now if you think that's scary, sample the alternative: Perhaps Sanjay Dutt had been living his life to suit the narrative of a Rajkumar Hirani film,' says Sreehari Nair.
'The creation of Pakistan was integral to Britain's grand strategy.' 'If they were to ever leave India, Britain's military planners had made it clear that they needed to retain a foothold in the NWFP and Baluchistan because that would provide the means to retain control of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar.'
'Unni swung up his MP5 and fired a burst across the atrium. The bullets hammered into the wall. Then he bounded up the stairs leading to the other set of doors opening into the Palm Lounge. It was a terribly risky move because he didn't have a buddy to cover him.'
2016 is difficult to predict, and this uncertainty will drive volatility in global markets.
Drysdale wins close single sculls gold Also, check out late gold medal winners from Day 7...
Forty years on, ironically, the managerial attention to new businesses has meant almost 40 per cent of revenues now come from the non-tobacco business.
Terming corruption as a "major stumbling block" in the country's progress, President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday asked the central vigilance commission to lead the way in cleansing the government.
'As in the Panchatantra tale of the cat and the monkeys, it is possible for the clever swing State to play off the two competing powers.'
Claude Arpi gives a fascinating firsthand account of the Dalai Lama's arrival in Tawang in March 1959 and explains why he will once again receive a grand welcome, whether Beijing likes it or not.
The Al-Qaeda and its patrons seems to have outsourced, for the time being, the achieving of that larger, civilisationally retrograde goal of establishing an Islamic Caliphate in the Middle-East, to the ISIS. The symptoms are all similar; the difference lies only in the expressions, says Dr Anirban Ganguly.
According to industry data, for two months, sale of the Zest (7,359 units) were higher than that of Amaze (6,792 units).
China's economy is worse than it really is, but then these are emblematic of the baffling self-congratulatory mood that exists in India today.
The Board rued that its efforts to resolve the concerns of the founders - who together own about 12.75 per cent stake in Infosys - over the course of a year through a dialogue have not been successful.
Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan welcomed the apex court's order and urged people to abide by the SC guidelines and 'give green Diwali and our environment a chance'
The ecosystems of India and China today jostle against one another across Asia and much of the world.
India needs to build its Grand Narrative, and its cultural power, which conquered all of ASEAN (then known as Indo-China), needs to be forcefully projected while simultaneously hard economic and military power are also emphasised, says Rajeev Srinivasan.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Sunday
'Peddlers isn't a movie of grand cinematic achievements, but one of small yet startlingly original victories.'
The opposition has attacked the Modi government over the National Democratic Alliance's last full-fledged budget before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Nearly two decades ago, then defence minister George Fernandes said: 'China has built roads up to the border, while there has been negligence on India's part.' Since Fernandes uttered these brave words, what has been done on the Indian side? The Modi Sarkar is apparently trying, but little has been achieved so far, says Claude Arpi.
'The surge of Saudi nationalism is the last thing Washington wants,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'In Angamaly Diaries, dreams, kinks, small corruptions, cheap lives, and hopes are all given their due and that attitude frees us up to believe that perhaps there is more good than bad in the sum total of us.' 'This is a coming-of-age tale taken straight out of a diary written in blood,' says Sreehari Nair.
A glance back at some of the important ups and down Indian Inc faced in 2018.
