Stephen Hawking, in his final book Brief Answers to the Big Questions, considered an asteroid collision to be the biggest threat to the planet. At this point, we are as well prepared as dinosaurs were when a 10-km wide asteroid hit the planet 65 million years ago, notes Kumar Abishek.
From the FIFA World Cup finals to the spot-fixing scandals that rocked Indian cricket, we pick the key sporting events on the 2014 calendar.
India has not only been decked in tricolour hues in the lead up to the 76th Independence Day celebrations, but also put under a heavy security blanket, right from Delhi, the epicentre of the mega celebrations, to Jammu and Kashmir.
Dean Elgar feels the SA batters got a 'window period' to go after the target in the 3rd Test following India's on-field outburst on the DRS call
The English Premier League resumed on Wednesday, after the forced break due to COVID-19. Here are IMAGES from the EPL matches played on Wednesday.
The speed at which he led the central bank in different areas -- ranging from internal reorganisation to inflation fighting, stabilising the currency, taking on rogue corporations, cleaning up bank balance sheets, and opening the sector -- makes one believe that Rajan knew he had only three years to do his job. A fascinating excerpt from Tamal Bandyopadhyay's MUST-READ Roller Coaster: An Affair with Banking.
Vidyut Jammwal's reality show is certainly worth a watch, observes Namrata Thakker.
The wild wander to the city in these times of the coronavirus.
Learning perhaps from the Kargil debacle, Musharraf tried hard to evolve as a statesman in his dealings with India, recalls Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at RA&W.
I thought Saudi Vellakka a glancing, loving depiction of the judicial system as a pageantry filled with performers trying to do right by everyone, do everything by the book, and failing despite their best attempts, observes Sreehari Nair.
In a bid to further deepen ties with India, Australia is looking forward to welcome Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he is expected to attend the G20 Summit in Brisbane.
Of the 2,562 customer complaints received between January 2020 and March 2021, a majority relate to illegal apps. At least two dozen suicide cases have been reported, perpetrated by the harassment by loan app operators, points out Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Local favourite Alize Cornet has backed up former world number one Victoria Azarenka's call for a review of the line call regulations at the French Open, labelling a decision against her on Sunday as "shameful".
The sources said the ongoing engagement and dialogue at military and diplomatic levels have resulted in complete disengagement of troops at patrolling point 14, 15 and 17 A in eastern Ladakh.
The International Cricket Council's Cricket Committee has recommended that the concept of umpire's call rule in the Decision Review System should stay, citing that the ball-tracking technology is not going to be 100 per cent correct.
But there are challenges, observes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Agnieszka Radwanska paid the ultimate price for following the orders of her coaching team rather than relying on her own instincts in the final game of her Wimbledon semi-final against Garbine Muguruza on Thursday.
The next 12 months will see many world cinema heavyweights unveiling exciting new films.
The keenly-awaited Mahindra Thar 2020 was finally unveiled on August 15, 2020. Here are the first images of one of the finest off-roaders!
Sources said India will not lower its guard and will maintain the current state of very high-level of combat readiness in eastern Ladakh till there are visible changes in the ground situation.
A furious David Nalbandian blasted the chair umpire for over-ruling a point and denying him a Hawk-eye challenge towards the end of his marathon 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6, 10-8 loss to American John Isner in the second round of the Australian Open on Wednesday.
The Bengaluru skies dazzled with somersaults and stunts by metal birds.
The road ahead will be long and winding and much resistance can be expected from the high-flying 'hawks' in our skies. But that should not deter the policymakers from planning a road map with the 'big picture' in mind, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
If New Delhi finds itself out in the cold in Afghanistan, both the Congress-led UPA and BJP-led NDA have only themselves to blame. Each has been in power for a full decade from 2001, without reaching out to the Taliban, points out Ajai Shukla.
A summary of Friday's play at Wimbledon.
The hardline Hurriyat Conference on Saturday rejected Centre's eight-point formula to de-escalate the current turmoil in Kashmir terming it as an "eye wash" even as other separatist outfits maintained a studied silence.
'If there is a background of some kind of mutual understanding on how the dialogue process might develop in a mutually satisfactory manner...' 'If this understanding impacts positively on the ground situation...' 'As of now this is a heroic assumption. But it does not have to remain such.'
With a combination of both physical and virtual exhibition, the 13th edition of the biennial international event at Air Force Station Yelahanka will be the world's first hybrid aerospace show.
The film to be produced under Daggubati's banner Suresh Productions, will see Vijay Sethupathi portray the role of Sri Lankan spin legend.
The navies of India, the US, Japan and Australia on Tuesday held a series of complex manoeuvres in the Bay of Bengal, kick-starting the four-day-long first phase of the Malabar naval exercise, seen as a prelude to future military cooperation among the member nations of the Quad or Quadrilateral Coalition.
The second phase of the mega exercise is scheduled to be held from November 17 to 20 in the Arabian sea.
'It needed political courage on the part of the prime minister to make such an intervention at the present juncture when the hawkish opinion rules the roost in the Indian foreign-policy discourses in our media, and, unfortunately, the sane voices have largely fallen silent,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The next phase of the de-escalation process will kick off only after the fourth round of talks between corps commanders of the two sides.
The Shiv Sena and the NCP suspect that either of them may walk into the waiting arms of the BJP. The Congress feels that the Sena and the NCP may eventually team up and marginalise it, reports Dhaval Kulkarni
Can you ever imagine seeing Shrinathji of Nathdwara in Rajasthan weaved to come alive in Jamdani? This sari is to mark the 2021 Handloom Day Special on August 7, masterfully crafted by acclaimed weaver, Lakshmana Rao Tammisetty from Andhra Pradesh, says Ranjani Govind.
In what could be termed as a marked departure from its earlier stance, the Board of Control for Cricket in India is seriously contemplating using Decision Review System (DRS) during India's upcoming home series against England.
'If anything, he is a fiscal hawk.' 'He has avoided fiscal profligacy completely for the past four years.' 'The fiscal deficits since 2014 are clear proof of this.' 'The point is not that it is not 3 per cent yet; it is that it is not 6, 7 or 8 per cent, which it could easily have been.' 'For this he needs to be congratulated.' 'He has recognised it no longer pays to spend other people's money to win elections,' points out T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
The exercise is taking place at a time India and China are locked in a nearly six-month-long bitter border standoff in eastern Ladakh that has significantly strained their ties.
Avoid high risk transactions even if they seem more profitable.
Mardaani 2 works best and better than its predecessor when it stays true to its slick catch-me-if-you-can potential, feels Sukanya Verma.
