From politics to fashion, the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party alliance remains intact. Prasanna D Zore reports
Yet to feel completely at home on the Wimbledon lawns, Stan Wawrinka became the latest player to jump on the super-coach bandwagon by joining forces with former All England Club champion Richard Krajicek this month. Krajicek knows a thing or two about playing at the heartland of grasscourt tennis as not only did he triumph in 1996, he was also the only man to have beaten seven-times champion Pete Sampras at Wimbledon between 1993 and 2000.
Taking a jibe over the reported row in Bharatiya Janata Party over a move to field Narendra Modi from Varanasi and Rajnath Singh from Lucknow, Congress on Monday wondered as to why Opposition party leaders were looking for a safe seat if there was a Modi wave across the country.
Seventy-one parliamentary constituencies spread across nine states voted in the fourth phase of Lok Sabha elections.
Kenyans convicted of doping offences will face at least three years in prison and heavy fines under a draft law to be submitted to parliament, the chairman of a government-backed anti-doping task force.
Where Binny slipped up badly was in gauging the level of transparency and governance that is expected by a global strategic investor, says Indrajit Gupta.
E-commerce websites are developing online content in Indian languages.
'Genuine mistakes can and must be forgiven,' argues Vivek Gumaste.
'Many of us hope that India will soon play well enough to be part of truly global sporting tournaments like the football World Cup and the Olympics,' says Aakar Patel.
Four Kansas residents who wrote letters to Barack Obama about their struggle and success in US's heartland were in for a surprise when they were taken out for a dinner by the President.
'The fabric of democracy is fraying,' says T V R Shenoy. 'It is being attacked not just by terrorists in Kashmir or by zealots in the North-East, but is being ripped apart even in Allahabad, in the Hindi heartland.'
Desolate streets with security personnel and a communications lockdown has left the Valley cut off from the world.
'Pakistan has no strategic depth and is vulnerable to Indian military power without even crossing the border,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Here's all you need to know about the man who could be India's next president.
The results are a ringing endorsement of Modi's popularity, his government's achievements in the last five years and his campaign, which centred around national security, nationalism and Hindutva.
'If Mr Modi continues growing as a Hindu Hriday Samrat, better that it is done by restoring ancient temples than demolishing medieval mosques,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Is Stalin positioning himself as a central figure in the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party, anti-Narendra Modi formation?
'If Mr Modi and Mr Shah have made a poisonous, polarising campaign their brahmastra for 2019, Mamata Banerjee is showing them its limitations,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'They are innovating and a new Dalit leadership could be seen at the horizon'
The new rail and road cargo service launched on Friday, linking Guangdong, Tibet and Nepal, aims to boost trade with the South Asian neighbour as China pushes forward its Belt and Road (Silk Road) initiative, state-run Xinhua news agency reported on Saturday.
Nico Rosberg will have Formula One history in his sights in Spain this weekend, even if Dutch teenager Max Verstappen seizes his share of the limelight. The championship leader has won seven races in a row, including the last three of 2015, and can join fellow-German Michael Schumacher (2004) and Britain's Nigel Mansell (1992) as the only drivers to start a season with five successive victories. The chances of that happening looked remote this time last year, when Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton had won three of the first four and was heading for a third title, but Rosberg is now 43 points clear of the Briton. As 18-year-old Verstappen would agree, after his rapid promotion from Toro Rosso in a swap with demoted Russian Daniil Kvyat, Formula One moves fast off the track as well as on it. "I'm just enjoying the moment and the form I'm in, doing my best to keep it going and hoping I can carry it through to the end of the season," said Rosberg, 11/10 at bookmakers' William Hill with Hamilton at 5/4.
'Let me stick my neck out and say that Tamil Nadu will keep alive its reputation for landslide election verdicts, with the DMK front winning at least 30 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats going to the polls in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Modi isn't going to voters on his track record but on the fear of the terrorist across the border and the Muslims within. It's a battle on his terms, says Shekhar Gupta.
'As India and Pakistan observe the 50th anniversary of the 1965 war, the one lesson that ought to have been learned by Pakistan is how vulnerable its heartland is to a sudden attack. The only alternative to this inherent geographic weakness is to have a policy of peace with India. In an extreme scenario, India can destroy Pakistani strategic targets by just artillery shelling, crossing of the border is not even necessary,' Colonel Anil A Athale (retd)
Formula One champions Mercedes can rack up their eighth successive victory on Sunday but even if they do, a winning streak must end for either Lewis Hamilton or Nico Rosberg in Bahrain. Rosberg is chasing his fifth win in a row after starting the season triumphantly in Australia to follow the three victories he racked up at the end of 2015. Hamilton, the triple world champion who finds himself behind his German team mate in the standings for the first time since 2014, is on for a hat-trick after winning in Bahrain for the past two years. The Briton is the favourite at a circuit that has yet to witness a Rosberg victory but Ferrari, who roared into the lead at the start in Melbourne with Sebastian Vettel followed by Kimi Raikkonen, also fancy their chances.
Kamal Nath argued that Modi had 'overexposed himself': By constantly pushing his own image on social media and on TV, attaching his name to multiple promises, Modi had become the face rivals could easily blame for India's chronic dysfunction.
Money will be earmarked for the social sector - especially rural districts that house three-fifths of voters
'If Rahul wants to pick up the sacred thread where his 'daadi' left it, especially when the BJP, which reduced his party to 44 in 2014, claims monopoly over Hinduism, it's smart politics.' 'Why cede your Gods to your rival?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
Gandhi, on the other hand, has also reached out directly to the party workers in the three states to know their top choice for the chief minister post through an internal mobile messaging app, party leaders said.
Shehla doesn't and has never shied away from talking the tough talk and walking the tough walk, says Gurmehar Kaur.
It is possibly the first time that a regional party with not even enough numbers to move a no-trust motion has taken the lead, and others are following it. The hints of a no-trust move first came from the YSR Congress, and the ruling TDP could not have stayed on together when the question is another version of 'Telugu atma gouravam' - an issue that fired its founder N T Rama Rao in the 1980s, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Everybody says 5G and communication is important.' 'Everybody says automation, robotics, human computing interfaces -- people and machines working together -- is the future.' 'Everybody agrees that cybersecurity is something that is here to stay.' 'Everybody agrees that synthetic biology is important.' 'Instead of outlining thinking about industries for tomorrow and the future, let the evolutionary pathway be built in a way that it promotes robust, creative, thinking.'
Modi accused the TMC of killing the aspirations of the middle-class people in the state and said the ruling party in West Bengal is known for 'triple T -- Trinamool Tolabaji Tax'.
India is mushrooming with Deve Gowda wannabes because being a former prime minister is better than being a former chief minister, says Shekhar Gupta.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sets off on Tuesday on a five-day tour of Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka that is expected to give traction to the country's Indian Ocean outreach during which he also visit a former war zone and Tamil heartland of Jaffna.
The resurgence that Congressmen feel is in fact more sentimental than substantive. The substantive reality is that the Congress is a party in terminal decline since 1989, says Shekhar Gupta.
'In India a strong leader with a majority has never yet been defeated by a challenger.' 'He (or she, as with Indira Gandhi in 1977) must defeat himself,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'Modi and Shah know their politics. That is why the alarmed switch to reservations, and raising the threat from 'vote bank' politics,' says Shekhar Gupta.
The names of several probables, including Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who had led the BJP government in the state in the past, were doing the rounds at the state party office.
'Offensive operations to capture objectives across the LoC to eliminate terrorist launch pads and deny the use of the most dangerous routes of infiltration, are likely to be limited to brigade-level attacks.' 'These limited operations are unlikely to escalate to war across the international boundary,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
