'I am sure our DRDO will surely be on the job towards building similar capability to counter the threat posed by this Chinese helicopter,' observes Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd).
'The simultaneous fire from so many guns rained down on the enemy and pulverised them, a sight I can never forget till my last breath.'
Kane Williamson rode his luck to reach his 21st Test century
The rather drab 87th Academy awards wasn't without its share of high points.
Through the past 18-month period, peace has prevailed in the disputed border regions, which was immensely helpful in the difficult situation that the country was passing through, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Bhangra Paa Le has a fairly ambitious if unoriginal premise let down by staid vision, spiritless writing, middling choreography and music, feels Sukanya Verma.
A confrontation with the Taliban in Kabul in this fading light of a twilight zone would have been sheer madness, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Fighting the coronavirus pandemic is hard, in fact it seems impossible. Doctors, nurses, carers and paramedics around the world are facing an unprecedented workload in overstretched health facilities, and with no end in sight. They are working in stressful and frightening work environments, not just because the virus is little understood, but because in most settings they are under-protected, overworked and themselves vulnerable to infection. The risk to doctors, nurses and others on the front lines has become plain: Italy has seen at least 18 doctors with coronavirus die. Spain reported that more than 3,900 health care workers have become infected. In dire times such as these, people are trying their best to show their appreciation to the frontline workers. Here are some images -- from clapping for them to singing for them.. A 'thank you' in any way goes a long way around.
'Keeping its financial interests in mind, China wants no enmity with the Nepalese government.'
'Surprised by the absence of any sloganeering or even mild protest in an ambience so free and self-regulated, I asked a friend from Delhi whether he too, with sharp political antenna, was surprised at how smooth and easy going everything was,' notes Ambassador B S Prakash.
'It must be rendering Modi, Amit Shah and Adityanath speechless that the Indian diplomat who lifted the Azhar trophy at the UN in New York is also a Muslim. 'Yes, this is the wonder that was India,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The crash between a Kazakhstan Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 and a Saudia Boeing 747 over Charkhi Dadri in Haryana occurred 24 years ago.' During the lockdown, journalist Bhavya Dore reported on it from her home. Her article found a proud mention in the Bloomsburg Jealousy List 2020.
The contrived controversy over the so-called blockade of the India-Nepal border has obscured the perilous path on which the current ruling elite in Nepal are taking the country towards.
This is one of those crises where it does not only matter that you do something, but how you do it, suggests Mihir S Sharma.
''Even without major reforms, with a business as usual scenario, and with current inflation trends, we should be clocking around 11 to 12 per cent nominal growth.' 'That is not happening and is a source of worry,' Rathin Roy tells Arup Roychoudhury.
If Irrfan could have been our finest professor of empirical philosophy, and Nawaz is our foremost poet of that space halfway between the gutter and the stars, then Jaideep Ahlawat has to be our greatest artist-scientist, asserts Sreehari Nair.
These stunning pictures show the reality of life for a serving soldier in the British Army. From displaying true grit on the frontline, to the impressive sight of an Apache soaring out of a raging fireball, to troops simply enjoying some downtime, they offer a glimpse into what troops face daily. The pictures in the annual Army Photographic Competition have been taken by amateur and professional soldier cameramen.
On the sweeping plains at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro, a group of female wildlife rangers is making history by defying patriarchal norms.
Here are some of the best photos from around the world in the month gone by...
The Light Combat Helicopter will enable the army to provide fire support to soldiers at altitudes of 15,000 to 20,000 feet, where the oxygen-depleted air prevents them from carrying weaponry heavier than their personal rifles and light machine guns.
The Travel Photographer of The Year Awards winners have been chosen and they're a stunning selection celebrating the beauty of our planet and all its inhabitants. Photographers from 142 countries submitted over 20,000 jaw-dropping pictures that were shot on everything from high-end professional cameras to mobile phones, in categories including 'faces, people, cultures'; the natural world and the beauty of light. The winning images can be seen at the TPOTY exhibition, which is free, and will be on show at LondonBridgeCity next Spring. Rediff.com was kindly granted permission to publish 25 of the 150 winning and shortlisted images. Scroll down to see our picks of the bunch.
'The logical step is to challenge the very legitimacy of the Chinese claim over Tibet,' recommends Inspector General Gurdip Singh Uban (retd).
National Geographic's Travel Photo Contest is open for entries and has already attracted incredible snaps from across the globe. Week 2 of the contest include images of a newborn lion being carried to safety in the jaws of its mother, a daredevil slackliner in the USA, and a penguin being chased by a fur seal. The international competition runs from 18 March to 3 May, with budding photographers able to enter their work in one of three categories: nature, cities and people.
The views are stunning, the skies are blue, the forests are lush and, wonder of wonders, thanks to the discipline of the tea estate, even man isn't vile, discover Renu Bahal Wadhwa and T C A Srinivasa Raghavan after a trip to Kerala's breathtakingly beautiful hill retreat.
The ravines, which are sharp, steep mud hillocks, stretch over three states - Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh, once home to several dreaded dacoits have long been the subject of several projects and government schemes to make them agriculturally viable.
'It is pure luck that we did not have any body bags, otherwise things could have been nasty.'
The impending default on the IMF loans leaves Greece sliding towards an exit from the euro.
Delhi finds itself between the rock and hard place in the coming Sri Lankan election, points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'340 PLA soldiers were dead and over 450 injured -- bodies were strewn outside the bunkers, tossed behind the lines, buried in trenches.' A fascinating excerpt from Probal DasGupta's Watershed 1967: India's Forgotten Victory Over China.
The Battle of Pratapgad can be termed the turning point in Indian history as it interrupted the continuous chain of Muslim successes on the battlefield.
'The deepening of China-Nepal relations need not cause heartburn in India,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The movie seeks to strike a long-awaited conversation. A story that the screen should have told long ago.' 'It is an attempt to cure that epidemic of social media opinion and provoke us to leave our rhetorical positions for once and see the issue purely as a great tragedy which happened for more reasons than we give to ourselves,' says Utkarsh Mishra.
His approach to the game was a complete dichotomy to his background, a rich kid, who had a fleet of chauffeur-driven cars waiting for him to be taken to practice.
'What struck me was how content the hermit seemed in his little cave, not at all self-conscious in proclaiming that it was the grace of Shiva that had brought him to Tapovan and it was Shiva who would look after him.'
Although floaters alone are harmless, the changes they bring inside the eye can be potentially damaging, says Dr Rajeev Jain.
'It is to be fervently hoped that a person as rational and brilliant as Hamid Ansari will not be allowed to wilt and simply wither away.'
This is to take head on big American pharmaceutical giants, which in the recent past had launched a strong anti-India campaign against efforts of such companies to provide affordable health care not only to people in India, but also in the third world countries.
Most investment costs are bundled in with the financial product, and are often hidden in fine print, warns Erik Hon.
In a premise begging for food porn, there's a shocking scarcity of sensory pleasure or vision. You'll see more gastronomic delights in the two-minute trailer of the original Chef than in this entire movie, feels Sukanya Verma.
The prayer, Sarvejana Sukhinobhavantu, or let the whole universe of living beings be well, helps. So do profound and relevant Ancient Wise Words and aphorisms: Vasudaiva Kutumbakam, or the whole world is one big family, interconnected, interdependent. And a sense of humour, jokes, pranks, writing, conversations. And, last but definitely not least, the rippling waves of inner realisation on the background mind-track -- about the insignificance of ego, the importance of humility, the wasted opportunities in life, the wrong moves, the strokes of luck, the past 'sins', the what-ifs.
