Narendra Modi's mother washed utensils to make a living. Madhusudan Mistry's grandmother, who brought him up, was a vegetable vendor. Mistry's trajectory from poverty to membership of the all powerful Congress Working Committee is moving. the man who has Rahul Gandhi's ear and is all set to take on Narendra Modi in Vadodara, speaks to Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt in a fascinating interview.
2.3 million people are opioid-dependent. 860,000 people are opioid users. 123,000 people are heroin-dependent.
Almost everyone in Gorakhpur has a story about an Adityanath intervention that helped push through a piece of work that would've been otherwise impossible.
The contentious Land bill passed the Lok Sabha test after the government carried out nine amendments.
'For years, a whispering campaign against the non-Nagas -- and occasional violence -- has dominated the local discourse, but Farid Khan's lynching was unprecedented in its ferocity.'
Vaihayasi Pande Daniel glances at the life and political career of Alexey Navalny who has been banned from challenging Vladimir Putin in Russia's presidential election.
'Some people petitioned the adhikari (government official) and a electricity pole was unloaded here, but because we were not here at that time, some people from a neighbouring village took it to their village instead.' As Bihar goes to the polls, Rediff.com looks at the state through the stories of its people.
Calling people of the northeastern region by "derogatory" names will soon become a non-bailable offence and land you in jail for up to five years.
Sujatha Singh stands for the right values and quite simply, she's a "good person" who understands complex economic issues thoroughly, say her friends.
T P Sreenivasan was India's high commissioner in Fiji in 1987, when Sitiveni Rabuka toppled the Indian-dominated government there. Ambassador Sreenivasan stayed on for two years after the coup, fighting for the rights of the people of Indian origin before he was expelled by Rabuka. 'Meeting Sitiveni Rabuka, who had overthrown a democratically elected government, discriminated against the Fiji Indians, brought untold humiliation and suffering to them, tried to disenfranchise them, ordered me out of Fiji and closed down the Indian high commission was a difficult decision to take even after 25 years,' notes Ambassador Sreenivasan who eventually caught up with Rabuka over a game of golf.
'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.'
30-year-old Krishnamurthy, founder, Honey Kart, quit his job as a technical programmer at Wipro, and borrowed money from friends to become a beekeeper. Today he is not only debt-free but also processes 500 kilograms of honey every month that sells for Rs 716 per kg.
'Success will require political skill, not just economic expertise'
A mother-daughter duo is working tirelessly to revive the art and empower rural artisans too.
Let Bihar be damned under its contradictions of having gone 'dry' and then having been submerged under flood, which is a recurrent phenomena? After all it is a godforsaken land, having lost its promises of overcoming its problems, says Mohammad Sajjad.
'The Constitution allows me the Right to Freedom of Speech and Religious Freedom. But this is not religion... this is spiritual discourse,' says IAS officer C Umashankar, who is being prosecuted in the Madras high court for hurting the feelings of Hindus.
Chillr recently raised $5 million from Seqouia Capital.
'I'm a fashion philanthropist, but people are wondering how she can still be doing a song in a bikini.' 'When a woman becomes a philanthropist, it is always expected that she must be like a Mother Teresa kind of a girl.' 'Why would I become like anyone else?'
'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.
It's crucial for Modi to make India an easier place to do business.
'Any new technology, either before or soon after its release, will face severe criticism by one or the other segment of society. It is only after seeing the benefits of new technology for themselves that our farmers accept it.' 'The arable land in India is not increasing and currently hovers at around 140, 145 million hectares.' 'Today, Indian agriculture has to work towards achieving nutritional security.'
'We have to find a way out of this confrontational politics.'
Months after the devastating flood ruined their life, the people of Poonch are today totally isolated. They feel they have been left unheard, once again.
About one-third of the world's poor live in India but there are countries where 88 per cent of population is extremely poor.
'Will the new government, largely of the BJP, whose manifesto proclaimed "India shall remain a natural home for persecuted Hindus and they shall be welcome to seek refuge here" and whose patrons never tire of the glories of our civilisation in antiquity, stand up for these long-lost cousins, the Yazidis in Iraq?'
Rediff.com gives you a look at newbies in the Council of Ministers
'We need to understand that the perpetrators are right within us; they are not like the terrorists who come from outside.' 'The four year old who was raped in Bengaluru and the 20 year old who was gang-raped in Hyderabad should be our wake up call.'
'Learning by doing is in our genes.' 'We are applying the wrong method by making our children sit in a classroom for eight hours, listening to someone talk.'
Going by the current pace, IT firms are likely to exceed the manufacturing sector in salary payouts over the next five years.
'My father knows that he was not good in Parinda. He himself told me that he messed it up because he was so successful at that time with Ram Lakhan and Tezaab. He was so iconic as Munna that he tried to recreate it all the time. It is not necessarily the best thing to do.' Harshvardhan Kapoor says why he's blessed to be an actor in today's days.
'If Modi sincerely thinks that Dalits are also Hindus then spread this message to the entire nation through programmes like Mann Ki Baat.' 'We would love to listen to the PM tell the nation to look upon us as fellow Indians and human beings.'
China's slowing means commodity markets are no longer overheated.
Nupur was able to successfully build a prototype of a biomass briquette, an alternative fuel from waste materials.
Probably the only such school in India, the Satguru Kabir Shiksha Samstha in Luniyakhedi village, Madhya Pradesh, is based on Kabir's philosophy and ideals.
We need to question ourselves if we are to be implicated as well in the institutional murder of Rohith and many other Rohiths, if not bodily but in spirit, because of our complicity in naturalising this elitist, exclusionary, discriminatory-to-the-core conception of education, says Kishalaya Mukhopadhyay.
Maine Pyar Kiya, Biwi No 1, Dabangg, Kick... the list is endless!
'Indian universities are giving out PhDs without adequate evaluation,' charges Dr Satya Narain Jatiya, MP.
Here's this week's collection of wacky and funny stories from around the world.
Two years after a midday meal took the lives of 23 children in Gandaman, Archana Masih sits down to have lunch at the same government school and discovers that much has changed and much remains the same.
The Biju Janata Dal will not oppose the government simply for the sake of opposing it, BJD Member of Parliament Bhratruhari Mahtab tells Aditi Phadnis.
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