'Chinese pressure on Taiwan is unlikely to ease till Beijing feels that stability is being restored in the Sino-US relationship,' says former RAW officer Jayadeva Ranade.
'The Naga Hills region, Nagaland and Manipur, have had the most uncaring and corrupt state governments with little to show on the ground despite the nation's highest per capita development expenditure,' says Mohan Guruswamy.
'Such kind of mythology-based talks do not in any way contribute to science'. 'My biggest concern is these things will (eventually) become part of school curriculum (in India), and that is completely unacceptable.' Ramprasad Gandhiraman, a scientist at NASA's Ames Research Centre in California, has launched a petition demanding that a lecture on Ancient Indian Aviation Technology to be delivered at the 102nd Indian Science Congress in Mumbai be scrapped. Ritu Jha/Rediff.com reports.
The government's top leadership was happy with Prabhu's Budget.
'The American fear of the Chinese military is overblown. The countries that should be concerned are China's neighbours,' Jeffrey Wasserstrom tells Rahul Jacob.
'In order to achieve Pakistan's psychological isolation and pariah status, breaking all cultural, economic and people to people contacts must become a government policy with clear linkage to a change in behaviour by the Pakistani regime.'
'A participant in many rounds of the border talks with China once told me that China seemed not interested in resolving the border issue as it wanted to keep it as a ready excuse to intervene in the sub-continent,' says Colonel (retd) Anil A Athale.
To be sure, this is not some stunning new revelation that our equity markets are beholden to foreign flows.
'His secularism merely declared the equality of all religions in India under fundamental rights.'
The Cuban government has announced nine days of mourning and has set Castro's funeral for December 4.
'The Post's coverage is not an authentic public discourse guided by unbiased Western intellectuals, but a slanted doomsday propaganda orchestrated by Indians and expatriate Indians,' argues Vivek Gumaste.
'There is a Jack Warner or two in every Caribbean parliament today.'
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The disparity between the outlook of the rich and poor was greater in India than in any other emerging economy. Indians might want to be worried about this because this suggests that the rich are really out of touch with the poor, Bruce Stoke, Director of Pew Research Center, tells Faisal Kidwai in an interview.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Thursday
By weakening Sharif, the corps commanders could have a final say in important matters like relations with India, dealing with Taliban militants, interacting with Americans and once again achieving strategic depth in post-NATO Afghanistan. Which is why they may be behind the unrest in Pakistan led by Imran Khan and Dr Tahirul Qadri, says Shahzad Raza.
'What is forgotten but is actually as important for a society's long run success is morality.' 'Morals and trust are the nuts and bolts of an economy.' 'Without those you can get short run success, but not long-run development.'
Sree Sreenivasan recalls his encounters with the pioneer of sound who passed away on Friday and gives a sense of how many lives he touched -- in big and small ways.
'For the last 10 years the Congress made the RSS an idea of intolerance, anti-minority, especially anti-Muslim, and an idea of fascism.' 'That has been demolished now by Pranab Mukherjee.'
In his penultimate State of the Union address, Barack Obama said that the economy is improving.
'Deep pockets have become a prerequisite for contesting elections on a major party symbol in most states.' 'Given the premium parties place on self-financing candidates, once you have accounted for the suspected criminals, dynasts, industrialists, and celebrities, there is not much room for anyone else.'
'You want a steady, confident, self-assured and highly skilful hand at the till. 'It is a pity that the BJP has decided to deprive itself of such a hand at this politically sensitive time.' 'It is like sacking your surgeon in the middle of your brain surgery,' says S Muralidharan.
India'Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been congratulated for his speedy diplomacy and his talks with Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif. However, academic Christine Fair and former Pakistan ambassador to US Husain Haqqani dismiss the meeting, calling it merely a photo-op and an exercise in futility. Aziz Haniffa reports.
'The extended Bose family is insisting that the Japanese government must release all the information they have on Bose's ashes. It cannot be forgotten that Bose was in Japanese care when his 'death' occurred. Ultimately, it is the Japanese who hold the secret about what happened to him.'
'She must first change the Rules of Business 1961 that makes the defence secretary and not the defence minister responsible for the defence of the country!' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd.)
'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.'
'This has been an ongoing process,' says Ambassador B S Prakash, India's former consul general in San Francisco, 'but I believe a Modi visit to the West Coast can be a force-multiplier.'
Read the full transcript of President Obama's State of the Union address on Wednesday at the US Capitol in Washington.
'Culture is our asset. Culture is our identity.' 'Wherever you go in India, every millimetre can be measured with culture.' 'There is so much to see that even one life is not enough.'
Full transcript of President Obama's speech at the Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi.
The letter, to maintain the current policy of denying Narendra Modi a visa to the United States, was released just as the BJP president arrived in Washington DC for a round of meetings with US lawmakers. Aziz Haniffa reports
'Pakistan has a big role to play in fomenting trouble, but we need to ask ourselves why ordinary Kashmiris are coming out in large numbers to attend the funerals of terrorists.'
'If the dimensions of the strategic partnership worked out by India and the US seem like a grand alliance targeted at you-know-who, China had better realise that it has fathered it,' says B S Raghavan, a long time observer of China.
The government's critics say that the Prime Minister failed to rein in vicious and unprecedented personal attacks on the central bank chief by the likes of Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy.
Any attempt to defang Islamic State must first cut off its main sources of funding, especially its revenue from oil sales, extortion and crime, ransom payments, and support from foreign donors. This will also be need to be backed up by efficient forces on the ground.
'India and China have to make concrete progress with regard to the border issue, addressing the trade deficit, and facilitating people-to-people interactions. This has to happen in the next two, three years.' China expert Tansen Sen tells Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com how India and China can take their relations to the next level.
'... for two reasons: the poor quality of education, and the low rate of female participation in the labour force.' 'Unless something is done quickly to remedy these problems, India will just have a large population of low-skill, low-wage, males trying and failing to feed their families adequately.'
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio has announced the appointment of Nisha Agarwal, one of the leading advocates in the city for the immigrant communities, as commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs.
'I personally consider Indian cinema as one of the most creative and powerful forms of cinematic expression in the world.' 'An average Indian film is 10 times better than a costly American production because of the creativity involved.'
If the wave has become a tsunami, why is the BJP's prime ministerial candidate playing safe by polarising voters along communal lines, asks Bharat Bhushan.
