Is it just the glamour?
Is North Korea really dismantling its nuclear programme? Rajaram Panda explains the many challenges to denuclearise the Korean Peninsula.
Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Ansari believes a national debate on a Uniform Civil Code is a must. 'The need of the hour is to debate this issue at length in order to create a consensus,' Ansari tells Rediff.com, adding, 'Such a debate must take place at the grassroot level. We must understand all the divergent viewpoints before any draft can be prepared.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Myanmar is aimed at transforming the arch of Bay of Bengal into the Circle of Southeast Asia, says Anirban Ganguly.
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Conservation of energy dominated Ghosh's thoughts ever since he completed his Masters in Energy Science and Technology from Jadavpur University early 2000.
'Our policy seems to be to give away part of J&K, even though we are entitled to the entire state.' 'The Congress has done so, and the BJP is following the same policy.' 'No one is applying their mind to the legal position.' 'Kashmir is not a part of Pakistan under its own constitution.'
Aseem Chhabra lists the elements that he loved and was pleasantly surprised by in the movies.
'We cannot forget that Pakistan is a criminal State, it is a rogue State and yet we want oil pipelines to go through their State, we want to have people-to-people contact, want to increase trade with them.' 'When Modi was prime minister-elect, he said there can be no dialogue in the face of bombs and bullets. After becoming prime minister, he is saying talks will continue. Was he then misleading the public then or is he misleading the public now?' 'Nobody goes around abusing China. The fact is China is a great power. I do not think India is a great power. People spit on our face and we still go grovelling before them.'
US Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, newly elected co-chair of the influential Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, discusses her vision for US-India ties with Rediff.com's Monali Sarkar.
'We are by no means anywhere nearing having external financing difficulties or internal financing difficulties. The government's credit is solid, there is absolutely no difficulty for the government in borrowing and it is borrowing effectively from the public today in a fairly free public debt market,' the RBI governor tells a meeting in Washington, DC
Tigers may have been elusive, but just to have gone deep in the ferocious, yet magnificent big cat's home was an unforgettable experience, says Shubir Rishi/Rediff.com after a road trip to the Pench-Kanha-Tadoba national parks
Presenting the best of Sanctuary Asia Wildlife Awards 2015.
'Perhaps the biggest indication was its striking decision in November to delink LeT from its aid certification process.' 'The administration decided that the US, in order to send military aid to Pakistan, would not need to certify that Pakistan is cracking down on LeT.' 'Perhaps the administration was trying to offer a carrot -- in effect, we're backing off on LeT, but in return we expect you (Pakistan) to go after the Haqqanis.' 'Either way, the optics were dreadful for the US given that Hafiz Saeed was released from house arrest a few days after the US move.' 'The US reacted angrily, but eventually it moved on, and refocused on its core concern: The Afghan-focused terror groups.'
20 years ago this day, May 11, 1998, India conducted its second nuclear test at Pokharan in Rajasthan. In a fascinating interview on Rediff.com, K Subrahmanyam revealed how Indian PMs reacted to nuclear ambitions.
Why are so many people so reluctant to give up on Arvind Kejriwal? The simple answer is 'Narendra Modi', or rather the fear of Narendra Modi,' says T V R Shenoy.
'We don't know what the reasons were that we gave back the Haji Pir Pass which was strategically very important. Today the entire infiltration into Kashmir takes place from that area. If we had retained that post that we had captured, things could have been different.' 'A lesson we need to learn is if you start losing the gains of war at the negotiating table, they become a disincentive for future wars,' says Lieutenant General D B Shekatkar (retd), reviewing the lessons from the 1965 War.
What is Narendra Modi like? What is his politics about? What will he do? What are his priorities? Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com speaks to Swapan Dasgupta to find out more about the man of the moment.
'We have about Rs 4 lakh crore debt on a state budget of about Rs 1.5 lakh crore.' 'We are in a debt two-and-a-half times our annual budget,' says the banker who would have been Tamil Nadu's finance minister had the DMK won.
