'The most important priority for the next 25 years should be to strengthen our democracy so that it is supportive of social harmony, and to not just respect but to take pride in the diversity of Indian society in terms of the variety of languages, religion and religious practices and social norms,' explains Nitin Desai.
'If Ranil Wickremesinghe starts repressing and suppressing the protesters who represent the people, that will pose a danger for him to continue in office.'
Ekta Mohanani Kamra, travel enthusiast and founder, Hop & Bop, lists places and activities to add to your monsoon bucket list.
Modi launched the membership drive of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party from his Lok Sabha constituency of Varanasi on Saturday, noting that it will further connect people from all walks of life with the saffron party.
Russia is among the top buyers of Indian tea, accounting for about 18 per cent of the industry's total exports.
The pandemic situation in India has reached a breaking point and the only thing one can do now is stay safe and stay indoors. Here's everything OTT has to offer to keep you distracted this week.
Nanpakal Nerathu Mayakkam is a masterpiece, and like most masterpieces of the cinema, it's a great act of folly, observes Sreehari Nair.
Kerala will be one of those places where the line between tourism, a land, a people and their way of life will blur. It won't be tourism; it will be a visit to experience Kerala.
The fulcrum of victory or defeat of parties attempting to form a government is held by smaller players and those willing to defect.
Planters from Assam said despite the Covid-19 pandemic, trade enquiries from China had been rising. However, owing to the growing conflict, enquiries may dry up. 'We have seen how the trade dried up in case of the Pakistan conflict and fear the same,' a planter from Assam said.
December 2022 could be the last Christmas for Santha Bakery, a business drawing its lineage from the first Christmas cake baked in Kerala.
Thomas G K shares pictures from a trip to Wayanad.
Sitharaman also announced Rs 10,000 crore fund to support 2 lakh micro food enterprises for promoting health and wellness, herbal, organic and nutritional products.
14-year-old Vinisha Umashankar has been creating a buzz with her solar-powered ironing cart. The youngest finalist of the Duke of Cambridge's The Earthshot Prize 2021, she is a shining example of why one is never too young to help the environment.
Scanty rainfall, last year's lockdown, growing competition from Nepal and the disaster of the 2017 Gorkhaland agitation are steadily weakening exports and sales of Darjeeling tea.
Kerala's already struggling plantation sector, especially cashew, spices and rubber, suffered another jolt this month with the rupee strengthening against the US dollar.
The government further defended its move to introduce fixed-term employment, insisting that the present system of hiring workers through contractors is exploitative.
Not many have seen the Kerala in which coconut trees are sparse but waterfalls, lush valleys, and deep forests are abundant.
There's something very pompous about the basic pitch of this movie that slowly chews away at its core, feels Sreehari Nair.
It is intriguing that the CBI has shown little interest in the most scandalous and biggest collective investment scheme ever, from the Sahara group, asserts Debashis Basu.
The high-velocity cyclone Phailin that hit Odisha about a week ago is estimated to have destroyed around 26 lakh trees in the state.
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.
There can be no one answer to the question at the centre of an anxious debate across a world coping with COVID-19 and wondering what will happen if another one comes, but the global scientific community has been working on multiple tracks to ensure that humankind is better prepared.
A day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar demanded central assistance of Rs 12,000 crore to tide over the drought in 33 of the 38 districts in the state, opposition leaders appeared keener to politicise the issue by portaying themselves as champions of millions of drought-hit farmers.
Delhi will become the first such city in India to have such a scheme and the only one after Beijing in Asia.
Kejriwal announced the odd-even scheme as part of the seven-point 'Parali Pradushan' action plan that also includes mass distribution of anti-pollution masks, mechanised sweeping and water sprinkling on the roads, tree plantation, and special plans for 12 pollution hotspots in the city.
Lush agricultural lands have turned parch as groundwater levels deplete to new lows, and wells and water reservoirs go dry. While the administration points to deficient rainfall as a reason, experts and activists say the drought is mostly man-made.
This will help employers keep a track of the diseases workers could suffer from while doing their jobs.
'Human trafficking from Bangladesh is a regular phenomenon and those people come here to work or in search of greener pastures. They are all over the country. We are giving them legal recognition and making them citizens so that they don't have to live in fear,' says R Nataraj, AIADMK MLA from Tamil Nadu.
'Learning to learn should be given more importance than what is actually being learnt,' recommends Zaki Ansari.
Tea and coffee estates, the smell of eucalyptus in the crisp mountain air, cool nights huddled in shawls, sylvan lake rides and mountain treks... Peace and tranquility is at hand!
A bench of justices Arun Mishra and Deepak Gupta sought a status report with pictures on plantation, transplantation and felling of trees in Aarey colony area of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
While man and a woman were reported killed when trees came crashing down on them in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, a 13-year-old girl died in a similar incident in adjoining Howrah. No casualties have been reported from Odisha yet.
Financial shares were among the top gainers with HDFC leading the gains.
Restricted by state government orders, the ownership of such land could not be formally registered, so the advances made continued to be reflected in the accounts as 'advances against land'.
Most key rabi-producing states of north India, such as Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, have staggered their procurement to enable farmers to come in batches, so that there is no overcrowding. The Centre has also set up a call centre to coordinate the inter-state movement of farm commodities.
"You have gone through extraordinary pain, and we don't want others to go through the kind of pain that you've gone through. Wouldn't be right," said the president.
The loss of income has severely dented the loan repayment ability of small borrowers
Minutes earlier, Sarkar had been in the media tribune, capturing the proudest moment of his coaching career on a modest mobile phone as Barman stood on the podium shrouded in India's tri-colour flag with the gold medal around her neck.
'Beijing is comfortable with Hasina's pragmatism -- perceived as 'pro-India', but staying out of Indian orbit and receptive to forging close ties with China and yet, siding with neither neighbour,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
