'People have been flying for years on the basis of a police clearance and an airport entry pass.' 'Then they came out with a convoluted thing -- that your police clearance must be from your place of residence.' 'Now if a pilot is sitting in Delhi but is from Timbuktoo, the papers will have to come from there.' 'So at any point, you have a certain number of pilots sitting on the ground because his AEP has expired and the papers haven't come.' Revealed: India's bizarre processes to get pilots to fly planes.
Security forces have been deployed in strength in sensitive and vulnerable areas to maintain law and order.
'Speaking this year from the ramparts of the Red Fort, he excelled himself in content, diction and delivery -- all extemporaneously flowing, replete with felicitous expressions and captivating word play. 'The only other Indian prime minister with whom he stands comparison is Jawaharlal Nehru who too shunned prepared speeches and established instant rapport with his audiences,' says B S Raghavan.
A consensus builder, Jaitley was regarded by some as Modi's original 'Chanakya'.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has arrested an Reserve Bank of India official and a JDS leader K C Veerendra, who is also a casino owner, in connection with separate cases relating to alleged illegal conversion of currency post-demonetisation.
Naresh Chandra -- distinguished civil servant and diplomat -- passed into the ages on Sunday, July 9. Ambassador T P Sreenivasan salutes a patriot like none other.<
'Dr Khobragade is now a Counsellor without any specific work responsibility at the PMI. There is not going to be any work for her at the mission at least for now. This is an interim measure to help her so she can get diplomatic immunity and get over this situation.'
What is Change really like in Bihar? Once seen as India's basket-case, what is its turnaround story like?
In this exclusive conversation with Rediff.com contributor Rajeev Sharma, exiled opposition leader Ahmed Naseem explains why the world should care about democracy in Maldives.
Amitabh Kant tells Rahul Jacob how India could be made an easier place to do business in and why India's software smarts will give it an edge.
Indrani chose at that moment to wave a folded chit from the accused enclosure. It distracted Bharti, who looked at her sharply for a split second before turning back to Pasbola. The chit was collected from Indrani and her lawyer Gunjan Mangla slipped it to Pasbola. He looked at it, quietly laughed in disbelief and continued with his cross examination.
The ability and quality of implementation of development initiatives remains India's Achilles' heel.
Did you know that Clark Gable nearly didn't say 'Frankly, my dear I don't give a damn' in Gone With The Wind? Or the film's India connections?
We present our alphabet of 2020, pulling in everything you'll remember about this year we'd rather forget.
Around 90-100 people received burn injuries, and the condition of some of them was serious.
It was never the quality of the CV that defined an incumbent's performance or legacy.
'Even apart from the Bengal famine, there was a great deal more bloodshed and deceit than I was prepared for.' 'Almost every one of the acquisitions was won by extreme extortionate methods and what came out was that these relatively honest officers found themselves doing very dishonest things.'
'A President who is a living embodiment of high principles can tone up the entire national fabric,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
The appointment of General Raheel Sharif as the new army chief of Pakistan has come as a surprise to many. Rajiv Dogra, former ambassador and India's last Consul General to Karachi, speaks to Aabhas Sharma about the appointment, what it says about the priorities of Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and most importantly, what it means for India.
'There is need to invent another enemy.' 'If you can add Maoists to Muslims, the tukde-tukde thread will tie in nicely.' 'You might even have a 'nation in grave danger' story by the summer of 2019,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
'The government has to take effective steps to strengthen democracy, rule of law, maintain communal harmony and safeguard the security of the country and its people.' 'The government has to carry all sections of the people with it irrespective of their race, caste, community, region or language,' and try to unite them by promoting fraternity among them,' says legendary Constitution expert P P Rao.
'We should expect a cold-blooded, transactional relation that requires a lot of engagement and mutual trust to sustain,' says Constantino Xavier, Fellow, foreign policy, Brookings India.
'The debate is not whether the Indian defence apparatus is in a state of disrepair, but whether it is capable of securing the defence of the country if any envisaged threat becomes real.'
Clusters of policemen and television journalists alertly anticipated the arrival of Mumbai's joint commissioner of police, who, it was confirmed by most people I asked, does not visit court often. No one could remember when they had last heard of Deven Bharti appearing as a witness in a murder trial.
While some say an agreement was reached over the Panama Papers, others suggest that Nawaz Sharif may have handed the CPEC to the military in exchange for his survival.
If one were to go by the degree of clout, Jaitley was the undoubted No. 2 in the Modi government.
Jayavel was rescued from begging and through his hard work and determination has now won a scholarship to complete his engineering in Italy.
Sameer Buddha was just the kind of witness Indrani's lawyer Sudeep Pasbola dislikes. Someone, who had temporarily dumped his memory before entering the court. He answered most questions, one after another, one after another, one after another, with a monotonous, deadpan: 'I don't remember.' 'I don't remember.' 'I don't remember.'
'In her insecurity, she destroyed the institutions of democracy.' 'She packed Parliament with her supporters with loyalty being more important than ability; she superseded judges; she corrupted the civil service.' 'She knew how to use people against each other and was quite a master of that.' 'She would do this with calculated skill and in the bargain cause enmity between brothers, split up families.'
'It seemed it was more than an anti-incumbency vote; it was an outright rejection of the BJP by the people after due deliberation and an expression of their disillusionment with Modi's leadership,' says B S Raghavan.
'The majority community needs to accept that the Indian Muslim is peace loving, not communal and treat them accordingly.'
Shivade then asked if the skeleton finally came out of the ground in many parts. It was difficult not to gasp aloud at that revelation. Bhagat said that was true.
Shortage of top engineering talent in Silicon Valley is inflating paychecks.
'E Ahamed will be sorely missed as a decent and wise man who made the best use of his political career and personal abilities for the good of the nation,' remembers Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Indrani exclaimed excitedly, her face lighting up like a little girl's: "I know him soo0o well." Sanjeev Khanna, Accused No 2, jokingly suggested to Badami: "Influencing the witness!" Badami retorted good humouredly: "She can't influence witnesses. She can only influence you and Peter."
'It is certain Jayalalithaa will be in no position to attend to official business.' 'Indeed, doctors would have forbidden anything that would aggravate her condition and lead to complications,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant, advising how a Constitutional vacuum can be averted in Tamil Nadu.
A group of retired civil servants also called upon the PM to reach out to the families of the victims in Unnao and Kathua and "seek their forgiveness on behalf of all of us".
Ira Singhal, the country's first differently-abled UPSC topper shares her secret to success and her big plans for India.
The massive earthquake in Sichuan struck at 9:19 pm (local time) on Tuesday and the epicentre was monitored at a depth of 20 km, state-run Xinhua new agency reported.
