The Stars emerge and Rediff.com's Contributing Photographer Pradeep Bandekar is there!
As electoral sails shift in the dynamic political winds of West Bengal, two factors may still change the electoral equations are how the BJP fares this time and how Muslims are going to vote. Mayank Mishra reports.
Tribals constitute 7-8 per cent of the state's population, and are a deciding factor in 47 assembly seats and seven Lok Sabha constituencies spread across the Junglemahal districts of Purulia, Paschim Medinipur, Bankura and Jhargram in southern Bengal and Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar in the north.
The Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP is trying to make inroads into BJP-ruled Gujarat where the assembly polls are due later this year.
The grand old party faces the onerous task of rebuilding its moribund organisation, which is struggling to overcome a leadership crisis and regain credibility with the voters.
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar was on Tuesday prevented by protesters from entering Jadavpur University to attend its annual convocation, following which he left the varsity premises. Protesters of the Trinamool Congress Employees' Union showed black flags to Dhankhar, who is the chancellor of the varsity, and blocked his car at gate number 5 of the campus at 10.30 am on Tuesday.
Some of these nations are India's biggest export market. India is also dependent on these countries to meet its energy needs.
The 71-year-old Dhankhar has been a noted lawyer, was instrumental in getting Other Backward Class status for Jats in Rajasthan and loves to beat his own cappuccino desi-style.
'There is only one common feature between Gorbachev and Putin.' 'They are both patriots, and both try to save Russia and make it great.' 'But in very, very, different ways.'
Wearing a beaming smile and sunglasses under a helmet, 'Universe Boss' Chris Gayle on Saturday appeared to have brought the curtains down on his phenomenal T20 international career,
While many Western countries, including the United States, Britain and Australia, are diplomatically boycotting the Winter Olympics over China's human rights record, Putin will join a number of Beijing-friendly leaders at the Games.
The accused was identified and caught after the footage from more than a thousand CCTV cameras in and around the JNU campus was analysed, police said, adding Dolai was arrested while he was entering his rented house.
'I never got respect as an actress.' 'But when I became a director and worked with actresses like Cate Blanchett and Jessica Chastain, I felt such pride of being an actress.'
'Over the years, India has taken great strides in many fields, especially in the context of science and technology. Yet even as external disarmament is necessary, inner disarmament is no less important'
India's Right-wing has sought to own our democracy by making itself appear the stuff of majority, and sometimes, a national ethos older than the Constitution on which our democracy is based, argues Shyam G Menon.
'This is what happens when you get consumed by absolute power and the arrogance that accompanies it.'
The Modi government finds itself in a contradiction of its own making. It has encouraged pro-Russian, Westophobic public sentiment while setting strategic policy that's exactly the opposite, points out Shekhar Gupta.
Among the 36 new faces in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers, eight are lawyers, four are doctors, two former IAS officers and four MBA degree holders, besides several engineers, making it an eclectic mix of professionals.
As the second season of The Night Manager hits the OTT screen, Deepa Gahlot looks back at the top spy thrillers on streaming platforms.
China and Pakistan have agreed to step up their defence and counter-terrorism cooperation amidst 'challenging times', as Pakistan Army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa held wide-ranging talks with the Chinese military leadership to further cement their all-weather strategic partnership.
The 37-year-old Darren Sammy was of the view that teams such as England and Australia, still seeking a World T20 title triumph, might do well in the tournament, which will be hosted in the UAE and Oman.
Annapurna Devi, Subhas Sarkar and Rajkumar Ranjan Singh will be the new ministers of state for education.
We very much hope that wisdom dawns on the Chinese side, Jaishankar said in Bangkok.
Flamboyant West Indies opener Chris Gayle has called his former team-mate Ramnaresh Sarwan "worse than coronavirus", accusing the Guyanese of plotting his exit from Caribbean Premier League outfit Jamaica Tallawahs. The big-hitting Gayle, who has since moved to St. Lucia Zouks, blamed Sarwan for an alleged fallout with Tallawahs franchise, which did not retain him for the 2020 season after playing for them as a marquee player last year.
While the planet is in stress due to the pandemic, Universe Boss is making the most of the break.
Modi and Deuba discussed ways to strengthen ongoing cooperation and develop new areas in the multifaceted bilateral partnership.
The high court in London on Tuesday began hearing evidence from two leading experts in the field of psychiatry to determine the level of suicide risk faced by Nirav Modi if he is extradited to India to face charges of fraud and money laundering, amounting to an estimated $2 billion in the Punjab National Bank (PNB) loan scam case. Lord Justice Jeremy Stuart-Smith and Justice Robert Jay heard from Andrew Forrester, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Cardiff University, and Seena Fazel, Professor of Forensic Psychiatry at Oxford University, in the final stages of the extradition appeal being pursued by the 51-year-old diamond merchant. The two psychiatrists weighed up Nirav's level of depression, which could pose a "substantial" or "elevated" risk of suicide.
'I can tell you this!!! I will never go down without a fight!! I Am The #UniverseBoss That will never changed!!'
Tendulkar's sterling performances, his fascinating duels for supremacy with contemporaries -- Brian Lara, Ricky Ponting, Inzamam-ul Haq, Jacques Kallis among batsmen; Shane Warne, Muttiah Muralitharan, Wasim Akram among bowlers -- embellished modern cricket and globalised the game, asserts Ayaz Memon who has observed the cricketing colossus from the day he made his Test debut in November 1989.
Beijing will be intently watching Washington's response for any hint of weakness. Xi Jinping, who feels China has a limited window of strategic opportunity, will be emboldened to take additional initiatives in the Indo-Pacific and specifically against India and Taiwan, warns Jayadeva Ranade, the former senior RA&W officer and China expert.
The CPL, which was originally scheduled to commence on August 28, will now be played between August 26 and September 15.
The officer said the man who had typed out the letter was arrested from Ballygunge on Monday.
Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar on Wednesday claimed the Bharatiya Janata Party's 1990 rath yatra was for seeking "satta (power)", but the Congress's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' is for "satya (truth)".
Last year, in a reply to a question in Lok Sabha, the government informed Parliament that as of 2021, an estimated 13.5 million Indian nationals resided in various countries outside of India. Of these, 8.8 million were in the Gulf countries. Given the pandemic, there hasn't been a significant change in the number of Indians settling abroad, but data between 2015 and 2018 shows that the number of Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) increased 18 per cent in these three years. In 2015, India had 11.4 million Indians settled abroad, which increased to 13.4 million in 2018.
Union minister Subhas Sarkar courted a controversy on Wednesday with his remarks that Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore's mother did not cradle him in her arms when he was a child because of his "not so fair complexion"
India saw a single day rise of 2,628 new coronavirus infections, taking the infection tally to 4,31,44,820, while the active cases have increased to 15,414, according to the Union health ministry data updated on Thursday.
True, Azam Khan is being targeted rather disproportionately and also because of his Muslim identity. That must be protested and resisted. But to say that he is a big messiah, and his profit-making educational enterprise is an issue concerning all Muslims of India, is absolutely unjustified, assert Mohammad Sajjad and Md Mohammad Zeeshan Ahmad.
'Both Russia and the USA seek New Delhi's friendship, because for both -- Russia and the USA -- India is a certain counterbalance to China.'
India proposes to organise a briefing of the Security Council on December 15 on 'Global counter-terrorism approach - principles and the way forward" under the 'Threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts'.
