Here's a glimpse of all that happened around the world last month, in 12 images.
We are all blessed that Irrfan Khan has left us a treasure trove of his remarkable films. The characters he played were real, believable. We recognised them and they have stayed with us. And so a fan I like to believe Irrfan Khan did not die, says Aseem Chhabra, the actor's biographer on Irrfan's first death anniversary.
Despite the smaller scale of the event, the mood at the ceremony was cheerful, notes Aseem Chhabra.
The state government has ordered an inquiry into the matter.
A Pakistani court will formally charge slain Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's widows and other family members for illegally entering and living in the country next week, a defence lawyer said on Monday.
Threat from militants belonging to the banned Dima Halam Daogah (Jewel Garlosa) or the Black Widow group has forced the Railways authority to stop train services in the Lumding- Badarpur Hill Section in the night.A spokesman of the Northeast Frontier Railway informed that the Railway decided to do away with train services in the night fearing attacks by Black Widow militants active in the area.This is not the first time that train services have been disrupted.
According to official statistics, half of India's GDP comes from as many as 420 million workers in the unorganised sector including street vendors, rickshaw pullers, construction workers, rag pickers, agricultural workers, among others. This massive workforce remains outside the purview of the formal banking and insurance industries.
In a major move that will benefit hundreds and thousands of Indian IT professionals in America, the Biden administration has introduced an ambitious immigration bill in Congress which among other things proposes to eliminate the per-country cap for employment-based green cards.
Nidhi Dubey and Swati Mahadik will join the Indian Army as officers just as their deceased soldier husbands did before them.
Pakistan will deport slain Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's three widows and children to Saudi Arabia next week after the end of their jail term.
To kick-start the work under MGNREGA after the lockdown is lifted, the government has already prepared plans and states have also submitted their work plans.
The districts are Gondia (Maharashtra), Raj Nand Gaon (Chhattisgarh), Davangiri (Karnataka), South Goa, Wayanad and Kottayam (Kerala), West Imphal (Manipur), Rajouri (J&K), Aizwal West (Mizoram), Mahe in Puducherry, SBS Nagar in Punjab, Patna, Nalanda and Munger in Bihar, Pratapgarh in Rajasthan, Panipat, Rohtak and Sirsa in Haryana, Pauri Garhwal in Uttrakhand and Bhadradari Kothagudem in Telangana.
Army Day is celebrated on January 15 very year in recognition of Lieutenant General (later Field Marshal) KM Cariappa taking over as the first Commander-in Chief of Indian Army from Sir Francis Butcher, the last British Commander this day in 1948.
The guidelines listed several services including government and private offices that will be out of bounds during the period, while exempting establishments such as hospitals, ration shops, dairies, banks, insurance offices, and print and electronic media. Delivery of all essential goods including food, pharmaceuticals, medical equipment through e-commerce has also been exempted from the purview of the lockdown.
Padma Viswanathan discusses her semi-biographical novel The Toss of a Lemon with rediff India Abroad's Arthur J Pais.
'I know that they are a deadly terrorist group and that killing is their hobby. But I have no fear.'
The Army Day is celebrated on January 15 every year to mark the taking over as commander-in-chief of the Indian Army by then Lt Gen K M Carriappa in 1949 from General Francis Butcher, the last British Commander-in-Chief of India.
Called the US Citizenship Act of 2021, the legislation modernises the immigration system, and also proposes to eliminate the per country cap for employment-based green cards, a move that would benefit thousands of Indian IT professionals whose current wait period for legal permanent residency runs into several decades.
The four-and-a-half-year-old son of Bihari migrants based in Delhi died at the railway station in Muzaffarpur on arrival by a 'Shramik Special' train, while his father desperately hunted for some milk he believed will save his child.
"Proper procedure of law is followed in Maharashtra. Police can take action against anyone if they have evidence. The state government hasn't acted out of revenge," Raut told reporters when asked about Goswami's arrest.
For these women, who describe themselves as homemakers, farmworkers and protesters all rolled into one, any suggestion that farmers are about being alpha males because it requires physical labour is met with scorn.
The AIADMK's staying power is not in question, but it has to regain the winning streak. That will require its leaders and leadership to re-wire themselves, to be able to re-think situations in ways different from what they had been accustomed to, suggests Sathiya Moorthy.
Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad during his retirement speech in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday summed up his more than four-decade-old political career in few Urdu couplets and a brief speech.
Later, there may be some tax relief aimed at the middle class and measures to benefit the sectors worst hit by Covid-19 and the resultant nationwide lockdown.
Science is a young person's game. An award to a young scientist could free up that person to do productive work, or help win more grants by enhancing reputation, argues Devangshu Datta.
The Indian author was born August 21, 1915.
In her death, the Congress has lost a leader who brought old world grace to politics but was open to new ideas.
'Reduce the perks and privileges of MPs, but let there be no reduction in the money spent on the education of martyrs' children,' says former BJP MP Tarun Vijay.
Hardik Pandya and K L Rahul have been fined Rs 20 lakh each by BCCI Ombudsman Justice (Retd) D K Jain for making sexist comments on a television chat show.
Just a few kilometres from Tihar Jail where their sons were executed at 5.30 am, the women sit outside their homes in south Delhi's slum colony Ravidas Camp, waiting for the bodies of the two young men who were among the six who so brutally raped a 23-year-old woman on December 16, 2012 that she died of her injuries a fortnight later.
From when James Buchanan was sworn in in 1857 to Donald Trump in 2017.
A devastating fire at a multi-storeyed building in Kolkata that claimed nine lives turned into the epicentre of a political slugfest on Tuesday, with the Trinamool Congress government and the Bharatiya Janata Party pointing accusatory fingers at the Railways and the state administration respectively, even as the bereaved families grieved at the loss of their near ones.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday reviewed the impact of Covid-19 on the Indian economy and a possible second stimulus to boost sectors hit hard by the pandemic. Modi held discussions with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as the pandemic hit sectors from small industries to the aviation sector hard with millions of jobs at stake.
The Scottish designer talks about being inspired by the beautiful city of Kolkata, his Beauty By Deception campaign and why you won't spot many celebs on his Instagram page.
The Tamil Nadu chief minister may have opened a Pandora's Box on the religion front with the appointment of qualified non-Brahmin temple priests, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The finance ministry is working on a second relief package for the Indian economy hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak and the 21-day nationwide lockdown imposed to curb the contagion, sources said. Last month, the government announced a Rs 1.70 lakh crore relief package in the form of foodgrains and cash transfers for the poor and vulnerable section of the society to help them deal with the hardships caused by the lockdown. Now, the government is working on a stimulus to be given to hard-hit sectors of the economy after the lockdown is lifted, sources said, adding that an announcement is expected in the next few days depending on the severity of the pandemic.
With Eranna Bhimappa Kadadi and Ashok Jasti -- one Lingayat and one from the OBC -- named as BJP's candidates for the upper house, bypassing the recommendation of the state unit chief Nalin Kumar Kateel and Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, as well as the core committee of the state, BJP leaders in Karnataka say the move is calculated to diminish the stature of the CM and create conditions for him to be eased out.
Coronavirus is the biggest story of our lives and a billion plus people expect us to be around, watching, reporting, editing, recording this for posterity and blowing the whistle to draw attention to injustices and State failures, notes Shekhar Gupta.
A Samajwadi Party Member of Legislative Assembly has been booked for setting a woman on fire in Uttar Pradesh's Maharajganj district. According to the police, MLA Sripati Azad, who represents the Sadar assembly seat, set Savitri Devi, a widow, on fire in Rampur Buzurg village following a heated argument.According to sources, Azad was a frequent visitor to the widow's house.The woman, who received serious burn injuries, has been admitted to the Gorakhpur Medical Hospital.
In a historic move, Pakistan's parliament has passed the much-delayed bill to enable the country's minority Hindu community to register their marriages.