'The Budget has maintained fiscal prudence while announcing a number of steps to boost growth, particularly in infrastructure and rural sectors.'
'Swaraj Samvad sees itself in the role of a watchdog in Delhi,' Professor Anand Kumar tells Rediff.com.
13 out of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in India. Most shockingly, the latest Central Pollution Control Board statistics reveal that the pollution levels in Gwalior, Raipur and even little known Kashipur are higher than that of Delhi which means we have some of the most polluted zones in the world.
The prime minister and president stated their intention to expand defence co-operation to bolster national, regional and global security.
The sportswear major has picked the activity to encourage a community around it in colleges.
Money is being released and the government knows it will have to front-run private investment.
'Indian politics has had three-and-a-half master narratives -- secular nationalism, Hindu nationalism, justice for lower castes and regionalism. The AAP seeks to go beyond that. Therein lies its promise and its challenge,' says Ashutosh Varshney, Brown University professor and author of book Battles Half Won, India's Improbable Democracy.
The growth story of India depends on its achievements in the S&T sector. There is a need to revolutionise the landscape of Indian science and technology and this is only possible if the scientific community is allowed to work 'professionally and scientifically' without burdening them with the baggage of the past, says Ajey Lele.
Congress Member of Parliament and party spokesperson Sushmita Dev tells Kavita Chowdhury that party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi's "new kind of politics" has revitalised the party, lifting it from the gloom of the 2014 general elections.
Hence, the claims by the Government that this will end the menace of black money and corruption are simply outlandish. Also, the simultaneous introduction of Rs 2,000 note undermines their claim and it simply does not fit the storyline of an attack on black money and corruption.
the second part of the extract with kind permission from Macmillan India.
The Congress,BJP and AAP have carved out clear constituencies for themselves. Some of them may overlap with one another, but they seem to have positioned themselves well, says A K Bhattacharya.
A chemical engineer, Anirudh gave up his high-paying job to work for welfare of farmers in Tamil Nadu.
The new push is being driven primarily by over 170,000 villages where household income is over Rs 1 lakh a year.
Going to a MyDentist clinic is like going to a coffee shop and ordering a cappuccino, says chief Vikram Vora. The prices are same everywhere in Mumbai
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The war of words that has broken out between Vikram Bakshi and McDonald's Corporation is the latest in the long list of ugly spats between Indian businessmen and their overseas collaborators.
The BJP government is no better than the Congress -- as wretched and anti-people. In addition, it is explicitly and aggressively communal, says Venkatesh B Athreya, in a hard-hitting interview to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com.
In the documentary The World Before Her, a young girl has to submit to the will of her father for a most gut-wrenching reason: 'He let me live... I am a girl... but he let me live.' Is that reason enough, asks Suparn Verma.
Even in this season of political-peeing-on-lampposts, Rahul Gandhi's statement takes the cake (with due apologies to another astute observer of poverty, the much late Mary Antoinette).
'I sat down and asked them what they would want in their new school. One student said a football field, another one asked for computers. One little girl came and sat next to me and said, "A separate toilet for the girls." I think these small things make a huge difference in the future of education in India,' Nita Ambani tells Aseem Chhabra/Rediff.com
This could be a major drag, not just on the empowerment of women but on the India growth story as well.
On the one had are sanitation oriented social enterprises and on the other are awareness raising campaigns by government.
In the second and concluding part of his interview, Gurumurthy outlines the two areas he believes the government should focus on.
'It is good for the country, but it is not good for a politician... What we call impatience is actually desperation to needing something NOW.' 'Our politics is restricted by one factor; that our Parliament is full of villages. 40% of the country now lives in cities but only 25% of Parliament is coming from the cities.'
This is the story of two youngsters from Bengaluru, who converted adversity to their advantage.
'Not allowing people to speak or listen is the biggest act of anti-nationalism,' says Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, one of India's finest poets.
'The Congress is unsure of emerging as the single largest party or group on May 16. In such a scenario, they do not wish to accord a loser tag to the young Gandhi... The Congress feels Rahul's projection as a prime ministerial nominee in 2014 would come in the way of the formation of an alternative, non-BJP government...' Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt explains how the transition of power within the Congress is making the party vulnerable.
Once called India's garden city, this upper middle-class residential area in Bangalore has India's most toxic air, says Devanik Saha, IndiaSpend.com.
Khushwant Singh was a courageous writer. He was a superb mentor of young talent, had great generosity of spirit, was extremely tolerant and was, on many levels, a true secular Indian, says Shobhaa De in a moving tribute.
With facts and figures, the CAG report has highlighted how Gujarat was far from a role model for states across India, and that the progress made in this province in western India in improving agriculture, education, healthcare and empowerment of women and children, was not exactly creditable, says Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.
How do you translate a first love into a profession? How do you become a writer once you set your heart on it? Susmita Bhattacharya, who once worked as a graphic designer in Mumbai, now teaches the basics of English to newcomers to Britain and is also a creative writing tutor. Her first novel The Normal State of Mind was published earlier this year after a grim battle with cancer.
'Modi's campaign has been strikingly devoid of anti-Muslim rhetoric. After the kutta pilla incident, it has been several months since he said something horrible about the Muslims of India. It is the result of democratic constraints. He has to make compromises... He's trying to reinvent himself. He will politically hurt himself if 2002 becomes the definition of Mr Modi again', says political scientist Ashutosh Varshney.
Moving ahead with their new mantra -- Chalein Saath Saath: Forward Together We Go -- Prime Minister Narendra Modi and United States President Barack Obama on Tuesday vowed to deepen cooperation in every sector for the benefit of global stability and people's livelihoods over the next ten years.
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Ayurvedic expert Dr G G Gangadharan on how the ancient Indian medical practice needs to be propagated in the country of its origin
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