The Odiya strongman, who delivered stunning victory to the BJP as the in-charge of Bihar unit, straight away got down to work after taking charge of the high-profile ministry.
'The one aspect which no Indian military thinker would wish to see emerge is a LoC type of posture at the LAC.' 'The LoC is manned for 750 km and terrorist infiltration has led to the creation of a virtual fortress along its entire length.' 'Something mirroring this at the LAC is going to be expensive although deployment everywhere is not warranted there.' 'However, given the complete trust deficit, there appear few alternatives,' notes Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
We present our alphabet of 2020, pulling in everything you'll remember about this year we'd rather forget.
The shortfall in the Centre's GST collections has raised concerns over it meeting the fiscal deficit target of 3.3 per cent of GDP, reports Ishan Bakshi.
'In UP/Bihar there is no industry. There are no other jobs, you either herd cows, teach or join the IAS. The brightest go to the IITs. The rest go to arts college and they become IAS officers and it is this crowd that is now agitating.' 'English is the business language of the world, we have to accept that. If I had done my IIT in Hindi, I would be stuck in the cow belt without work.' IIT graduate, entrepreneur and politician R K Misra on the row over English in the UPSC prelims.
'This confrontation could have been avoided by a less arrogant administration that initially listened, used whatever negotiating skills they had and tried to be more credible,' observes Ramesh Menon.
'Karpoori Thakur must be remembered by people today who are tired of witnessing fractious politics where corruption, bigotry, hatred and violence seems to have become distressingly recurrent,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Saeed Mirza on two young men who have broken barriers and emerged as beacons for a New India.
The 'India Corruption Study 2007', brought out by NGOs Transparency International India (TII) and Centre for Media Studies (CMS), found that about one-third of Below Poverty Line (BPL) households in the country bribed officials to avail a total of 11 services -- from police to PDS.
'Nitish is now a helpless junior ally of Hindutva.' 'He just cannot think of reining in the hoodlums raging, marauding and killing in the mohallas,' argues Mohammad Sajjad.
'When I won Rs 1 crore, Amitabh Bachchan told my friends to find a girlfriend for me.'
'Isn't 11.3 million Instagram followers and 1.9 million Twitter followers enough to make you feel wanted and loved as a successful star?' 'Can a huge bank balance, a fleet of fancy cars, and a big house assure you happiness and contentment in life?' 'For Sushant, it did not.'
Nepali labourers are not only the backbone of the state's apple economy but also part of the highly grounded manpower in the orchards, setting an example for other states struggling with the migrant labour question, reports Ashwani Sharma.
While the number of active COVID-19 cases stood at 7,409, as many as 764 people have been cured and discharged, and one had migrated, it said. Of the total 273 deaths, Maharashtra tops the tally with 127 fatalities, followed by Madhya Pradesh at 36, Gujarat at 22 and Delhi at 19.
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.
Experts have flagged issues regarding the levying of new cess/tax, especially those related to complications in administering the cess.
Women are great team players and collaborators, 'but they don't put themselves forward,' Dr Gagandeep Kang, the first Indian woman scientist to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, tells Veenu Sandhu.
Officials in the state urban development department said that RITES has started soil testing at four places in Patna to conduct techno-economic feasibility study for a monorail here.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday lamented that a section of people start "chanting" 'Jungle Raj' after every incident of crime in the state and said the government has decided to set up a battalion for safeguarding banks and other such establishments.
'If done well, the containment measures can help minimise the impact of the epidemic.'
'In UP, the CM actually announced that his administration would 'take revenge' against rioters.' 'That must have been music to his police force's ears for it substantiated what the police always do: Take revenge on an entire community for the violence of a few,' points out Jyoti Punwani.
When the Centre tries to encroach upon the subjects that are under the prerogative of the state, or where the centre tries to evade from any responsibility guaranteed to a state through a constitutional provision/obligation, it poses a threat to federalism.
'The brutal violence of the UP government's first response to the anti-CAA protests suggests that the BJP will test drive the NPR/NRC in UP, where it has both a massive majority in the assembly and a chief minister whose instinct for Hindutva extremism and whose appetite for punitive policing allows a prime minister as darkly majoritarian as Modi to appear statesman-like,' notes Mukul Kesavan.
Lakdawala was apprehended by Mumbai Crime Branch's anti-extortion cell team at the International Airport. He once worked for underworld don Dawood Ibrahim before forming his own gang.
Top universities should stop taking students from UP and Bihar to make these states act against the rampant mass cheating in school exams, suggests Anjuli Bhargava/Business Standard.
'While the poor have little say in shaping India's intellectual or public discourse, they do have a significant role in deciding political outcomes,' points out Roshan Kishore.
Rail and road links between the Northeast and the rest of the country would resume soon as the blockade by protesters, demanding the opening of a unit of the Aligarh Muslim University, was lifted in Bihar's Kishanganj district late on Wednesday night, a West Bengal minister said.
Official celebrations in most states were restricted to unfurling of the national flag and chief ministers and governors addressing the people, with fewer guests in attendance.
An 18-year-old school dropout from Bihar on Thursday became another miracle survivor of the building collapse in Jalandhar when he was pulled out by rescuers 73 hours after the accident took place.
Three persons, who were arrested in a forgery case and extensively questioned in connection with the serial blasts here in July last year, were on Wednesday granted bail by a local court.
While more students are open to entrepreneurship as livelihood option, a whopping 71 per cent fear failure as a stumbling block in their entrepreneurial journey
The Deen Bachao, Desh Bachao conference in Patna on April 15 was attended by lakhs of Muslims. Will the electoral dividends from this rally be reaped by Nitish Kumar, the BJP (through Hindu consolidation), by both Nitish and the BJP or will it be reaped more by the anti-BJP forces, asks Mohammad Sajjad.
'The Modi government must create conditions to integrate millions into the rural economy as many migrants are certainly not going to return to live an undignified life,' notes Ramesh Menon.
2.3 million people are opioid-dependent. 860,000 people are opioid users. 123,000 people are heroin-dependent.
Mangoes are likely to be expensive this year as the country's overall production is estimated to come down by upto 20 per cent because of crop damage in some states due to last month's unseasonal rains, industry body Assocham said.
Strident Hindutva has not been the Shivraj Singh Chouhan's hallmark in his long tenure as chief minister. What has changed?
Here's all you need to know about the man who could be India's next president.
Around 700 migrant workers, women and children have lost their lives in this reverse migration. But what is happening today with the migrant labour is only a continuation of the policies pursued by the Modi regime during the last six years. It is not for nothing that India was ranked the most dangerous country in the world for women in 2018 by the Thompson Reuters Foundation poll, points out Rashme Sehgal.
Those who took first flights from the Indira Gandhi International Airport included paramilitary personnel, army men, students, and migrants, who failed to book a ticket on the special trains being run by the railways. Many said they shelled out more to reach the airport as there were limited public transport options available.
In prior elections, not only have opinion poll forecasts been very different from the results, the error margin has increased over time. One need only look at the charts that show the Sensex half a year before and after the results day for the last six elections. The markets did not change direction in any, says Neelkanth Mishra.
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