This included Rs 1732.15 crore on advertisements in the print media (from June 1, 2014, to December 7, 2017) and Rs 2079.87 crore in the electronic media (from June 1, 2014, to March 31, 2018). A sum of Rs 531.24 crore was spent on outdoor publicity (June 2014 to January 2018), it said.
Speaking with Shekhar Gupta, the Editor-in-Chief and Chairman of The Print, on his Off The Cuff show, the former soldier and two-time chief minister of Punjab Captain Amarinder Singh expressed 'personal' hurt over the way the Gandhis treated him and asked for his resignation.
Public intellectuals who frame the ideological antipathy between the RSS & Co and Jawaharlal Nehru in the light of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination and Hindu Raj alone, miss the point by a yard, argues Shaan Kashyap.
'The Printing Machine is not an angry outburst; it's an observation on the state of affairs.' Kalki reveals the idea behind turning her poem The Printing Machine into a video.
"Is it duty of media to advise an investigating agency? It is the duty of the investigating officer to apply his mind (in the probe)," the court said. The judges made the comment when advocate Malvika Trivedi, representing a news channel which has been made a respondent, opposed the PILs.
Are we running a cricket match using football rules, asks Ajit Balakrishnan.
Experts disagree with the idea and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), which has the sole right to print money, is not comfortable with it as well.
Why should an elected government, any party's government, need a law to protect itself from its people? asks Shekhar Gupta.
The Opposition must understand that while 2024 may draw mileage from the growing resentment towards the BJP, the real battle and proof of how well India learnt from its disastrous dalliance with the Right-wing, will be in 2029, observes Shyam G Menon.
If the Taliban have proved one thing over these two decades, it is that they are way smarter than their big brother, observes Shekhar Gupta.
India has much paranoia in India about a new 'Terroristan' coming up between Pakistan and a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. Pakistan has zero ability economically, diplomatically, geostrategically or militarily to create one. If they try, it will be great for India as they will destroy themselves yet again, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
If the BJP wins by getting Hindu voters to consolidate, its opponents can't beat it by bundling together the Muslims and some of the 'others', observes Shekhar Gupta.
For two decades the US paid in blood and blood money for dependence on Pakistan to carry out one president's boast. Now, having been defeated by its proxies, another president will go into Rawalpindi's embrace to satisfy his constituents, predicts Shekhar Gupta.
Welcome to Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) - digital constructs authenticated using an abstract mathematical application. An NFT is a unique token added to some digital construct and registered on a blockchain with details of ownership. The construct itself might be free (it often is) but the NFT along with the construct is worth "more". The NFT market didn't exist until 2017 when "cryptokitties", or virtual cats, became available with NFTs. The market is now worth around $350 million. Speculators believe it is likely to be worth much more in future.
The US has the distinction of destroying a flawed but functioning State thrice since 1979. Pakistan has been their constant accomplice, explains Shekhar Gupta.
'Many Indians are not voting mostly on the basis of issues like the economy and their own well-being as measured by data provided by the government.' 'They seem to be as concerned and perhaps more concerned about other things, especially those that have to do with the harassment of India's minorities,' asserts Aakar Patel.
What do we know about India's devastating second wave, and can we assign responsibility for it?
The Assam-Mizoram violence is an outcome of BJP trying too hard to 'integrate' distinct northeastern states, explains Shekhar Gupta.
But why should India be talking to the Taliban in the first place? There is no love lost there. India will never forget or forgive the humiliation to which the Taliban subjected it in the IC-814 hijack, notes Shekhar Gupta.
A weekly roundup of the best and worst styles from the celebrity circuit. Scroll down to take a look!
Sukanya Verma tells us how to rock night clothes, Hindi filum style.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Dinesh Kumar directed Delhi Police to file the reply by January 14 on how the charge sheet was allegedly leaked to the media before the court took cognisance of it.
Femina Wedding Times raises a toast to Kiara Advani.
'Modi-Shah have understood the risks their cynical mixing of domestic political motivations with strategic national interests was soon going to become counterproductive asserts Shekhar Gupta.
The Bombay HC demanded to know from the Republic TV if asking viewers who should be arrested in a case in which a probe is going on, and infringing upon a person's rights qualified as "investigative journalism".
The divestment target remaining unchanged, from the 2019-20 interim Budget, this year means the Centre will now have to depend on non-tax revenue sources like dividends from the RBI, PSBs and PSUs, as there are real concerns of a tax revenue shortfall. The fiscal deficit target of 3.4% of GDP for 2019-20 is likely to be retained as well.
Triumphalism, premature declaration of victory meant no one checked if India had enough vaccines, oxygen, remdesivir, bringing us back to a crisis where we need foreign aid after four decades, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
'The economy is in a free fall.'
'And it's been declining for so long, so consistently, that the promise of growth and better days now looks a fantasy.' 'A mid-1970s kind of pessimism, even hopelessness, is growing among the young.' 'This isn't what Mr Modi promised them.' 'Their aspirations and needs are clear and present, and not being fulfilled,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
This is a national leadership gone so wrong that India's most powerful prime minister in four decades has personally taken charge of medical oxygen shortages, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The Maharashtra government on Tuesday withdrew its lockdown relaxation norms for Mumbai and Pune regions, both coronavirus hotspots, and revised its last week's guidelines prohibiting door-to-door delivery of newspapers and magazines in the state.
'Uttar Pradesh, our largest state by population and the most powerful, is also the worst governed.'
Aiyar lost his temper at TV reporters when they questioned him over an article he wrote, recalling a slur he directed at Modi in 2017.
'The picture only looks worse from where Bajwa sits.' 'He sees a domineering India to the east, an unravelling Afghanistan and a complex Iran to the west, an overbearing China on the north and a US which is no longer an ally,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
Flurry of economic reform suggests Modi realises his muscular nationalism script is getting jaded. Chances are he'll try for economic recovery but stick to what's worked so far, observes Shekhar Gupta.
The apex court, which asked the Centre to consider creating a regulatory mechanism and apprise it, said the government should also inform as to what steps have been taken on the issue under the Cable Television Network Act (CTNA).
The matter came up for hearing before a bench headed by Justice D Y Chandrachud which had on September 15 restrained the channel from telecasting episodes of the programme till further orders, saying 'the intent' of aired episodes 'prima facie' appears to 'vilify' the community.
The ministry of information and broadcasting on Saturday issued an advisory to all television channels and cable TV operators in the wake of the Supreme Court's Ayodhya verdict to adhere to programme code and ensure that debates, discussions and visuals do not incite any "divisive" or "anti-national" feelings.
Rao, 82, an accused in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA), is currently undergoing treatment in the Mumbai-based Nanavati Hospital where he had been admitted by the Maharashtra government following the high court's intervention.
Students' flagging interest in the written word is because of a generational digital divide, says Ajit Balakrishnan.
India must break out of this strategic triangulation between China and Pakistan. We need to settle our issues with one of the two, notes Shekhar Gupta.
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