'The greatness of Indian democracy is that it never lets any political pundit master the pulse of the electorate. Sometimes people vote for change and sometimes they vote for the status quo.'
There are three aspects of this decision that you would have to weigh in to make an appropriate choice -- namely skills, interests and values.
Despite the government crackdown on Web sites advertising escort services, the Internet leaves enough wiggle room for debauchery to thrive.
Rediff.com gives you a lowdown on the net neutrality issue that is today part of the national discourse.
Can we make high speed 4G Internet available at 10 cents per GB, and make all voice calls free of cost -- that too in a large and diverse country like India? Can we make high-quality but simple breast cancer screening available to every woman, that too at the extremely affordable cost of $1 per scan? Can we make a portable, high-tech ECG machine which can provide reports immediately and that too at the cost of 8 cents a test? Can we make an eye imaging device that is portable, non-invasive and costs 3 times less that conventional devices? Can we make a robust test for mosquito-borne dengue, which can detect the disease on day 1, and that too at the cost of $2 per test? Amazingly, says Dr R A Mashelkar, the eminent scientist, all this has been achieved in India, not only by using technological innovation but also non-technological innovation.
Here's your weekly digest of the most weird, true and funny news from the across the globe.
The resurgence that Congressmen feel is in fact more sentimental than substantive. The substantive reality is that the Congress is a party in terminal decline since 1989, says Shekhar Gupta.
A political uproar erupted on Friday over Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's controversial remarks on the 2002 riots.
In a tough action, the Government on Thursday barred Greenpeace India from receiving foreign funds with immediate effect by suspending its licence for six months and froze all its accounts, alleging it has "prejudicially" affected the country's public and economic interests.
The plan of UID/Aadhaar-based surveillance does not end with the collection of fingerprints and iris scan, it goes quite beyond it and poses a lethal threat to the idea of India, says Gopal Krishna.
The finance ministry has put out a revised draft in public domain.
It was also suggested that an all-party delegation should visit Kashmir to assess the situation but the government did not make commitments regarding any of their demands.
In a Q&A with Doordarshan, Jaitley discusses how he chose the areas on which he would spend more.
The idea is to boost household savings and turn more of them into growth capital. If the plan succeeds, sustained eight per cent-plus rates of gross domestic product growth should be within reach in a few years.
Earlier this year, Toyota Motor Corp was fined $1.2 billion for concealing problems related to sudden acceleration of some of its vehicles.
At the 53rd annual convocation ceremony of the IIT-B, Anand Mahindra urged graduates to focus on imagination.
While the government's new Central Monitoring System looks extremely impressive on the technological front and could be a vital tool to fight terrorism, there are several questions regarding the privacy aspect that are being raised. Vicky Nanjappa reports
To promote Advani as a moderate is as much a travesty of truth as to present the children of Godse as followers of Gandhi, feels Poornima Joshi
'Other countries go out on a limb to save even a single life.' 'What to talk of civilian accidents and disasters, even our military does not have a priority for Combat Search and Rescue,' says Group Captain P I Muralidharan (retd).
The ordinance has returned near absolute power of discretion in land acquisition, except in tribal areas, into the hands of the bureaucracy yet again
'... for two reasons: the poor quality of education, and the low rate of female participation in the labour force.' 'Unless something is done quickly to remedy these problems, India will just have a large population of low-skill, low-wage, males trying and failing to feed their families adequately.'
Like China, India needs to encourage 'hacker clubs' in view of the challenges of virtual terrorism, says Lieutenant General Prakash Katoch (retd)
The IPL has produced more controversies in its short lifespan than any other sporting league in history.
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It's perverse to rationalise 'controlled' killings or torture -- without going down a slippery moral slope. Once the state stoops to torture, it's liable to sink into tyranny, says Praful Bidwai.
'Of the 32 captains who have led India in Test cricket, only four have been pure bowlers -- Ghulam Ahmed, Venkatraghavan, Bishan Bedi and myself.' 'The captain must lead with only one idea in mind -- to win the game. The draw mentality is partly because captains lacked confidence and partly because they want to protect their record. If you don't think winning is the point of the game, there is little point in even entering the field.' 'As the Monekygate controversy raged, I received a message from Bishen Bedi, no stranger to controversies himself. "As a captain," he wrote, "take a decision you will be proud of when you look back on history".' Anil Kumble, cricketing legend, on the Art of Captaincy.
"The poor will not suffer disproportionately due to bouts of sharp inflation, and the middle class will not see its savings eroded," Raghuram Rajan said.
'Both reflect prejudice and short-sightedness peculiar to Mr Modi's way of thinking.'
Satya Nadella is the highest-paid CEO in the US. So how do the other Indian-American executives fare?
The Ambedkar-Periyar Study Circle explains their side of the story which saw the IIT-Madras student body being de-recognized for violation of code of conduct and misuse of privileges.
Narendra Modi's victory does not represent a victory of 'the Indian nation', but only an elite-driven polarising phenomenon. The sooner we -- and the BJP -- recognise this, the better, says Praful Bidwai.
Mohandas Pai took part in an hour-long chat on rediff.com
Away from the cricket field, it was a year in which Sania Mirza was unarguably the biggest success story with her staggering 10 titles on the Tour -- two of them Grand Slams.
'These ISIS terrorists want to smash Western civilisation, smash India. For the time being though, their main target would be the US and Europe.'
The government has provided a long-term vision.
This is the joint statement issued by the ministry of external affairs on the visit of US President Barack Obama to India.
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