Jaitley's Budget has the potential to change the face of Modi's Bharat
Softening the demonetisation blow, the Budget for 2017-18 on Wednesday halved the tax to 5 per cent on incomes up to Rs 500,000 but proposed a new surcharge of 10 per cent on incomes between Rs 50 lakh and Rs 1 crore and raised duties on cigarettes and pan masala while stepping up allocations for infrastructure, rural, agriculture and social sectors.
Sandesh, Rajbhog, Rosogulla and Chamcham have been revamped to keep up with people's adventurous palates.
Incidents of arson, firing and vandalism were reported from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab as protesters agitated against the dilution of the SC/ST Act.
'I bow to the 125 crore citizens of this great nation and promise to stay true to the trust they have bestowed on me.'
Pitching for making the country's 7,500-km long coastline an "engine of growth", Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said India wants to mobilise Rs 1 lakh crore investment to enable port development and invited global community to invest.
'Dalits are not going to vote for the BJP in 2019.'
'The vocal pacifists who monopolise the media in India need to answer a simple question: Would they have the Taliban or ISIS take over Kashmir or the rest of the country or let the army do its duty so that we are safe in our beds and free to demonise the soldiers in our cozy drawing rooms and television studios,' asks Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'The Constitution, which talks about democracy and equality, is something that will be applied in this country, and not Manusmriti in which the RSS believes.'
Nine Congress MLAs, most of them Bahuguna loyalists, rebelled against Harish Rawat and supported BJP's claim to form a government.
The Supreme Court on Friday said "a calamity and disaster" as huge as the one witnessed in Jammu and Kashmir floods "deserves national response" and asked the Centre to apprise it on Monday on the urgent steps undertaken to accelerate rescue, relief and rehabilitation operations.
MUST READ: The speech Nayantara Sahgal was not allowed to give.
It also said that there was 'absolute absence of material that would create an apprehension in the mind of the governor' that President's rule needs to be imposed.
'Growing up in Karnataka, in middle-class and forward-caste background, Ambedkar did not enter our consciousness at all, I realised.' 'The 'exclusion' of sections of our society was not only physical; it was comprehensive in the sense that all aspects of their lives including the life of an exceptional intellectual and stalwart had been under-understood by people of my class, I thought,' says B S Prakash.
Kanhaiya Kumar is India's latest political rockstar. More so in Mumbai, where his address this evening gave Mumbaikars a glimpse of the heydays of the Communist movement in the city of textiles mills and mill workers.
'I realised we are not doing scavenging because we are illiterate or poor. We are doing it because of the way society is organised.'
Shekhar Gupta has a question for Kanhaiya Kumar, but a bigger, more vital, one for the honourable judge.
There is a great need to introduce a transparent process to select information commissioners, who are expected to oversee transparency, says former Central Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi.
More than Guru Dronacharya, the cult of his wife, Kripi, runs stronger in Gurgaon.
Angry Congress members staged a walkout during Modi's address.
Two persons were injured in a clash which took place between AAP and Congress workers at Sultanpur village in Sangrur district.
Since 1950 successive governments have tried various options but failed to reduce alienation amongst the people, for different reasons, of Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh. It is best to accept this reality and let each region charter its own path, within the framework of the Indian Constitution, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
Nitish Kumar on Monday escalated the stand-off in the ruling JD-U in Bihar.
Bassi, a 1977 batch IPS officer told media persons after taking charge from Neeraj Kumar, "If I could summarise in a sentence I would say that my priority would be to give Delhiites a safe Delhi, and for that I will try that every Delhi policeman will contribute to his best".
'Reflex responses to Dalit student Rohith Vemula's suicide are band aids that stem the current hemorrhage but do precious little to the festering wound beneath,' says Vivek Gumaste.
Beautiful glimpses into Dilip Kumar's life with Saira Banu.
Gajendra Chauhan is just one the many troubles that ail the national film institute. But all may not be lost yet.
The last seven Indian sailors held hostage by Somali pirates were released October 30. Chirag Bahri, Indian coordinator for the Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme that aids piracy survivors and their families, speaks to Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com on how the near-impossible was achieved.
'The educated, employed, and self-sufficient Dalit is being attracted towards the BJP. The middle-class that has rapidly emerged among Dalits in the last two decades has deviated from its path. It has become a traitor to its own class. It cannot distinguish between a friend and an enemy.'
Natwar Singh's book is un-illuminating, largely self-justificatory, often contradictory, and at times tendentious. He is too preoccupied with depicting himself as a victim of the Congress party's machinations, says Praful Bidwai.
Sudheendra Kulkarni pays tribute to friend, poet and Dalit activist Namdeo Dhasal who passed into the ages on Wednesday.
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