More than 3,000 squads under health and local self-government departments have started the process of cleaning houses and public places, official sources said.
German Andre Greipel was again far too strong for the opposition as he claimed his second win in this year's Tour de France.
Deepika Padukone breaks her silence and talks about Padmaavat.
Controversy at the Pejawar Mutt -- an integral part of the VHP and the Ram temple movement -- forces PM to stay away.
Nitish is resigned to his fate; Smriti's an unknown; Modi's weighty issues; Will Jaitley win? All this and more from the election battlefield.
The cancellation of the project has far-reaching implications for the IAF, for which this was once its high-tech future fighter.
'A historical with an identity crisis, initially the period drama cannot decide whether it wants to chronicle facts or fictionalise them in the tradition of a crowd-pleasing fantasy,' says Sukanya Verma.
'Politicians have long appropriated the hero turned god as their totem, but never before with the ferocious intensity of the present regime,' notes Arundhuti Dasgupta.
She lived for two-thirds of her life in India, adopted its national cause and customs, and took an Indian passport. She served a prison sentence in Lahore as part of Gandhi's protests against an Imperial power which happened to be her motherland. Freda Bedi delighted in confounding accepted definitions of identity.
The India-Japan 2+2 dialogue added strategic heft to the special relationship in the wake of growing Chinese assertiveness on regional affairs, points out Dr Rajaram Panda.
The US also termed the release of Mumbai-terror attack accused Hafiz Saeed as "a step backward" in that direction.
The four-year-old Labrador and her handler Bashir Ahmed War laid down their lives to prevent an infiltration bid by terrorists in north Kashmir.
Jauhar is a recurrent theme in the history of that period. And Khilji was hardly the only Muslim invader whose onset forced women to self-immolate. Nearly the entire Mughal clan, including the benevolent Akbar, forced jauhar on the defeated, says Vikram Johri.
Sher Shah Suri ruled for only a few years, but his huge influence on India continues six centuries later, reveals Farhat Nasreen.
'Through his conversation with Yama, Nachiketa helped society grapple with a bunch of knotty issues, just as many of the ongoing conflicts could do today,' says Arundhuti Dasgupta.
'Pakistan has no strategic depth and is vulnerable to Indian military power without even crossing the border,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'In India, China's capacities to conduct new types of warfare is critically underestimated,' says Claude Arpi.
Amid snow-capped mountains and on board warships, India's armed forces demonstrated their impressive yoga skills. Let's take a bow!
Anti-conversion laws are needed since thrusting the idea of a competitive battlefield of religion onto India's pluralistic traditions can only lead to greater communal conflict, says Sankrant Sanu
Here's a collection of some of the best photos from around the world shot in the last 24 hours.
Beside the defence forces in India, the start-up has shipped around 350,000 units to 12 countries -- the United Kingdom, France, Poland, Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kenya, South Africa, Romania, Indonesia, Qatar and Oman.
Mattis attracted controversy in 2005 when he said 'it's fun to shoot some people'.
While we have to hiss loudly and do the lunging bit to keep our foes on their toes, that's only a tactical matter. What is the strategic goal? What is the end game? In my opinion, there is only one possible end game: the unwinding of Pakistan into several pieces: Balochistan, Sind, Balawaristan (Gilgit, Baltistan, the rest of PoK), the Pashtun area Khyber Pakhtunwa which will merge with Afghanistan, and the rump Punjab, says Rajeev Srinivasan.
Modi isn't going to voters on his track record but on the fear of the terrorist across the border and the Muslims within. It's a battle on his terms, says Shekhar Gupta.
'As far as acquisition of Russian equipment is concerned, with about 70% of Indian military equipment being of Russian origin, a sudden decision to abandon imports from Russia is not feasible,' points out Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
What Saisuresh Sivaswamy learnt about the election from television and the newspapers. A must read column, folks!
'The death certificate which I once read even states the date, 6 August, but I know that already.' 'Every year, we observe paath at the local gurdwara for which we need to take leave from school. The leave form always says 'attending father's death anniversary'. 'I always dread this day -- the long walk from my desk to the teacher's table with my diary in hand and in it a handwritten note dripped with sadness despite its curt language.' 'What generally follows is pity on my teacher's face, a deep sigh of sympathy and a sad pat on the back.' A moving excerpt from Gurmehar Kaur's memoir Small Acts Of Freedom.
A bearded, axe-wielding warrior known as "Iraq's Rambo" is being feted as the hero of the battle to reclaim Tikrit.
'There will be no more lapses in vigil. Not for the men who will now have to guard these frozen heights.'
'Captain Haneef-ud-din, pulling his sinewy body forward, crawled, rifle in hand, in the snow on 6 June 1999. He died on this craggy mountainside exactly two years after he had passed out of the IMA...'
'They were the leaders of my country and the children of Mother India, but they didn't die as martyrs.' 'They were killed, most unfortunately, by a well planned enemy plot, and they were victims of political violence,' states Sudhir Bisht.
Soldiers fighting the enemy will receive state-of-the-art assault rifles, other soldiers will get 'Make in India' rifles.
If he doesn't, two things are guaranteed: Failure for him, and continued slide for his nation despite its talented people, strong nationalism, the gift of geography and a formidable army, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'While US officials understand and accept India's desire for retaliation, they still don't want to encourage steps that would likely lead to war.'
Lieutenant Colonel Desmond Hayde was awarded the Mahavir Chakra, the second highest honour in battle, for winning an epic battle in Pakistan. In a brilliant and gruesome assault, what he and his men achieved that September 50 years ago had never been seen before.
Amid Russia's escalating military activities in Syria, the White House has warned it not to interfere in the United States-led international efforts to destroy the Islamic State in the strife-torn region.
The death of 10 soldiers earlier this year in an avalanche in the critical Sonam post, located close to the Line of Control with Pakistan, was due to global warming.
The United States has offered rewards amounting to USD 20 million (around Rs 127 crore) for tips on whereabouts of four top leaders of the Islamic State, a day after the terror group claimed responsibility for its first attack on American soil.
'The biggest struggles are in the human mind.'
'Let us not, with all our drive for modernisation of the armed forces, send the forces to battle this time with second rung leadership,' says Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
