Obama's decision to visit India must be a result of his judgement that Modi is a man of action, feels Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The Biju Janata Dal MP from Dhenkanal says crime will come down if cannabis is legalised.
'One lesson to emerge out of the Modi-Putin summit is that India can be more self-confident that it possesses inherent strengths to leverage its interlocutors to influence Pakistani policies,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
This challenge has been made a little more daunting with the addition of two new uncertainties.
It's easy to say investors should focus on fundamentals but this risk can have a significant and lasting impact
'By his very presence in Delhi on Republic Day, Obama is revisiting the most defining relationship of the 20th century after a period of stagnation,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
A chat with employees at Paharpur gives you a brief glimpse into a happy and energetic workplace.
When Obama signs the NDAA 2017 into law this week, the US-India partnership will be enshrined in US legislation, binding every succeeding administration, whatever its inclinations, to treat India as a 'major defence partner,' says Ajai Shukla.
United States First Lady Michelle Obama's 50th birthday bash featured performances by pop stars Beyonce and Stevie Wonder as the "fun" party went on all night with her hubby President Barack Obama also shaking a leg.
'Foreign aid to Pakistan. Forget it, bye bye...' 'F-16s to Pakistan. Forget it.' Shalabh Kumar, the desi who knows Donald Trump best, speaks to Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
In a sharp attack on Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party campaign centric around him, expelled party veteran Jaswant Singh on Sunday deprecated "veneration" of an individual and said world was full of graveyards of those who are considered indispensable to their nation.
Chanda Kochhar is among the three Indians in Time's Most Influential list.
'Part of the problem lies in the US failure to stay focused on the goal of convincing Pakistan to crack down on terrorists that attack India.'
At ground zero, hundreds of victims' relatives and dignitaries gathered to hear the reading the names of the nearly 3,000 people killed during the attack.
Nehru decided to build The Ashok in New Delhi to host a UNESCO conference. For a prime minister focussed on India building with projects like the Bhakra-Nangal Dam, IITs and factories, "the hotel spoke of the gumption of the country at that time." Manavi Kapur traces the eventful journey of the hotel, which has now completed 60 years.
'India has always been a land of acceptance of diversity. But if the evangelical activities continue unabated, there is no doubt this will cause a backlash.' 'One exclusive ideology begets another. The hit list will spread. The more strident the evangelists, the more strident the voices for Ghar Wapsi will grow.'
It was a crazy week for the world. Sukanya Verma cannot claim to be any different.
During his lifetime and after, Ambani aroused extreme responses in others.
'A participant in many rounds of the border talks with China once told me that China seemed not interested in resolving the border issue as it wanted to keep it as a ready excuse to intervene in the sub-continent,' says Colonel (retd) Anil A Athale.
Sahara and its founder Subrata Roy have been under scrutiny for years over its financial products, including for possible money laundering.
In a world in which men still dominate the institutional landscape, gender-neutrality is as much their responsibility as women's.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon denounced the launch and asked North Korea to halt its 'provocative actions' and return to compliance with its international obligations.
Ghostbusters may not be a classic, but the laughs it earns are all its own, says Raja Sen.
The US foreign and security policy establishment, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, apprehends that Trump may compel them to exorcise the 'unipolar predicament', and bring foreign and security policies to reflect the desires and priorities of the American public.
Vir Das' commencement address to graduates of Knox College is the best advice you'll read today.
United States President Barack Obama has nominated Indian-American, Richard Rahul Verma, as the next US Ambassador to India, ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Washington later this month.
Shankar Acharya gives ten predictions on key politico-economic developments in the world and ten for India.
'I'm a big fan of Hindu and a big fan of India -- big, big fan.'
Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's decision to cancel his planned trip to the United States next week was mutually agreed upon, US President Donald Trump has said stating that such a meeting would be "fruitless unless Mexico is going to treat America fairly".
'India is no longer the India of the '70s and the '80s.' 'It's a large country with the fastest growing economy.' 'In working with India, you just can't go and humiliate the nation publicly.' USIBC President Mukesh Aghi tells Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com about how he advises American companies to do business with India, what he thinks of Modi's government and the way forward for the India-US relationship.
'The real problem that has affected Tarantino's films is not their amorality. On the contrary, it's their misplaced morality.' 'The basic pitches for his movies, off late, tackle such pre-resolved issues, that they don't quite allow his pop-culture sensibilities to hit a crescendo and instead reduces them to trinkets in service of broad movie prototypes.' 'Which means that neither history nor cinema triumphs.'
They broke free yet failed to evade the clutches of law.
Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com listens to four Indian and American national security advisers recalling the hard work that went into negotiating the nuclear deal.
'The year in pictures' treks across the globe, looking back on the moments that shaped 2016. From the United States presidential race, to demonetisation in India to the refugee crisis, the news has kept pouring in. Here are our top 50 moments from the world.
What happened in Uttarakhand is a national tragedy. Why couldn't Dr Manmohan Singh announce that he was forming an Uttarakhand Relief and Rehabilitation Committee, with himself as chairman but inviting Narendra Modi to become the deputy chairman, asks T V R Shenoy.
Economist Arvind Panagariya tells Suman Guha Mozumder that the rupee is doing a much-needed clean-up job, raising exports and cutting imports.
'They don't always agree with our governments, their teachers or their parents, but it is the conviction of their ideas, and their determination to share them with the world that, I believe, is one of the greatest sources of hope for our planet.' 'The colonisation of space, understanding the very building blocks of matter and the universe, utilising our understanding of the human genome to conquer disease -- these are the tasks waiting for a fellowship of minds to realise new triumphs in our collective destiny.'