'He selects certain portfolios that he has personal interest in, and he does not give them to a senior leader. The responsibility is given to a junior minister who then directly reports to Modi or to the small team of bureaucrats working with Modi.' 'I noticed this first in Gujarat where Modi worked mainly with two ministers, Saurabh Patel and Amit Shah,' says Aakar Patel.
Rajnath Singh, under whose stewardship the Bharatiya Janata Party has stormed to power with its highest-ever tally, took charge as the Union home minister.
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.
Fighting fake brand peddlers. How the complex web of counterfeit goods threatens to trip e-commerce giants in the country.
Ministers in the Narendra Modi government have been busy making presentations on their 100 days of work. But what these presentations do not mention is that decisions by ministers have been few, with plenty of papers and files moving to the Prime Minister's Office, which is increasingly emerging as a centralised clearance point, even for routine and ordinary issues. Though policy paralysis was a term used freely for the United Progressive Alliance regime, questions are now being raised about pending decisions across ministries and whether at least some ministers have turned redundant.
Even as India gears up for election results on May 16, a group of senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have taken up an informal initiative to see how a 'Modi ministry' will look like, in case the party forms the government at the Centre.
'Could the Khar police and the CBI have tinkered with the driver's call data records?' 'And did their fiddling with the information not make it that they were tampering with the lives of people that were in the balance as a result of this case?'
'Pakistan's security establishment, despite its appallingly immoral approach to conflict, has worked with limited resources to maximise its national defence resources to continue bleeding India,' says Ajai Shukla.
Stressful work schedules and limited growth opportunities are taking a toll on a large number of senior professionals in airlines.
'In the Indian context it is not easy for rival parties to come together, especially pre-elections.' 'Having pulled it off, they should be taken seriously.'
'There is a communication gap between the Modi government and the allies. During the last one year, the NDA has met only once and that was two hours before the land bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha.' 'When Vajpayee was prime minister if any NDA chief minister asked for time , he was given it the next day. Modi is not doing it.' 'If there is tension on the streets, if there is insecurity amongst the minorities, then Make in India will remain a pipe dream.'
How will the navy's six Scorpenes fight, when their primary weapon -- the Black Shark torpedo -- is blocked by a ministry of defence ban on the company chosen to supply these? This gloomy scenario provides a heaven-sent opportunity to revisit the navy's torpedo purchase plan, handled without strategic vision and economic foresight.
Thousands of people in Darbhanga, West Champaran and Nalanda districts in Bihar have been affected by floods after rivers flowing through these districts breached their embankments. Floods occurred in Darbhanga and West Champaran districts after breaches developed in the embankments of Kamla Balan and Gandak rivers respectively, while in Nalanda it was due to the overflowing of Panchane river.
India will require new technical solutions and approaches to solve environmental problems.
Of the two big players, while Bharti Airtel can leverage its existing subscriber base, newcomer Reliance Jio will have to wean away subscribers from the incumbents
Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Lahore on Friday for a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif in a surprise visit to this country -- the first visit to Pakistan by an Indian premier in more than 10 years.
Russia's central bank early on Tuesday raised interest rates to 17 per cent to counter the 50 per cent rouble fall in six months.
The first signs of growing bonhomie between Modi and Rajan came early last year, when Modi called Rajan the "best teacher" for explaining complex economic issues to him.
Amazon committed a fresh investment of $3 billion, in addition to the $2 billion it announced in 2014.
'If anyone is able to understand the importance of Modi's endeavours to revive the economy -- even against opposition from sections of his own saffron brotherhood -- it is the former prime minister,' says Amulya Ganguli.
Was Manmohan Singh focused too much on getting policy right, while Narendra Modi is focused essentially on getting projects moving?
Bajaj three-wheelers outsell Chinese three-wheelers in Peru. The Pulsar is number one in its category. Nikhil Lakshman discovers in Lima that even though the Chinese are far ahead in investments in Latin America's fastest growing economy, Indian manufacturing and IT are holding its own.
'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.'
Under pressure from political and other outfits, Bollywood film producers have announced that they will not engage with Pakistani artistes, clearing decks for the smooth release of Karan Johar's 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' as the MNS withdrew its threat to stall the screening.
'Under Justice Gogoi's tenure, the Supreme Court has gone from an institution that was at least formally committed to the protection of individual rights as its primary task, to an institution that speaks the language of the executive, and has become indistinguishable from the executive,' warns Gautam Bhatia.
While it was no secret that Mamata was upset with Patha Chatterjee for a while as he has hardly been successful in bringing any big-ticket investment, there is a strong buzz that it was the controversy over the HPL bid that finally influenced her decision.
Indian-American business leaders meet to discuss ways to make this initiative a success.
Anil Swarup, who conceived the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana -- a scheme the United Nations Development Programme and the International Labour Organisation recognised as among the finest -- speaks to Anjuli Bhargava.
The system envisaged under the FRDI Bill, if implemented properly, would help improve the efficiency of capital allocation without harming consumers, and without risking the stability of financial firms, says Ajay Shah.
Most top industrialists rate PM's first 100 days in office as 'good', primarily due to his intentions, not concrete policy measures.
The total staff strength - once 1,100 - is now under 200.
The government plans to take India into the top 50 ranks in ease of doing business in the next two years with efforts such as shifting all applications for industrial licenses online.
The Samajwadi Party government went overboard in deploying nearly 10,000 policemen to patrol the streets of Ayodhya to prevent the VHP from carrying out its 84-kosi parikrama, reports Sharat Pradhan
Sherin was confirmed dead by US police on Tuesday after over two weeks of investigation. She was missing since October 7.
'Gau rakshak groups are beating Dalits and circulating videos on social media because they know that no one will touch them.'
Instead of a consumption stimulus the government must address the NPA issue with a war footing and invest in infrastructure, affordable housing and exports, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
Egypt's new prime minister was faced with road blocks in forming a new cabinet and steering the deeply polarised nation through a transition phase, as the Muslim Brotherhood on Thursday vowed to continue protests against the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi by the army.
'The smartest businessmen are shopkeepers as their return on investment is better than anyone else.'
'So what if the enemies take us as prisoners of war? So what of they kill us? I would feel proud that I could sacrifice my life for the country,' say these proud lady officers of the Indian Navy.
