India's trade with the Gulf-Arab region stands at $180 billion. India needs the Gulf region more in terms of trade, investments and employment than the other way round. When it comes to faith, the Gulf-Arab nations have not been found wanting at any point in time, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
'Ravan had palaces in caves and that tunnels were the highways of that time and ran between prominent cities.'
'The Rajapaksas have been in active politics for decades and survived many challenges, but they seem to have misread this one.'
A hands-on mother and devoted wife, she craves an ordinary life.
'Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is sincere about maintaining religious harmony in the country.' 'But for mysterious reasons, it does not reach the grassroots activists of her party.'
The study found that the Muslim community contributes a share of 22.75 per cent to the religious minority schools and has the lowest percentages of non-minority population among their minority schools at 20.29 per cent.
Whether it is Sri Lanka, Maldives, or Nepal, quietly but steadily, India has been reclaiming some of the ground it had lost to China, observes Aditi Phadnis.
After Bharatiya Janata Party working president Jagat Prakash Nadda took out a march in Kolkata in support of the newly-enacted citizenship law, the party's West Bengal vice president Chandra Kumar Bose has raised his voice against the act and said India is a country "open to all religions and communities".
The concept of 'fairness by rulers' is deeply ingrained in Indians and any weakening of this dents the legitimacy of the ruler, warns military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
BJP MP Parvesh Verma alleged that the Shaheen Bagh protesters could harm residents to Delhi and urged people to wake up "while there's time."
The minister was scheduled visit the two states on Sunday and Monday. The ministry cited no reason for the cancellation.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India on Tuesday said the tri-nation T20 series in Sri Lanka, also involving the Indian team, will continue despite the country plunging into a state of emergency following communal violence.
Rediff readers shared their best photographs of India.
The act grants citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Christians, Jains and Parsis who had arrived in India by December 31, 2014 from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh due to religious persecution.
Rs 6,27,507, the amount of damage assessed by the administration, has been raised by donations within the community, Haji Akram, a local councilor, said.
"Looking forward to a wonderful day," Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweets before he leaves Colombo. G Sudhakar Nair/PTI reports from Anuradhapura
The Andhra Pradesh Government on Wednesday approved Amaravathi town, the ancient seat of power of Satavahana rulers, as its new capital coming up in the Vijayawada-Guntur region, which is also known for its historical and spiritual significance.
Rediff readers shared these pictures from their travels.
'We will not accept the CAA and EIA. We have been protesting against the CAA since 2016, but this government has not listened to us'
On the second day of his Japan tour, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday visited two prominent ancient Buddhist temples in Kyoto -- Toji and Kinkakuji -- offering prayers and mingling with the common people and tourists.
Hindu population showed a decline by 0.7 per cent at 96.63 crore during the period.
'How is it to live in a place that does not have electricity or a telephone connection, where people do not have any concept of what the world is beyond the mountains?'
Describing Bodh Gaya as the "land of enlightenment", Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said his government would develop the site as the spiritual capital for it to serve as a civilisational bond between India and the Buddhist world.
The Renkoji Temple is a lot smaller than other grand Buddhist shrines in Japan. In front of the gate, in a very serene setting, is the bust of Netaji. Aseem Chhabra reports from Tokyo.
Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyar on Tuesday joined the protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens in Shaheen Bagh and attacked the Bharatiya Janata Party-led central government saying that they fought elections on the promise of 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas', but they did 'Sabka Saath, Sabka Vinash'.
Addressing the party's national executive, Nadda also reached out to Sikhs, who are in majority in poll-bound Punjab, by listing a number of measures the Modi government has taken for the community, including expediting action against 1984 riots accused, facilitating foreign grants to gurudwaras and keeping langars outside the review of the Goods and Services Tax.
In the petition, the government stated that the act violates "Articles 14, 21, and 25 of the Constitution of India" and is violative of the basic structure principle of secularism as well.
Which group is responsible for the serial blasts in Gaya?
Buoyed by his visit to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state Gujarat, Chinese President Xi Jinping in a reciprocal gesture invited him to his hometown Xi'an, where the famous Buddhist monk Hiuen Tsang spent his last years after his return from India some 2,000 years ago.
From Sri Lanka's most popular political family to its most despised -- going by the voices on the streets calling for the Rajapaksas' ouster -- what went wrong for the clan? Veteran Sri Lanka watcher N Sathiya Moorthy offers an insight.
'The court can strengthen the verdict by ensuring that Muslims don't feel shortchanged or cheated.'
A separate Union Territory has been a long-standing demand of locals, many of who have alleged that the Ladakh region had been neglected by leaders of Jammu and Kashmir.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday demanded a referendum by an "impartial organisation" like the United Nation to see how many people were in the favour of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.
The issue of the amended Citizenship Act is an internal matter of India, Advisor to Hasina on international affairs, Gauhar Rizvi, said in Kolkata.
The SC issued notice to the Centre on the batch of pleas seeking stay on the operation of the law.
AASU, Cong MP Jairam Ramesh, TMC MP Mahua Moitra, and several NGOs have filed petitions against the act that was assented to by the President yesterday.
Dubbing the recent acts of violence targeting its citizens in Tamil Nadu as an attempt to tarnish its friendly ties with India, Sri Lanka has lodged a strong protest with New Delhi over the incidents of assaults on Buddhist monks.
The docking of two Chinese submarines at the Colombo harbour in 2014 had angered India, which said it undermined its security interests.
'Whether I die in Calcutta or in Paris, on a Wednesday or a Saturday, it does not matter, but you would not want me to come to India's door and then return to France without having visited India.' 'Either I will die or I will visit India!' Claude Arpi hails Georges Clemenceau, French prime minister during the Great War, a great man who loved India.
In an exclusive interview with rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt, Telo Tulku Rinpoche, who heads the biggest Russian monastery in Kalmykia and is the president of Buddhist Union of Kalmykia, says while in New Delhi, they want to attract Putin's attention to an urgent need of visa to the Dalai Lama, despite China's reservations.
