Congress accuses Centre of 'protecting' state BJP chief's son.
'Greenpeace has been brutal in targeting both India and the Manmohan Singh government. The push to go after Indian coal is driven by its long-term agenda. What is surprising is that China has not been meted out the same treatment, despite the fact that the rise of China as an economic power has been built around generating power from coal. 'Being richer and more affluent, yet far less democratic, there is less room for an NGO such as Greenpeace to drive home a complicated global agenda, so there is more of a tendency to go along with anything the Chinese offer despite China being the biggest by far with regard to coal use. But for India, it reserves tougher prescriptions, notably for its middle class, says Srinivas Bharadwaj.
Govt must take few steps to improve business environment.
Targeting the previous United Progressive Alliance regime over the controversial AgustaWestland deal, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday said the ongoing probe will focus on those named in the Italian court judgement.
'It is just that we have our standards so low that anybody looks good now.' 'His sort of extremely terminological exactitude is a serious problem. He doesn't seem to understand the difference between exclusive economic zones, territorial waters...' 'I am expecting a lot of confusion because of this... Unless Parrikar starts going into the depth of the problems, he is only going to compound the problem rather than resolve it.'
Rupee volatility could be dampened if it is steadily manoeuvered to levels consistent with inflation differentials, say Jaimini Bhagwati and Abheek Barua
'Given that 95 per cent of rapes are committed by adults and only 5 per cent by juveniles, these 95 per cent of rapes will continue to take place, so what women's safety are we talking about?'
Siddharth Varadarajan, Editor-in-Chief of The Hindu, announced his resignation from the newspaper on Twitter on Friday, two years after he took over the reins from N Ram as the first professional editor of The Hindu.
Most mainstream researchers agree that good governance is a necessary condition for growth.
Few top honchos of India Inc did very well in 2014.
Here comes the moment of truth. Modi prides himself on offering an "incorruptible" government. Will he dilute the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Bill to coax the administration's fealty and compromise his self-image?
Muzzling NGOs is unbecoming of a democracy. Self-confident democracies encourage, indeed applaud, the involvement of citizens' associations, including NGOs, in social and political decision-making and development planning. Instead, our paranoid government bullies and terrorises them, says Praful Bidwai.
If the high security notes introduced in 2015 were kept in the system, the pain due to demonetisation can be ameliorated to a certain extent. But unfortunately, such thought process have no place in the hasty demonetisation decision.
'No private citizen can be prevented from holding or propagating in India or abroad, a view contrary to that of the government of the day. The government, it seems is misreading the mandate in the Lok Sabha as being a mandate to crush dissent. In times when ruling parties have brute majorities in Parliament, the true test of safeguarding democracy is its ability to allow dissenting voices to be heard,' says Indira Jaising, the former additional solicitor general.
The AgustaWestland issue was fiercely debated in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday with members of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress blaming each other.
A change in recommendation in favour of Birla did certainly happen but the question is whether it was a bona fide decision. Jyoti Mukul reports
An industry of scamsters is operating in the guise of call centres in India.
'Pakistan's capacity to carry a normal relationship with India doesn't exist.' 'The relationship with Pakistan is less important than several others.'
Those who know Shiv Shankar Menon will vouch that he did lots of things, substantial in the immediate neighbourhood and widespread in South Asia, but without making things public. Twenty per cent of Menon's job was visible, while 80 per cemt of his job was not known to the public, says Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com
The year threw up quite a few shockers, some rather rude one. Below are Rediff.com's 12 picks that made us sit back and think, 'Did that really happen?'
Indian intelligence agencies have often claimed that left-wing extremists are trying to make inroads in the militancy-hit regions of north-east to foment further unrest. But Jaideep Saikia, noted terrorism and conflict analyst, claims, "People who speak of Maoism taking roots in the north-east have not read history".
A look at the life and times of maverick businessman Chinnakannan Sivasankaran
Indian economy about to take-off