We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government is locked in a power struggle with the Centre and the Lt Governor. Kavita Chowdhury reports
Congress is likely to clear its position on the vexed issue of Telangana soon, as a view is firming up in the party that dragging on with the separate statehood demand will be detrimental to its interests.
Under severe push from Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee combine, the Congress core committee decided to show Minister of State for External Affairs Shashi Tharoor the door on Sunday evening.
Gandhi, who had publicly called the ordinance to protect convicted MPs and MLAs from immediate disqualification as complete nonsense causing tremors in the government, however, expressed his "greatest admiration" for the Prime Minister's leadership in extremely difficult circumstances.
The Congress core group met at the prime minister's residence late on Wednesday night and weighed options to deal with the demand made by Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to sack Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi.
Negotiators from 13 countries spent a day and a half behind closed doors.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday decided to oppose certain provisions in the Lokpal Bill introduced in the Lok Sabha and move for amendments in it.
With A P J Abdul Kalam deciding not to join the Presidential race, the Bharatiya Janata Party core group met in New Delhi on Monday night to discuss its strategy including support to P A Sangma and reluctance of allies like the Janata Dal-United to go for a contest against United Progressive Alliance nominee Pranab Mukherjee.
"All legislators will remain united and stay together till August 14," Congress chief whip Mahesh Joshi said after the CLP meeting chaired by Gehlot.
The first signs of efforts to end the nine-day impasse on government formation in Jammu and Kashmir emerged on Saturday with Peoples Democratic Party chief Mehbooba Mufti calling a meeting of her party's "extended core group" in Srinagar, expectedly to discuss the future course of action and ties with ally Bharatiya Janata Party.
Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee will hold another round of discussions with the Opposition on Monday in yet another bid to break the logjam in Parliament over the telecom scam. This was decided at a meeting of Congress core group attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party President Sonia Gandhi, as Parliament meets on Monday after a virtual washout for the last two weeks. Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister P Chidambaram also attended the meet.
Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over his reported remarks that BJP needs to bring dalits into its fold as nationalists were already with the party, wondering whether he did not consider dalits and backwards as nationalists.
HDFC Bank has reshuffled the portfolios of its senior management team. This is the first major rejig after the amalgamation of HDFC Ltd on July 1. "The runway for our growth is large. This change is being done to bring in a very sharp focus on leveraging what we have built and for enhanced execution," said Sashidhar Jagdishan, managing director and chief executive of HDFC Bank, explaining the reason for this overhaul.
Terror group Al Qaeda is "shaping" its regional affiliate in the Indian subcontinent to spread its operations into Jammu and Kashmir, Bangladesh and Myanmar, according to a UN report.
The state government last week announced the schedule for holding elections to local bodies and panchayats in the state.
After a disastrous IPL 2022 campaign, Mumbai Indians are all set to start their preparations in earnest for the next edition, with a three-week exposure tour of England in July for their uncapped Indian players.
Rahstriya Swayamsevak Sangh ideologue S Gurumurthy, who was asked by the Sangh to probe charges against Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari, on Wednesday said he had found "no moral or legal wrongdoing" in Purti Group's funding and alleged that the media is giving the issue a political colour.
The Centre has conceded most of the demands of potential buyers of Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd (NINL). These include lowering the lock-in period for sale of assets to one year and allowing the new buyer to undertake the amalgamation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) into NINL. An inter-ministerial group led by Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (Dipam) secretary Tuhin Kanta Pandey and the core group of secretaries on divestment (CGD) headed by Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba have decided that the lock-in period can be reduced to one year from the date of completion of sale, from the earlier three years proposed by Dipam, an official in the know said.
Party chief Rahul Gandhi formed a nine-member Core Group Committee, a 19-member Manifesto Committee and a committee comprising 19 top party leaders who will look after the publicity during the elections.
With the United Progressive Alliance declaring Hamid Ansari as its candidate for the post of vice president, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday decided to go for a contest, but maintained that it will finalise its nominee after consulting National Democratic Alliance allies.
After a CAG report rapped the Delhi government for irregularities in CWG projects and dragged the prime minister's office in the 2G spectrum case, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday appeared all set to raise these issues in Parliament and even force adjournment of the two Houses.
The Congress top brass, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and party chief Sonia Gandhi, met on Saturday evening amid strong demands for swift action against the perpetrators of the horrific gangrape and assault on the 23-year-old paramedic student.
A decision on the way ahead for the ambitious Food Security Bill is expected to be taken on Wednesday with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi holding deliberations on the matter.
Opposing peace move with Pakistan until it acts against terror groups operating from its soil, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday decided to build public opinion against the confidence-building measures with Islamabad.
Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sushil Modi on Tuesday met senior BJP leader L K Advani to discuss the future of the troubled alliance with key ally Janata Dal-United in the state.
Eleven of the 33 party MPs from Andhra Pradesh met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is expected to go to Hyderabad sometime later for resolving the issue, and put up their case that late Y S Rajasekhara Reddy's son should be given the top job in the state.
A day after the all-party meeting discussed Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress's Core Group deliberated the strategy for the troubled state and a blueprint for the road ahead.
Presenting the eventful life and times of the Congress vice president.
As the DMK decided to withdraw support, the government on Tuesday moved to bring a resolution on the Sri Lankan Tamil issue in Parliament in an attempt to placate the key ally which has set it as one of the conditions for reconsideration of its decision.
Amit Shah's fall has dented his boss Narendra Modi's eligibility to some day lead non-Congress centrist parties at the Centre. Here lies the real win for the Congress, as this will play as an advantage for its future leadership, says Sheela Bhatt.
Divisions within the Bharatiya Janata Party grew deeper in the aftermath of its electoral drubbing with senior leaders questioning the leadership on how the party was being run and even the review of performance was being "cloaked in secrecy."
In a bid to pressurise the United Progressive Alliance government to hold early assembly elections in Jharkhand which is under President's Rule, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday announced that all its 22 Members of Legislative Assembly will submit their resignation to the governor on Wednesday.
Vaibhavi Parmar list the front-runners in the race to succeed Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi if he opts for a larger national role in the BJP.
Asserting that it was determined to ensure the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament, the Bharatiya Janata Party has sought to make political capital on the issue by stating that since the United Progressive Alliance coalition was in minority in the Rajya Sabha, the onus of getting it adopted was with the main opposition. BJP president Nitin Gadkari on Saturday convened an emergency meeting of the party core group to discuss the Women's Reservation Bill.
The United Progressive Alliance on Sunday decided not to oblige the opposition by asking for the resignation of Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, whose nephew was arrested in a bribery case, as also Law Minister Ashwani Kumar, who is in the eye of a storm over the coal-gate controversy.
Asserting that all options are open for government formation in Jammu and Kashmir, Bharatiya Janata Party state president Jugal Kishore on Monday said his party would not form an alliance in haste as they want a stable government which would last for 6 years.
Former Congress MLA from Barnala, Kewal Dhillon, and former Shiormani Akali Dal MLAs Sarup Chand Singla and Mohinder Kaur Josh also joined the BJP.
Buckling under B S Yeddyurappa's pressure, Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday decided to replace Sadananda Gowda with Jagdish Shettar as the chief minister of Karnataka marking the third change in the state in four years. The decision was taken at the BJP core group meeting in New Delhi on Saturday, sources said.
For months now, the Washington Post reports, a core group of political strategists, computer specialists and management graduates have been poring over Obama's speeches and web site, his campus of change and, of course, the rhetoric of change, to nail down how Advani's campaign can be run to inspire India's untapped potential of young voters
