A day before the end of the fourth phase of lockdown, the home ministry on Saturday issued new guidelines for the phased reopening of all activities outside containment zones till June 30.
EPS' real test will commence with a decision whether or not to patch up with OPS and on what terms -- and then, to decide whether or not to have the BJP for an electoral ally, come 2024, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Though the run-up to the poll saw a high pitched campaign by the parties, the turnout of the voters on December 1 was an unimpressive 46.55 per cent (34.50 lakh) out of the total 74.67 lakh voters.
Security of tenure is important for a bureaucrat to work efficiently. There has to be some rationale behind posting a bureaucrat to a particular department, says former cabinet secretary T S R Subramanian
The Biden administration is quietly pressing Pakistan to cooperate on combating dreaded terrorist groups such as the ISIS-K and Al Qaeda following the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, according to a set of leaked documents and diplomatic cables to a prominent US media outlet.
According to separate orders issued by the Home Department of the Union Territory, the PSA against Faesal, who was a 2010-batch IAS officer, Sartaj Madani, uncle of Mufti, and Peer Mansoor, her political advisor during her tenure as chief minister, was revoked 'with immediate effect'.
This time round, even 'petrol coupons' were reportedly distributed for those attending campaign rallies, especially those addressed by top leaders, cutting across party lines. If this owed to the rising cost of petrol and diesel -- which is a poll issue this time -- there were the customary coupons for 'quarter' (liquor bottle size) and non-vegetarian biryani. Some media reports claimed that some of these 'crowds' attended more than one political rally on the same day in the last week, and at times for rival political parties in adjoining constituencies or districts, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Personal competence, where it should have been acknowledged and appreciated, was sacrificed for that oft heard line: Party-is-supreme. It angered that at a time when lives are at stake amidst the pandemic, the government didn't deem continuity in leadership important for the health portfolio, observes Shyam G Menon.
Reddy -- an Indian-American from Telangana who wrote the speech that outlined Biden's goals for his administration, focusing on healing from the current state of division in national politics -- has been praised for his "calming" and "inspiring" words.
The public protest had erupted over the demand for rehabilitation of nearly 800 families evicted from the land they were living on for decades.
Doubts over implementation of a Cabinet-approved strategic sale policy are puzzling.
'In a serious fiscal situation like this, an ostrich-like focus on annual budgeting, event management and defensive rhetoric will only make matters worse,' warns Rathin Roy.
Leaders across the political spectrum on Friday condoled the demise of Chhattisgarh's first chief minister Ajit Jogi, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailing the IAS officer-turned-politician for striving to bring a positive change in the lives of the poor.
A day after the Patna high court slammed the Bihar government for its poor handling of the second wave of the pandemic and sought to know whether it was enforcing lockdown or not, the administration on Tuesday announced imposition of lockdown from May 5 to May 15.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday night sacked a junior minister and changed the portfolios of 11 ministers including 9 of cabinet rank in a major reshuffle of his council of ministers.
Chief Minister Stalin seems to have drawn a line between his personal beliefs and those of others in the family, beginning with wife Durga Stalin, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
The report mentioned the Central Bureau of Investigation raid on NDTV, exit of Bobby Ghosh as the editor of Hindustan Times and arrest of cartoonist G Bala.
If push comes to shove, Trump is probably planning to order the US army to clear his path for a second term. What if the armed forces refuse to obey their commander-in-chief?, asks Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
A US Congress-constituted quasi-judicial body on Wednesday asked the Joe Biden Administration to designate four nations, including India, as "countries of particular concern", alleging that religious freedom conditions there in 2020 continued their negative trajectory.
Administration is an evolving process, requiring the civil service to constantly re-invent itself to meet new challenges. The administration must become accountable to the law of the land and to the people.
The case has been registered against unidentified officials of police and revenue department on the basis of a complaint from K Arjunan, district secretary, Communist Party of India-Marxist.
Transition sources said Trump is close to selecting 55-year-old Tellis to be the next US envoy to India to replace Richard Verma who was appointed US Ambassador to India by outgoing President Barack Obama in 2015.
In one of the worst school shootings in American history, an 18-year-old gunman has killed 21 people, including 19 children, and two adults at an elementary school in Texas state, with an emotional President Joe Biden urging lawmakers to 'turn this pain into action' to control the powerful gun lobby.
Stalin, 68, was contesting as the chief ministerial candidate for the first time during these polls. He was elected unopposed as the DMK chief in August 2018, after the death of his father, a post that Karunanidhi held for 49 years. That didn't come as a surprise to anyone, as during his lifetime, Karunanidhi, on multiple occasions made his preference for his successor abundantly clear and systematically groomed him for the job.
'I hope that the incoming Biden-Harris Administration works with India to address some of the most profound geopolitical transboundary challenges.'
Jayalalithaa was the third chief minister in Tamil Nadu to die in office, after her mentor M G Ramachandran (1987) and before that his mentor C N Annadurai (1969). The state government should have evolved protocols for the medical care of the incumbent, and institutional memory should have guided the government and officials in the matter, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
Pakistan's Election Commission on Friday disqualified former prime minister Imran Khan for five years in the Toshakhana case for hiding proceeds from the sale of gifts he received from foreign leaders.
Labelling All India United Democratic Front chief Badruddin Ajmal as the 'enemy of Assam', state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Sunday asserted that he is an extremist in protecting Indian and the Assamese culture.
'What steps have the higher level of political leadership taken to remove corruption from the system and bring in honest governance?'
The inaugural Formula E race in Hyderabad is scheduled for February 11 next year, joining the likes of New York, London and Rome on the calendar.
India will need to watch carefully and understand the new round of instability and uncertainty in Pakistan, while charting the course of its future diplomatic initiatives, points out Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
'While they were respectful of the PM, it was clear that as ministers, they owed their positions as much, if not more, to Mrs Gandhi.' 'When attacks were mounted on the PM, there was very little coordinated effort by the Congress, UPA ministers or other politicians to speak up in his favour and strongly defend him.' B K Chaturvedi, Cabinet Secretary during the early years of UPA1, reveals how the Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi equation worked. A riveting excerpt from Chaturvedi's memoir, Challenges Of Governance: An Insider's View
'We don't have any agenda in that, there will be no discrimination against anyone. Constitution will be Gita in that'
The corona deaths in India so far add up to 91,149 (September 24, 3.26 pm). It is seven-and-a-half times the number of Indian soldiers slain in all the wars (1947, 1961-1962, 1965, 1971 and 1999) in post-independent India's history, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Jeff Sessions, a close confidant of US President Donald Trump, was on Thursday confirmed to be the next attorney general, after a historically tumultuous process that saw the senator come under fire for his views on race and civil rights.
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.
Donald Trump, known for his unpredictable leadership style, divisive rhetoric targeting both allies and opponents, and the only US president to be impeached twice, left the White House on Wednesday with a tainted legacy never seen before in American political history.
This is perhaps for the first time the CBI raided a serving police chief of a state.
United States Ambassador to India Nancy Powell plans to meet Narendra Modi, signalling a shift in America's stand towards the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate in connection with the 2002 Gujarat riots.
The Union home ministry's notification giving effect to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021 came on Tuesday night, as the city battles a ferocious COVID-19 wave and its healthcare system is stretched to breaking point.
