This year a whopping 74 winners were picked for the national honours, including an unprecedented five Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratnas and 27 Arjuna awardees.
Nitin Gadkari is the rising star, Arun Jaitley commands respect while minister of state Dharmendra Pradhan seems to be the PM's new favourite.
We celebrate Independence Day with this special feature, published on Rediff.com in January 2013.
The focus is not only on governance but also to ensure that the BJP's political considerations are taken care of.
Nitin Tyagi is a young farmer in Budhagaon village of Baghpat district of Uttar Pradesh. A few years ago, Tyagi left his fairly lucrative job in the medical industry and shifted base to his ancestral village to look after his land and property. He opened a small shop selling farm inputs in the village and also started taking a greater interest in agricultural matters which had so far been looked after by his father and uncles. Tyagi and his brothers primarily grow sugarcane, potato and wheat on nearly 10 acres of land with sugarcane taking up most of his time and effort. Being one of the most important and lucrative cash crops of the region, sugarcane is directly linked to the fate of millions of farmers in west UP and with it, the electoral fortunes of political parties seeking their votes in the coming assembly polls.
Dipti Sarna had revealed that she was abducted by four men at knife point while she was on her way back home in an auto-rickshaw.
Bharatiya Janata Party members on Wednesday walked out of a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) meeting on the 2G scam, dubbing it as a 'kangaroo court' following differences on the issue of calling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to depose before it.
Interesting filmi trivia, right here!
The loss of three seats in the by-elections in Uttarakhand is a matter of concern for the BJP. In Bihar, Nitish Kumar, Lalu Yadav and the Congress have stitched together a grand alliance to take on the NDA in 10 by-elections to be held there. Assembly elections are round the corner in 4-5 states. A bad performance there will evaporate the euphoria of the win in the Lok Sabha election, says Dharmendra Kumar Singh.
The news of Shah joining the Cabinet came from Gujarat BJP chief Jitu Vaghani, who tweeted a congratulatory message. "Had a courtesy meeting with our mentor Amit Shah and gave my best wishes to him on his inclusion as a strong member of the Prime Minister Narendra Modi's council of ministers," he tweeted.
Strengthening the portfolios of the home minister and the finance minister is a message that should not be missed, points out A K Bhattacharya.
In the third phase of the Lok Sabha election on April 23, 116 seats spread across 13 states and two Union Territories, will go to the polls.
The Samajwadi Party on Sunday declared that party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav's youngest daughter-in-law, Aparna Yadav, will contest the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly polls. S
Five outsiders with zero connections in the film industry and no money made their mark despite nepotism ruling the roost.
Armed with the latest GDP figures, Modi had last week mocked economists and made a veiled attack on his predecessor Manmohan Singh who had said the Centre's demonetisation decision would lead to a low growth rate.
Several members of the film industry turned up to support Karim Morani, whose mother passed away.
The GoM recommended that activities of all religious organisations should not be allowed till May 15 as a precautionary measure to check spread of coronavirus infection, the sources added.
Walmart CEO Douglas McMillon came first in the CEOWORLD magazine's global ranking of the best chief executives across all industries for 2019.
India on Wednesday hit out at tweets by global celebrities such as singer Rihanna and climate activist Greta Thunberg in support of the farmers' protests, the focus of a sharply polarised international debate that saw many Bollywood stars and top ministers rally around the government in its pushback.
An FIR has been lodged against nine Delhi police personnel in connection with the gunning down of Manoj Vashishth in an alleged encounter at a restaurant in national capital, police said on Monday.
There is also a buzz about Shah joining the government. About 60 ministers may take oath.
The flight carrying senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders which developed a mysterious snag in New Delhi on Monday was reportedly registered with a subsidiary of the DB group, owned by Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, whose alleged role in the 2G spectrum is being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Pran lived a full life, entertaining and scaring the hell out of many people, writes Aseem Chhabra, in his tribute to the legendary actor who passed away on July 12.
Major Bikramjeet Kanwarpal succumbed to COVID-19 on May 1. After retiring from the Indian Army, the major became a successful actor in films and television. An old friend salutes a wonderful human being.
Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the new timing of the price change was agreeable to the dealers and so daily price revision will be implemented from June 16
Samajwadi Party on Friday declared its first list of candidates for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections with its president Mulayam Singh Yadav seeking another term from his Mainpuri seat.
Narendra Modi is expected to have a 45-member council of ministers who will take oath along with him on Monday evening. The council of ministers is expected to have 23 Cabinet ministers, 10 ministers of state with independent charge and 11 ministers of state, according to sources.
Bharatiya Janata Party members of the Joint Parliamentary Committee examining the 2G spectrum issue on Thursday boycotted the meeting of the panel in protest against Chairman P C Chacko's refusal to accede to their demand to summon the prime minister and the finance minister.
SP veteran Mulayam Singh Yadav claimed that there was "no discord".
Like there's no dearth of memorable bus scenes and train imagery in Hindi movies, planes are equally prolific on silver screen.
Yediyurappa termed these two years as 'trial by fire', pointing out that he had to run the administration without a cabinet in the initial days, followed by devastating floods and the challenge of COVID-19 management, among other issues.
Late cartoonist Mario Miranda, actors Dharmendra and Shabana Azmi, top mathematician M S Raghunathan, former Chief Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal and industry leader B Muthuraman were among those conferred the Padma awards by President Pratibha Patil in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders and ministers were in Ahmedabad to attend the wedding of party president Amit Shah's son Jay, even as the Delhi poll results trickled in.
In its order, the high court was critical of the delay caused by the authorities in seeking issuance of death warrants for the convicts as also of the "delay tactics" adopted by the convicts.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday night named 12 candidates, including cash-for-vote scam accused Faggan Singh Kulaste and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley for election to the upper house of Parliament.
The party will also leave two seats for the Apna Dal, and entered into an electoral agreement with the lesser known Jan Adhikar Party.
In total, the Centre plans to purchase around 40.7 million tonnes of wheat from farmers this year, which is almost 19 per cent more than last year.
'While Piyush Goel, Dharmendra Pradhan, Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and a clutch of former bureaucrats including R K Singh, Hardeep Singh Puri and K J Alphons are loyal BJP members, none of them fit the mould of party apparatchiks.' 'In fact, many of the latter kind have been shown the door or have been given reduced charges.' 'That goes to show the prime minister's comfort level in dealing with professionals and administrators and the trust he reposes in them,' says Shreekant Sambrani.
A summary of all the Ranji Trophy matches played on Sunday
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances