On the pitches of ramshackle football academies across West Africa, teenage boys chase one another in pursuit of the ball, the chance to impress, and the prospect of a lucrative contract with one of Europe's top teams.
Though hunger levels are not alarming in India, it still fares badly, lagging behind Nepal and Sri Lanka on the Global Hunger Index.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
'Increasingly, there is a tendency to magnify 'victimhood' of the minority for electoral gains and vote bank politics.'
'There is no doubt that there is a worldwide rise in Islamophobia. There is a tendency amongst some in India to react to this in the Indian milieu,' says Colonel Anil A Athale(retd).
L'Oreal set up a second factory recently in Baddi, HP for hair colour.
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Wednesday
'The Chinese navy is large and expanding both in numbers and capability by the day.' 'India too must take measures to safeguard its own interests, now and in the future.'
Cisco, which employs about 73,000 people worldwide, has warned against a 'challenging macro environment'
Atul Keshap, a senior Indian American career diplomat and one of the rising stars in the United States foreign service, has been picked by Nisha Desai Biswal, the newly appointed assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, to be her deputy.
The FBI chief has warned that the Islamic State has become a bigger threat to the United States than the Al Qaeda as the dreaded group has influenced a significant number of Americans through social media and instructed them to carry out attacks in their own country.
The US president said America's foreign policy must be focused on the threat from IS and Al Qaeda.
India put up a dull performance among emerging economies this year.
"No leader or policymaker involved will claim to have gotten everything right in the region, Iraq especially," he said.
'An entrepreneur should always remain under pressure or he will die,' Vineet Rai tells Anjuli Bhargava.
'I am not minimising either the seriousness or the complex nature of the current situation.' 'Naturally, we have to do what it takes to secure our borders.' 'We are talking to the Chinese, both through military channels and diplomatic ones.'
'In fact, they work in tandem.' 'When it comes to finding a solution, this must be predicated on honouring all agreements and understandings.' 'And not attempting to alter the status quo unilaterally.'
There were opportunities in having these people to open bank accounts and use phone banking, said Pitroda.
It will be available in 42 languages, including six Indian languages - Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Kannada, Gujarati and Marathi.
It also carries equipment for meteorological data relay and satellite based search and rescue services being provided by earlier INSAT satellites.
'Even as discord over US-India trade and commerce colours diplomatic relations, defence relations between the two countries remain on a firm footing,' points out Ajai Shukla.
Releasing its annual Global Risks 2014 report, Geneva-based WEF said that the income disparity was the most likely risk to cause an impact on a global scale in the next decade, while other significant risks include extreme weather events, unemployment and fiscal crises.
'We did not know we would one day dominate nearly 70 per cent of the market.' 'Today, of 100 diamonds available for trade in Antwerp, 93 are cut and polished in India.' A fascinating excerpt from Shantanu Guha Ray's The Diamond Trail: How India Rose To Global Domination.
The GSAT-31 is a 'high power' communication satellite going to serve and replace some of the satellites that are going to expire soon.
The news of the week gone by that shaped the world
Hindustan Unilever Ltd on Friday said its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Nitin Paranjpe, will take up a global role at parent Unilever and become the President, Home Care, of the FMCG giant.
Mithali Raj will come out with her autobiography next year which will provide a candid and revealing look into her personal and sporting life.
A senior WCD official said the ministry has asked the Thomson Reuters Foundation, which conducted the survey, for details on the experts to ascertain the report's authenticity, but no reply has been received as yet.
Two years of the NDA government have instituted significant reforms, including the passing of the GST bill in India but "cultural issues and saffronisation" have resulted in a slow incremental change instead of big bang reforms, according to a top American think-tank.
Rediff Labs investigates the link between environment and economy in countries around the world.
'It doesn't look as if any sensible, worldly wise, person is in charge in China.' 'If at all anybody is in charge, it can only be a bunch of bumpkins of whom Xi has become a puppet,' observes B S Raghavan, the veteran civil servant.
'His negotiations with Idi Amin and his men for compensation for the Indians, who left Uganda, were particularly tough. Apparently, Amin warned him that the body of the British negotiator, who came earlier, was found in a roadside gutter... As Jagat Mehta's special assistant during the last two years of his tenure as foreign secretary, I saw for myself how his conviction, courage and patriotism enabled him to fight against heavy odds, says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The RBI on April 6 directed all payments service providers to make sure "that the entire data relating to payment systems operated by them are stored in a system only in India."
Governments encouraged motorists to switch to diesel in the belief that its superior fuel economy would outweigh the higher pollutants per litre burned.
As the pandemic unfolded, the India-China relationship has come under severe stress. To restore normalcy, agreements between the two countries must be respected scrupulously in their entirety. Where the Line of Actual Control is concerned, any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo is unacceptable, declares External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
'An isolationist US and a disintegrating European Union will create a power vacuum that only China is in a position to fill -- a conclusion that is uncomfortable but unavoidable,' says Nitin Desai.
Former world champions Spain will have to wait to regain their past glory but they need not discard their attractive brand of football that earned them fans and laurels, World Cup-winning defender Joan Capdevila told Reuters in an interview.
India's full membership of the grouping would extend its reach to the Central Asian region in whose peace and stability it is a major stakeholder, says Sana Hashmi.
Uber's draft prospectus for the biggest IPO in the world since Alibaba's in 2014 has projected a major cash burn for Uber in trying to get a significant market share in India, reports Karan Choudhury.
Artificially intelligent smartphones will be able to offer solutions and suggestions based on user behaviour.
A Test series against India, a World Cup on home soil and a much-anticipated Ashes campaign will put Australia's cricketers under heavy scrutiny over the next year, but the team need to make themselves oblivious to the hype, according to captain Michael Clarke.
China's latest combat drone which made its maiden flight this week could become the biggest export item for the Communist giant as it is comparable to the US' Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle, a top official has said.
