'Karpoori Thakur must be remembered by people today who are tired of witnessing fractious politics where corruption, bigotry, hatred and violence seems to have become distressingly recurrent,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
'The slide in growth has arisen primarily because we have an NBFC crisis on top of a banking crisis,' points out T T Ram Mohan.
It was widely expected that this time around, the government would be less likely to initiate fresh reforms and rather loosen its belt a little to give various segments of the economy, especially the multitudes that truly constitute India, something to smile about, says Sudip Bandyopadhyay.
'One of R&AW's greatest achievements is in projecting itself as benign.' 'This work -- done in tandem with the Diaspora and the MEA -- sells a story of India as mostly the victim.'
The government also ruled out having a re-look at the present reservation system.
'The BJP will never do anything substantial to empower Dalits.'
With one year left for assembly elections in Karnataka, the last big bastion of the Congress, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has found an emotive issue to counter the Bharatiya Janata Party as the latter prepares the ground for a fight to grab power. Raghu Krishnan and Nikita Puri report.
The GST Council's agenda includes trimming the number of items in the 28 per cent slab by 75 per cent, easier compliance for assessees and small taxpayers, and a presentation on bringing real estate under GST.
"Today the country is moving forward from women development to women-led development," Modi said.
'If Narendra Modi and Amit Shah will campaign here, the BJP's defeat will be bigger.'
'I want to make the government realise that they are not empowering Dalits by giving them free goats or hens; what they need is good education.'
Attacked by detractors within the party of praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor on Friday accused Modi of maintaining "silence" on his ministers' comments on controversial issues and conversion campaign by groups like Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
'The Supreme Court should not have come out with this kind of order and in my opinion, the court should correct it.'
'The government says it will file a review petition against the Supreme Court, but there is no conviction here.' 'It is doing this purely because it is worried.' 'It comes from the same sentiment as asking BJP MPs to spend two nights in a Dalit village,' says Aakar Patel.
After a gap of nearly two years, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday returned to blogosphere to announce the steps taken by the state government to encourage girl's education in the state.
The euphoria of Ab Ki Baar Modi Sarkar will fade quickly if the Modi government does not raise its game, and focus significant monetary resources and managerial skills on making India's infrastructure truly world-class, says Ram Kelkar.
The Union Information and Broadcasting minister also said the well-being of the country and society should be kept in mind before broadcasting or publishing any news, and stressed that news and views should not be mixed.
In an ambitious initiative aimed at empowering women, the government has proposed to set up an exclusive bank for women having branches across the country which may see merging of the Bharatiya Mahila Bank launched last year by the UPA government.
'It could have moved from the use of small arms to artillery fire.' 'Anything could have happened like what happens on the LoC.'
'Defence does not new 'planning commissions'; it needs an implementation commission.'
The BJP's charge was that the matter was being politicised as Prime Minister Narendra Modi came from a poor family
Over two dozen Muslims have been elected to the Lok Sabha. This shows that all is not lost for India's Muslims, suggests Mohammad Sajjad.
Modi also rolled out the first of the 500 metro coaches manufactured by Bharat Earth Movers in flat 75 days at it Bengaluru facility.
'No one institution can cleanse it: Not the courts, government or activists.' 'And least of all the Indian Police Service,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
Modi has the ideas for a new, hopeful India, and an idiom in which to sell optimism to voters. But he doesn't yet have the team for it, and soon enough, questions will begin to be asked by an impatient, non-ideological, I-don't-owe-anybody-anything generation of Indian voters, says Shekar Gupta.
First, the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, much-lauded as a game changer, needs serious reform. Second, some vital policy choices would need to be made as far as competition law is concerned., says Somasekhar Sundaresan.
Here's what the Canadian PM said at IIM-Ahmedabad...
'RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat was on the Hindu extremists' hit-list. In June 2008, this information was made public. Prior to that, you should hear Bhagwat's speeches and listen to his 'liberal' statements.' 'After he was informed that he was on their hit-list, he became a hardliner. He was not like that before.'
'He has attacked our enemies in their own backyard.'
The move is part of a larger initiative by the government to speed up work in the highway sector.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs ordered the inspection of the books of accounts of NSEL and Financial Technologies India Ltd to ascertain if any rules under the Companies Act were violated, a senior official said.
'While the GST is structured to be an all-encompassing tax and to create a vastly expanded digital network of recorded transactions, no one knows how traders long used to avoiding taxes will apply their ingenuity,' says T N Ninan.
Dhirendra Mulkalwar, one of the protestors who raised a protest banner at Essar's Mumbai headquarters, on why he joined Greenpeace's Junglistan group that is working to save India's forests.
Mukund Rajan, who worked closely with Ratan Tata, recalls the unique experience of working with the corporate titan.
Marriage laws will now become more women friendly with the government on Wednesday approving a slew of measures including providing for sufficient compensation for the wife and children from husband's immovable property in case of a divorce.
Make The World Wonderful, an NGO founded by Meghana Dabbara in 2015, is on a mission to set up 2,500 child adoption programme centres by 2023.
Last week, a Rajya Sabha committee had allocated five hours for discussion on GST.
The country's franchise industry is estimated at $24 billion with a year-on-year growth of 30 per cent.
'I want to assure the country that no country, no government can tolerate anybody taking the law into their hands, whether it is an individual or a group.'
Target is to train about five lakh Indian women in next 18 months
