'China is where the action is, and from where new ideas ('String of Pearls', 'One Belt, One Road') emanate.' 'The Belt-and-Road initiative alone is unmatched in its sweeping dimensions,' says B S Raghavan.
The Congress has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take up the issue of former IPL chairman Lalit Modi's deportation during his ongoing visit to UK and to ensure that the "fugitive" and "black money exporter" is brought back.
The plan of UID/Aadhaar-based surveillance does not end with the collection of fingerprints and iris scan, it goes quite beyond it and poses a lethal threat to the idea of India, says Gopal Krishna.
Undoubtedly, the Modi government's biggest challenge is to generate jobs for the 1 million Indians joining the work force every month. So, has 'achche din' arrived for all those young Indians eager to find jobs?
'There cannot be any compromise on that. After all, all instrumentalities of the State have been made to serve it. Why was the Constitution made? It was made to serve the cause of India.'
The year threw up quite a few shockers, some rather rude one. Below are Rediff.com's 12 picks that made us sit back and think, 'Did that really happen?'
There is speculation that China released the White Paper on Tibet in a hurry after a Spanish court agreed to hear charges of genocide against former Chinese president Hu Jintao. Ajai Shukla reports
The party said that the Delhi cricket body had become a den of corruption during Jaitley's 13-year rule.
Everything about the way Delhi is governed needs to change, Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia tells Aditi Phadnis and Akshat Kaushal.
Admittedly, EVMs too have a UID number and any convergence of data can make the secret ballot system a party of history, warns Dr Gopal Krishna in the 5th part of his series against Aadhaar.
You just cannot let an institution go adrift and never reporting to any other institution and never submitting itself to any monitoring review or evaluation with regard to its functioning and particularly with regards to an institution which has dominion over the lives and liberties of citizens. That kind of total abdication of government responsibility with regard to that kind of an institution will be dangerous to democracy itself, to the people, Bahukutumbi Raghavan tells Sheela Bhatt
'How can middlemen disappear as long as our political parties are sucking in massive amounts of black money?' 'There is an old political art well practised in New Delhi -- people create artificial problems and then solve it for you to earn your gratitude for a lifetime.'
'The government's proposal to store citizens' data including Aadhaar data under its Digital India initiative on cloud is violative of the citizens' human rights because the cloud is admittedly beyond India's jurisdiction.'
"Will anybody want a servant that who is on vacation when needed at home? And nobody knows where he is," he continued.
The Indian navy suffered yet another mishap on Friday with gas leakage in an under-construction warship in the Mazagaon Docks here, claiming the life of a Commander and hospitalisation of two dockyard employees.
The Election Commission has a fight on its hand as candidates use ingenious methods to smuggle in money to Voters.
Here's a glimpse at what happened around the world last week
Former Watson Fellow and social entrepreneur Srikar Gullapalli talks about the issues affecting India's growth and tells us why he wants more people to actively participate in building a bright future and put India on the global map.
The RSS realises that with a majority BJP government at the Centre and in several states, now was the best time to undermine and perhaps outdo the Congress-Left 'stranglehold' over campuses and young minds.
Hindu-American Congresswon Tulsi Gabbard coasts to a rollicking re-election victory in in Hawaii's 2nd District
'Defaulters like Mallya can't be offloaded, but activists like me are. And that too for raising questions.' 'Today, what is the meaning of development?' 'Take over land, water and forest from the Adivasis and hand it over to corporates.' 'I am surprised how a minister who is supposed to protect the forests and the environment is happy reaching out to investors for more and more clearances.'
The man who led this journey is 50-year-old Kalanithi Maran, chairman and managing director of the Sun Group.
'There are major implications for India. Though there was a transparently thin attempt to project the troop reduction as intended to promote peace, the downsizing is actually part of plans to streamline and strengthen the PLA, capable of defending China's national interests at home and abroad,' says Jayadev Ranade.
The controversy over Sant Rampal and his army of followers taking the law into their hands has once again thrown the spotlight on the clout that India's godmen possess.
The first 100 days of any government should be a period when it is allowed to get its act together, with no media pressure for faster, higher, says Indira Jayaraman.
Thiruvananthapuram did not give him a resounding victory, but did not abandon him either. If he learns his lessons and avoids the pitfalls of the past, he will have a bright political future, says T P Sreenivasan.
'Modi has entered blunderland as he does not understand the army. He has actually meddled with the army, which is much more damaging than the ignorance of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh.' 'People had an impression that the BJP was different. Now it has been made very, very, plain that it is not.' 'Look at the contrast in the behaviour of the prime minister. When they burnt buses in Gujarat for an unjust demand, the prime minister addressed them in Gujarati while the army veterans were on relay hunger strike for the 74th day on that day, but no word on this from the PM.'
Did you know there are laws made as far back as 1836 still in circulation in the Indian legal apparatus?
The allocation in the defence budget is inadequate to meet India's long-term threats, especially from China and Pakistan, says Gurmeet Kanwal.
'It would be very easy for me to say, it's only the Pakistanis that want the Kashmir issue to remain alive.' 'Trust me, there is a vested interest on the Indian side in keeping the issue of Jammu and Kashmir alive.'
An objective observer can indeed see the improvement in all the social parameters in Brazil, but for the citizen the state of infrastructure, public transport, education and health is dissatisfying. Some of that pent-up frustration has led to the current protest, says B S Prakash
Will China's new military reforms endanger Xi Jinping's rule?
'The thin line is a permanent dilemma with soldiers. You have to appreciate that in that dilemma and chaos there are officers who stand and lead their men.
'I am doing all this for the students of Kerala, and when they come and hit me, it is very frustrating.' 'My regret is that something that could set off for the future has been thwarted.' 'We have not changed the syllabus for decades, we have not accepted norms in education and technology is hardly used. Today's students are studying what I studied decades ago.'
Why does the army remain embroiled in counter-insurgency, denying itself a peace dividend even after expending blood and treasure in imposing calm?
'I get angry when people throw ink or slap him - but Arvind takes all this in his stride. People nowadays make fun of him and point out his mistakes but they haven't seen his sacrifice. If you understand his commitment towards this country, you will not dare say anything against him," says Dr Bipin Mittal, a longtime friend and family doctor of AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal.
From being the hand-picked choice of Sonia Gandhi as Andhra Pradesh chief minister to sitting on a dharna in Delhi against division of the state, Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy has turned from a Congress regional leader to a disgruntled rebel in his nearly 39-month tumultuous tenure.
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