'Gujaratis, among all Indians, are supposed to be born businessmen, but if more than 80% of them do not have the ability to do basic arithmetic, the future is grim.' 'The big issues are in society and they cannot be changed by an HRD minister no matter how brilliant she may be or think of herself as being,' says Aakar Patel.
Returning to JNU campus on his release from jail three weeks after his arrest, Kanhaiya Kumar said they are seeking freedom within the country and not from India.
Rumblings within Congress over its decision to form Telangana grew on Friday with its seven MPs, a state minister and seven MLAs from Andhra and Rayalaseema regions quitting amid indications that some more are likely to follow suit.
Rahul Gandhi on Saturday accused the National Democratic Alliance government of "suppressing" students' voice as he visited the JNU campus to express solidarity with them, a day after the arrest of its students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar in a sedition case.
'The middle class stood by the BJP, especially after demonetisation, and they expected something in return.' 'Some section of the BJP believes the middle class is condemned to vote for the BJP as they have no other choice.' 'They think they can treat them any way, still the middle class will run to vote for it.' 'That's what the Budget seems to convey.'
Seen as a prelude to the more serious RedInk Awards -- which celebrate the finest in Indian journalism -- the high-profile winners of the 'Ouch' awards included Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The Congress released its second list of 71 candidates on Tuesday night. It is an interesting list, considering the names which have been taken on and the ones which were dropped. Renu Mittal reports
Canadian phone maker Datawind which has supplied about 1,00,000 low-cost Aakash tablets to the government till date says that it would be a challenge to supply the device at Rs 2,500 a unit due to rupee volatility and other factors.
If the prime minister wants the tension of examinations to ease up, he may have to look at some more serious reform of India's education system than holding festivals
'Our great Indian nationalists are rousing passions against their own people, not against another nation. Our fraud nationalists go after their own citizens for their religion, or for their views. Their concern and their passion is the enemy within. That is not love of nation or love of anything else. It is hatred and it is bitterness,' says Aakar Patel.
Given India's political scenario, where parties seek votes on the basis of caste and religion, the issue of using mother tongue in schools is more of a political vendetta, says Devanik Saha
Shashi Tharoor, an alumnus of the college and Member of Parliament, talks to Ritika Bhatia about the marking system that leads to such anomalies as well as the future of higher education in the country.
'I told all those Indians in Cheen there are some netas who go on holiday and don't work. Here I am, working and working, going on so many yatras, shaking hands with all big world netas till my hands feel they will fall off' 'Hai Hai, so much remains to be done, so many countries still to be visited...'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his second 'Mann ki Baat' radio address to the nation on Sunday, said as far as the issue of black money was concerned, he would work to ensure that every single penny was returned back to the country.
A top Home Ministry official said no note has been prepared yet to be placed before tomorrow's scheduled meeting of the Cabinet to be chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
"Sushma Swaraj is a great asset to the nation. There is a no allegation at all. Still they want her to resign," he said.
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, who has been facing the opposition's pressure to quit in connection with the 'Lalitgate' may have survived the first salvo, but it remains to be seen how dexterously she manages the show in the coming days, says Prakash Bhandari.
Upasna Pandey/ Rediff.com spoke with senior professors and students who pointed out the inherent flaws in the existing sexual harassment grievance redressal mechanism at the institution and university level.
'Their vote bank has shifted to the BJP; the Congress is yet to realise it.'
AIADMK members on Tuesday disrupted proceedings in both houses of Parliament demanding action on former union minister P Chidambaram's son Karti on the Aircel-Maxis issue.
'All their idealism, intensity of emotions, acute sense of right and wrong, and burning passion for public causes can never serve as justifiable grounds to be touted by students of any country, let alone of India, with all its fragility and vulnerability, to question its unity in the name of freedom of expression,' says B S Raghavan.
Modi's minister Singh has stirred a controversy saying that it was the colour of Sonia Gandhi's skin that made her the Congress chief.
We're behaving like frogs in warm water. We swim around untroubled, cooled by our faith in Indian liberal democracy. We are blind to the bubbles popping around us, the bubbles warning of fundamental changes, says Mihir S Sharma.
Voicing "dissatisfaction" over remarks by Modi on Friday at a university in Lucknow, the Joint Action Council spearheading the stir asked if the prime minister would now take action against his ministers.
Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday targeted Union HRD Minister Smriti Irani and Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya over the suicide by a Dalit scholar saying the ministers and the vice chancellor have "not acted fairly" that forced him to take the extreme step.
'The attempt to make Aadhaar mandatory has now emerged as an act of bullying by government agencies, turning citizens into subjects by making fundamental rights conditional on biometric identification,' says Gopal Krishna.
Setting the stage for confrontation in Parliament, an all-party meeting called in New Delhi on the eve of the monsoon session on Monday ended in a deadlock over controversies related to the Lalit Modi and Vyapam scam even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered to discuss all issues. The government ruled out any resignations.
'As engineers, as alumni and as Indians, we should be concerned about today's leadership that is making tomorrow's leaders at our IITs,' says Air Marshal P V Athawale PVSM, AVSM, VSM (Retd).
I will not question the collective decision made by the parliamentary board of the party on allocation of posts, says BJP leader Shatrughan Sinha in an interview to CNN-IBN
In the third reshuffle since coming to power, Prime Minister Modi raised the strength of his Council of Ministers from 73 to 76.
An HR person's job is all about talent management.
Following her spat, 'Aunty National' Irani took to Facebook to speak out against her detractors. Here's the Facebook post in response to her critics which Rediff.com represents verbatim:
Yale University has issued a statement saying that Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani attended a weeklong programme and received a certificate from the university last year, along with several other lawmakers from India. George Joseph/Rediff.com reports from New York
'This is India, bhai. This kind of country does not exist anywhere in the world.'
With the Delhi University still on a defiant path, the University Grants Commission on Wednesday night gave a fresh ultimatum to it to begin the admission process for the undergraduate classes dumping the controversial four-year course.
A brief report card on Modi's ministers.
Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi appears to be on the way out in the wake of his defiance as the Janata Dal-United is all set to replace him with his mentor Nitish Kumar at a meeting of the legislature party on Saturday.
Former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor has informed the Kerala High Court that he had not acquired any assets of his late wife Sunanda Pushkar either individually or jointly with her son or anybody else as her movable and immovable assets are not yet "ascertainable or estimable".
'Once you've made up your mind that you don't like Smriti Irani because she has got where she has far too quickly or far too easily, you find reasons to dislike her and to justify your view,' says Pritish Nandy.