A family home in the leafy Hampstead neighbourhood of north London where Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore lived during a visit in 1912 is on the market, reviving some talk of its acquisition on behalf of the Indian government.
The current question is about the BJP-ruled Centre, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, like its predecessors, not arguing the Union of India's case effectively and continuously, whenever the matter came up in the past, if its case still was that Rajiv's killing was an 'act of terror', asks N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The muscularity of the last three years didn't bring any dividends and if anything, Chinese attitudes only hardened,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
With an epic battle of billionaires for supremacy in one of the world's most prolific markets and a pandemic-propelled surge in online shopping in the background, India's nearly trillion-dollar retail market is hoping to touch 85 per cent of the pre-COVID business in the first half of the New Year. In a year when the COVID-19 carnage ripped apart the retail business, circa 2020 will best go down for the unravelling of the war between Jeff Bezos, the world's wealthiest man, and richest Indian Mukesh Ambani for pre-eminence in the booming market that is estimated to reach $1.3 trillion by 2025. It all started with Ambani's Reliance Industries agreeing in August to buy assets of the nation's second-largest retailer for Rs 24,713 crore, just a year after Bezos' Amazon purchased an indirect stake in the indebted Future Retail.
A British court on Monday granted a bankruptcy order against Vijay Mallya, paving the way for a consortium of Indian banks led by the State Bank of India (SBI) to pursue a worldwide freezing order to seek repayment of debt owed by the now-defunct Kingfisher Airlines. "As at 15.42 [UK time], I shall adjudicate Dr Mallya bankrupt," Chief Insolvencies and Companies Court (ICC) Judge Michael Briggs said in his ruling during a virtual hearing of the Chancery Division of the high court. "I have to decide if there is a real prospect of payment of petition debt in full within a reasonable period of time... there is insufficient evidence that [Mallya's asset realisations in India] will pay the debt in full within a reasonable period of time," Judge Briggs noted, in reference to defence arguments pointing to a restoration process in India following a Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) court order for the attachment of Mallya's assets.
If Indian storytelling can deliver, it can make the entertainment industry an engine of economic growth and a substantial contributor to GDP, says Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.
Dilip Kumar 'got annoyed and was about to leave the stage before things were brought under control'.
How does India take to the mellowed Dr Kissinger? India's elites may have dropped their earlier allergy toward him, but they are on guard still, feels Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The high-voltage outbursts of netizens over #Feku (Gujarat Chief minister Narendra Modi) versus #Pappu (Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi) is not the real issue. It's how parties are using social media to get their message across, says BJP cyber cell chief Arvind Gupta.
'When you come through the hassles and struggles of business life, your mind is wired differently.' 'You are more connected to reality,' Akali Dal MP Naresh Gujral tells Rahul Jacob and Archis Mohan
'It is vital that objects such as the Harihara -- and collections from South Asia generally -- remain here,' the British Museum tells Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
'There is a remarkable link between the eating of beef (or at the very least, tolerating the eating of beef) and India being a superpower.' 'In India, whenever an empire was strong, religion took a back seat.' 'Alternatively, whenever religion asserted itself, the main empire of India crumbled...'
The World Bank's latest review of its purchasing power parity (PPP) baseline will reignite the poverty debate.
The engineering marvel defines the Kolkata skyscape.
The 'love that dare not speak its name' has found a voice, and legitimacy. Sandip Roy on the sexual revolution, circa 2008.
A Mughal-era manuscript filled with Indian miniatures discovered locked up in a cupboard inside a rural England castle is now up for sale at Sotheby's upcoming auction in London.
'In India, a really popular and well-entrenched leader is not defeated by a rival.' 'Such a leader has to defeat himself,' observes Shekhar Gupta.
She was capable of a level of human compassion that is rare today among politicians, recalls Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, who knew the Communist legend K R Gowri, who passed into the ages on May 11, from his childhood.
'And he was really trying just to do the best by the shareholders, and by the laws of India.'
Saturday will be the last time the Mumbai Mirror will hit newsstands as a daily. Two Saturdays ago, its owners, the Times of India group, shocked the city by deciding to convert the Mirror into a weekly newspaper. Jyoti Punwani salutes the Mirror and its editor, Meenal Baghel, for its pathbreaking journalism.
In a competitive market, pricing is the management's business. The consumer has so many choices -- single screens, multiplexes, TV, online streaming or DVDs. Nothing forces him to go to a multiplex. Nor are films an essential commodity where prices have to be regulated, says Vanita Kohli Khandekar.
Rediff readers wrote emotionally about the passing of Dr Abdul Kalam while others sent in pictures of chance meetings with this humble physicist who was always available with an easy smile and some gentle words.
The IMF's predictions for India's near-term growth may seem rosy, but the usual caveats apply - that is, we are apt to under-perform.
"For some, these artefacts may be measured in monetary terms but for us this is beyond that. It's a part of our culture and heritage," the prime minister said at the ceremony held at the Blair House.
Zee Group is India's second-largest media and entertainment firm.
Shashi Tharoor says the British Museum should change its name to Chor Bazaar because whatever it has within its portals is the result of 200 years of theft. The museum is once again in the eye of a storm for the possession of a statue of a god Hindus, across the world, worship as the Supreme Being.
'No, the liberals haven't lost because there weren't any liberals in the fray to begin with.' 'What has happened is that left-wing orthodoxy has lost to right-wing orthodoxy.' 'That is at best a Pyrrhic victory for India,' argue Sonali Ranade and Sheilja Sharma.
Economist Deepak Nayyar says economic openness, while necessary, is not sufficient, and is conducive to development only when combined with industrial policy.
'Tragically, compassion is in short supply in our ancient capital city, as the horrific violence in recent weeks testified,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
10 important things we've learned purely by watching Mohenjo Daro's extravagant trailer!
We take a look at his life through his pictures over the years.
'Over 200 million Indians use WhatsApp, including many who use no other form of social media.' 'WhatsApp has been used to propagate all sorts of fake news and misinformation.' 'In the past six months or so, WhatsApp has been the core enabler of many instances of lynching,' points out Devangshu Datta.
The senior Congress leader also said over 90 per cent of jobs are in the SME sector which requires an urgent push to boost the economy.
Ruing that golf is still beyond the the common man's reach, five-time Asian Tour winner Gaganjeet Bhullar said it's high time that government support the sport with 2016 Olympics in mind.
Mansi Manchanda from Delhi writes about her elder brother Sahil.
'The Ek Do Teen star struggled with a problem skin all through her reign as numero uno.' 'And yet acne never got into the way of her incredible success.' All this and more in Sukanya Verma's Super Filmi Week.
All the minor irritants can be overlooked when you can get automatic transmission, diesel fuel efficiency and a Honda badge, all for less than a million rupees, says Pavan Lall.
'It upsets me to see blind cricket going unnoticed by the government while it rewards even the smallest achievement in normal cricket,' the Sachin Tendulkar of blind cricket tells Geetanjali Krishna.
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