'Anyone they don't like can be potentially arrested and thrown in jail for 30 days to induce regime change.'
'The government is distributing land in Ladakh as if they are selling cinema hall tickets.'
'One Chinese interlocutor said India should realise that "China can do without India, but India could not do without China", pointing to its inability to do without Chinese intermediates and components,' former foreign secretary Shyam Saran discovers on a visit to China.
President Droupadi Murmu's address to the nation on the eve of the 79th Independence Day.
The Bombay High Court criticized the Maharashtra government for arresting a 19-year-old student from Pune for her social media post on Indo-Pak hostilities, calling its reaction "radical." The court granted the student bail and said the state's actions were unwarranted and had turned a student into a criminal. The court also questioned the conduct of the college for rusticating the student, stating that an educational institution's approach should be to reform, not punish. The student had reposted a post on Instagram that criticized the Indian government for provoking a war against Pakistan, but she later deleted the post and apologized for her actions. The college, however, deemed the post to be anti-national and expelled the student. The court emphasized that mistakes are bound to happen, especially at a young age, and urged the college to focus on reforming students rather than punishing them.
President Droupadi Murmu conferred the coveted Padma awards on 68 eminent personalities, including former Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar, dancer Shobana Chandrakumar, actor Anant Nag, and Vice Chancellor of King George's Medical University Soniya Nityanand. The awards were given in various disciplines and fields, including art, social work, public affairs, science and engineering, trade and industry, medicine, literature and education, sports, and civil service. The Padma Vibhushan was awarded to Justice (retd) Khehar for public affairs, while nine individuals received the Padma Bhushan. The Padma Shri was awarded to leading immunologist and KGMU VC Nityanand, footballer Inivalappil Mani Vijayan, singer Ashwini Bhide Deshpande, actor Ashok Laxman Saraf, mask maker Reba Kanta Mahanta, and musician Ricky Gyan Kej, among others.
This Women's Day week, we salute India's first female doctor, Anandibai Gopal Joshi. Her achievement opened the gates of freedom and liberty for India's women.
'Maharashtrians are facing a dual battle -- numerical battle with North Indians and financial battle with Gujaratis and Marwaris.' 'This has created anxiety about survival and ownership over Mumbai and Maharashtra.'
Estranged cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray will unite for the cause of the Marathi language, as their parties will stage a joint protest against the 'imposition' Hindi and the state government's three-language formula for Classes 1-5.
'The ruling elite are supporting those attacking the people of Gaza.' 'As a nation we should not cooperate with the oppressor regime that is allowing mass starvation as a weapon of war.'
Harsh Gupta's first JEE attempt was plagued by ill-health. But he did not give up.
Dr Rishi S Raj, chair, faculty senate, City College of New York, has been elected president, Society of Indian Academics in America.
'It has been 14 years since I began living in exile and it's shocking that the situation in Balochistan has only worsened rather than improved.'
This was a soaring evening that sent hearts aflutter and for a few brief moments we tasted the breath of pure freedom that has been missing in this country for the past several years.
The birth anniversary of Dr Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, whose political influence has surged with the passage of time, on Monday was marked by bitter trading of charges between the ruling BJP and opposition parties as they fought for his legacy.
Indian students are looking at destinations that offer quality education coupled with unique cultural and career experiences, often at more affordable costs, says Gaurav Batra, CEO, Infinite Group.
There is a view that heavyweight portfolios like home, finance, defence and external affairs besides education and culture, two ministries with strong ideological hues, will be kept by the BJP, while its allies can get anywhere between five to eight cabinet berths.
A former Pentagon official, Michael Rubin has said that India targeted terror infrastructure with precision, and it was able to blunt Pakistan's response following the recent strikes.
This step by the Modi government is in the right direction and will go a long way in safeguarding the interests of socially and economically backward communities, asserts Professor T V Kattimani, Vice-Chancellor, Central Tribal University, Andhra Pradesh, Vizianagaram.
'If you align your ambition with India's rise, the peak of your careers will unfold alongside the peak of India's power.'
There are challenges galore before him, and it is not going to be easy. In the next four years, he has to conjure a system that changes the optics about him and the BJP both nationally and internationally so that he can ride back on his own, claim the top slot, and not have to lean on a coalition, asserts Ramesh Menon as Modi 3.0 completes a year in power.
'Arundhati Roy is like a ballerina performing on a high wire, cool, supremely at ease but conscious of all the adoring eyes on her,' notes P Vijaya Kumar.
Jayant Narlikar wrote alternative what-if histories, explained difficult scientific theories with funny analogies, and leavened his lectures with jokes and humorous asides.
'I am not a mother and never had an abortion either, so I had to understand motherhood and child loss from anecdotal experiences of others.'
'When India opened its doors to the world, moving away from an agrarian to a market economy, everything, whether life or love, was commodified.'
'Is it right and proper for the US authorities to allow people like Subrahmanya Swamy [sic] go round the country preaching murder, violence, overthrow of the duly elected Government of India?' A fascinating excerpt from Sugata Srinivasaraju's The Conscience Network: A Chronicle of Resistance to a Dictatorship.
Why is the Big Apple welcoming our pachyderms? And how is India teaching the world about living with wildlife?
From royalty to a tea vendor-turned-politician's wife and from a first lady to a Bengali actress, the 18 Muslim women who treaded the hallowed corridors of power in the Lok Sabha are an eclectic mix, with each of them having an interesting backstory, but one common thread -- their path to power was always strewn with struggle and hurdles.
'The male-dominant Indian culture displays a lot of violence, a lot of aggression towards women.'
Former Kerala Chief Minister and veteran CPI(M) leader V S Achuthanandan, a key figure in Kerala's political history, died on Monday at the age of 101. He was a founding member of the CPI(M) and served as Chief Minister from 2006 to 2011.
JD-U MP Sanjay Kumar Jha heads a diplomatic mission to Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Singapore, to seek international cooperation after the Pahalgam attack while highlighting Pakistan's role in cross-border terrorism.
'When so many young Baloch men and women are willingly volunteering as fighters and even suicide bombers.'
The government has to specify what it intends to do with caste census data. It will be closely tracked if the government would simultaneously move towards removing the present 50% bar on reservations using means which are permitted in law. If this is not done, the entire exercise will become meaningless and could boomerang on the BJP, observes Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
President Droupadi Murmu on Saturday approved 139 Padma awards including seven Padma Vibhushans, 19 Padma Bhushans and 113 Padma Shris.
The Big B received the award from Shankaracharya of Kanchi.
The Enforcement Directorate is carrying out searches at 11 locations across India, including the Nagpur office of the Church of North India (CNI), in connection with a case registered in Bhopal, an ED official said on Wednesday.
While data can empower communities, it reinforces identities, making local politics more caste-centric, with decisions increasingly contested on the grounds of representation.
Such dynamics could lead to shifting alliances and, in the worst case, local governance getting paralysed as each group demands proportional power-sharing, explain Amitabh Kundu and Mehebub Rahaman.
'The time has come to have a relook at the Constitution as every document has a shelf life.'
'One of the big findings is that younger men seem to have shifted towards the Republican Party.' 'In 2020, about 23% of younger men said they would vote Trump.' 'Now that number is 48%.' 'It is like a 25 point shift, and you don't actually see shifts that big in surveys.'
'My life has been quite difficult. I felt I could see it in words. I thought if everyone else can write, then I can too.'
