At least 13 attempts were made earlier at modernising.
As the BJP snaps at its heels, can the Communists stay relevant in the electoral game?
'Some farmers know when elections are due.' 'Before that, they take loans.' 'They then ask their farmer unions for loan waivers and the political party who shouts first about a loan waiver (gets the votes).'
"I congratulate the people of Kochi on the proud moment," the PM said.
Economic reforms seem to be on a slow train, while good old fiscal populism is alive and flourishing.
As India celebrates its 70th Independence day, Rediff.com pays homage to millions who laid their lives for the country's freedom.
The NDA candidate tells the Election Commission that the Maoists plan to kidnap him.
Sidhu said that the corridor would promote peace and erase "enmity" between India and Pakistan and create infinite possibilities between them, including the resumption of cricket ties.
Rediff.com gives you a look at newbies in the Council of Ministers
With Muthappa Rai's death ended a life that highlighted the dark side of Bengaluru's often delirious growth to become India's IT capital
The former finance minister also criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the words he chose to attack his predecessor Manmohan Singh, saying he should remember that the Chair he sat on was used by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and even Atal Bihari Vajpayee and hence he should use right language.
The Bharatiya Janata Party might have a majority in the Lok Sabha but sarcasm and public humiliation of rivals may not be the way to assert this. In fact, it is a waste of time
A mix of industrialists and businessmen, who have inherited riches or rose from humble backgrounds and even endured boom and bust cycles, the top five MPs are illustrative of how the political stock of the wealthy is increasing rapidly.
Dr Behera speaks about how the nationwide positive reaction to the abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir indicates that the very idea of India is changing. From a diverse, multicultural entity, could India be becoming a place where assimilation is more important than accommodation?
Pune police on Tuesday raided homes of prominent Left-wing activists in several states and arrested at least five of them -- poet Varavara Rao in Hyderabad, activists Vernon Gonzalves and Arun Ferreira in Mumbai, trade unionist and lawyer Sudha Bhardwaj in Faridabad and Chhattisgarh and civil liberties activist Gautam Navalakha in Delhi.
Srikanth Kondapalli on what to expect from the seventh BRICS summit meeting to be held in Russia in July.
"We intend to talk to individuals and groups who want peace and normalcy in Kashmir Valley," Home Minister Rajnath Singh said before the departure of delegation comprising 30 members from 20 parties.
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Can the leaky public distribution system, or PDS, deliver the subsidised grain to two-thirds of the population?
Obstacles in development of SEZs will be removed.
While critics and protestors have multifarious arguments to offer, the defence of CAA has been uni-dimensional and uni-focussed as has been the case with most policies of the Modi government and the political positions of his party. But to be drawn into an issue that has assumed more than local and national dimensions, Rajini has knowingly or otherwise, taken the plunge and in favour of the BJP -- or, so it has come to be seen, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'The Indian economy has been subsidised by the poor.'
'If India is to emerge as a superpower, we must utilise our huge agricultural potential and not, as in past centuries, merely exploit our farmers,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Aziz Haniffa, who has covered every Indian Prime Minister's visit to the US since Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, gives us a peek into what's happening in Washington, DC on the eve of the Modi-Trump summit.
The Congress,BJP and AAP have carved out clear constituencies for themselves. Some of them may overlap with one another, but they seem to have positioned themselves well, says A K Bhattacharya.
'What is bank recapitalisation? When the rich take loans and do not return and the government returns that money to the banks.' 'What is restructuring 5:25 scheme? The government says don't return now, just tell us you will return after five years.' 'Why don't we apply these schemes to farmers?' 'I want to increase the power of farmers to blackmail the government as everyone in the country has the power to blackmail.'
'The present government's greatest weakness is its intolerance. Tolerance is the key tenet of democracy. How can any government stop someone from speaking one's mind?'
'The root of the Kashmir problem lies in Partition. To solve the issue, we have to begin from there and settle it forever.'
'Earlier India as part of the Third World fought for the rights of the Palestinians. But oddly the defeat of the Congress and the decline of the Nehruvian imagination has altered such perceptions. The new middle class expresses an open sympathy for Israel, contending that Jews like many Hindus has been misunderstood,' says Shiv Visvanathan.
Former India cricket captain Bishen Singh Bedi said the appointment "defies all logic".
From farmers to cement, steel, logistics, transportation and automobiles, the back-end is struggling to get going due to the liquidity crisis.
Over the years, pravasis have become a constituency, to be tapped, cultivated, and honoured, or at the very minimum to be listened to, says Ambassador B S Prakash.
The counter-insurgency operation on the Indo-Myanmar was under planning for the last three months. The June 4 ambush that killed 18 Indian soldiers only hastened the attack. Sheela Bhatt provides exclusive details of the planning for the operation.
'After Vajpayee-Advani, Modi-Shah is the second best in India.'
'Will people who buy iPhones stop buying iPhones to help swadeshi models?' 'There should be some advantage for the consumer to make them buy a Made in India product.' 'Patriotism and nationalism are good words, but in business, it won't work.'
With EU, it is part of the FTA that we will need to negotiate.
Let Bihar be damned under its contradictions of having gone 'dry' and then having been submerged under flood, which is a recurrent phenomena? After all it is a godforsaken land, having lost its promises of overcoming its problems, says Mohammad Sajjad.
With only one day left, the Winter session of Parliament is on the verge of a washout as it failed to transact any business again on Thursday.
'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.'
'The original dream of people like Faiz was that Pakistan would be something different from the old India: Progressive, forward looking, democratic (if not socialist), tolerant, diverse and pluralistic.' 'I don't think anyone foresaw the catastrophe that Partition was to become.'
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