'There has to be an 18-month transition.' 'But if the government had some prior knowledge that the high value notes were being used for an imminent terrorist activity in the country, then we have to accept the step.'
Taking away free healthcare facilities, as recommended by the Aayog, would place a huge burden on the people, especially in rural areas, says Devanik Saha.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has faced a lot of flak on the Gujarat development mode. On Tuesday, criticism came from an unexpected corner when principal of St Xavier's College in Mumbai, one of the premiere institutions, sent out a letter to nearly 3,000 students critiquing Gujarat's development model.
India is no longer shying away from playing a role on the regional and international stages and is willing to don a bigger role in regional politics. It is showing traits of a responsible stakeholder in the regional security dynamics, says Dr Rahul Mishra.
Duvvuri Subbarao recounts how his tensions with P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee, then finance ministers, over monetary policy spilled over into other issues in the central bank in this excerpt from Who Moved My Interest Rate?, his memoir of his term as Reserve Bank of India governor.
'Modi's advent has made the mass of Indians realise that there was absolutely nothing wrong or objectionable in proclaiming nationalism as the masthead of the polity and Hinduism as its centerpiece,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
Congress leader Janardan Dwivedi got a snub from the party on Wednesday with Sonia Gandhi rejecting his suggestion for ending quota based on caste saying there should be "no doubt or ambiguity" over the party's stand of continuing the system of reservation for SCs, STs and OBCs.
At scaling back Tehran's nuclear programme and relieving the Islamic Republic from the sanctions
Dr Rakesh Mohan, former RBI deputy governor, and Dr Pronab Sen, former chairman of the Indian Statistical Commission discuss the issues facing the Indian rural and manufacturing sectors and what the government must possibly do to improve demand and perk up the Indian economy
Mission Shakti 'shows the development within India's military space programme, its desire to be seen as a global space power and its recognition of the potential dangers of China's counterspace programme.'
Is it just the glamour?
Against the backdrop of objections by some MPs, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh on Tuesday strongly defended the Rs 2,058 crore (Rs 20.58 billion) Jet-Etihad deal, saying those opposing it were "long on politics and short on facts".
'India needs to closely monitor the discussions at the UNSC and make counter-measures as this touches its core interests', points out Srikanth Kondapalli.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said that Pakistan is verifying the facts to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Suspicions have swirled for years that many of Sahara's millions of investors are fictitious names
Gajendra Chauhan is just one the many troubles that ail the national film institute. But all may not be lost yet.
'The India-Canada relationship has suffered benign neglect. Its full potential has not yet been realised,' says Rup Narayan Das.
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Modi government must push reforms at a fast pace to restore growth.
'The muscularity of the last three years didn't bring any dividends and if anything, Chinese attitudes only hardened,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'The top-most functionaries and destiny-makers of the nation have thrown away the pretensions of statesmanship.' 'They seem to have made a categorical announcement that the next general election will be fought on the solo plank of Hindutva, rather than on good governance, economic development, and employment to youth', says Mohammad Sajjad.
The productivity of the Lok Sabha was 91.58 per cent while that of Rajya Sabha was 56.29 per cent.
Srikanth Kondapalli on what to expect from the seventh BRICS summit meeting to be held in Russia in July.
With its gaze steadily fixed on the well-being of its people, the government is going about taking all the imperative measures that need to be taken to beat back the pandemic, observes B S Raghavan.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has sought posting of its officers in some of the Indian missions abroad besides cutting down of red-tape involved in sending Letters Rogatory (LR) as measures to expedite cases related to black money.
This is the first time in the RBI's history that a governor is leaving without willing to renew his contract
Top businessmen often seek refuge in the animal kingdom to describe their situation
Mukherjee said Prime Minister Narendra Nodi and Chinese President Xi Jinping Would be meeting soon on the margins of G-20 summit scheduled to be held in China later this year.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit is an attempt to move the Indo-Singapore relationship to the 'next level'. Singapore has been one of the top investors in India. India-Singapore bilateral trade has already crossed the $15 billion mark. As per the official records, Singapore has emerged as the second largest source of Foreign Direct Investment in India, says Dr Rahul Mishra.
'Modi's decision to hold out an olive branch to Sharif within 48 hours of the 'surgical strikes' has been a timely move as it helps tensions to 'de-escalate',' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
"Terrorism is an enemy of the basic human rights: of life, peace and prosperity," Swaraj said.
India's new policy commission has received a makeover and a dream team has been formed to head the Think Tank, NITI Aayog.
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.
'India alone cannot walk the path of peace. It also has to be Pakistan's journey to make,' says Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the government's geo-political flagship initiative "Raisina Dialogue-II".
'When Hindus converted through inducements there was no hue and cry, but when reconversions took place, everyone cried foul. If re-conversions are bad, so are conversions.' 'Our government is not getting involved either in conversions or re-conversions. The BJP has nothing to do with it.' Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu in a candid interview.
Seeking deepening of ties with ASEAN, India on Saturday said it would soon draft a five-year plan of action starting 2016 to take the "trajectories" of common interests with the 10-member grouping to a new level and particularly emphasised on improving connectivity in the region to further boost trade and people-to-people contact.
It is important the SCO focus strongly on economic development and regional integration that leads to greater benefits for the least developed regions of member-countries, writes Sana Hashmi.
'Our prime minister manifests a vision for India to be great and powerful, but the modernity required -- of thinking, attitudes, behaviour -- seems alien, if not abhorrent, to his constituency and associates,' says Ambassador K Shankar Bajpai.
The visit of Park Geun-Hye to India, though a symbolic one, will certainly give a further impetus to the strategic partnership between the two countries says Rup Narayan Das.
Thinking big, China is changing the world order; with mixed priorities, we can but tag along, writes T J S George.
Diplomatic and Congressional sources tell Rediff.com that for all intents and purposes, the F-16 sale is dead.
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