Every day when Akhilesh returns after a joust with political adversaries to his Camelot, which is Lucknow's 5, Kalidas Marg, it is time to hold court with advisors and loyalists.
'While the farmers are reeling under a huge debt burden, crop loss due to locust attacks and erratic rainfall, the state is also facing a COVID-19 challenge.' 'In this situation, you have Congress and BJP MLAs trying to outwit each other in a game of thrones'
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We present Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's full speech as he addressed the country on the occasion of 66th Independence Day, from Red Fort, Delhi.
'Poor home work, and a subsequent loss of nerve.' 'This sums up the Modi government's current travails, the stall in key sectors, fading momentum, irritability,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
To avert another Uttarakhand-type catastrophe, we must change course. We should stop pandering to the Indian elite's insatiable appetite for electricity, which is driving reckless dam construction, says Praful Bidwai
'The BJP has latched on to the idea of nationalism, but the nationalism they advocate is not nationalism as we have understood it since the time of the freedom movement.' 'This is not secular nationalism, it is Hindu nationalism.' 'It is a form of nationalism that is exclusionary and it tends to conflate national interest with the government.' 'So, if you disagree with the government, for example, on surgical strikes or demonetisation, you are anti-national or holder of black money.'
Enthused by India's financial inclusion drive, US-based Accion, one of the biggest micro finance organisations in the world, has renewed its focus in India. Michael Schlein, bottom, left, chief executive officer of Accicon, tells Namrata Acharya in an email interview the Wall Street and Silicon Valley are eager to participate in opportunities presented by the issuance of the small finance and payment bank licences, the expanded banking correspondent opportunities, and the Jan-Dhan Yojna.
'Demonetisation, is in principal, a mistake, because it involves a theft -- a taking of private property by the State.' 'It is one of those bad Indian ideas that has been tried twice in the past, with two failures for the record books.' 'This cloud over the economy will probably remain as long as Modi is in power.'
Few readers will remember the socialist utopia of Indira Gandhi when food queues were the norm even for the middle class and tankers supplied water at odd hours of the night twice a week. Is that what you are trying to return us to, dear Congress, asks Jaideep Prabhu
'These are challenging times and we get energised by that.' 'I don't feel that 'I am tired now and I should relax', because even if someone calls us at 12 o'clock I have to answer his call.'
Delegates of a bilateral peace delegation urge the prime ministers of Pakistan and India to resume dialogue for peace and full normalisation of relations.
One popular strategy is to hire contract workers.
She quit her career in financial services to pursue her passion for writing.
Here's the full text of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's address to the United States Congress.
Diplomats agree that amid stormy relations with China and Pakistan, Modi has posted impressive foreign policy successes, notes Aditi Phadnis.
Go beyond your college classroom. Take part in fests. Pursue an internship, says Abhishek Ajmera.
Mohammad Sajjad salutes the memory of Mushirul Hasan -- historian, thinker, academic, institution builder, -- who passed into the ages this week.
'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.
Why are the 'secular' parties silent about the lynchings on our streets? Are they so busy forging political alliances that they ignore the numerous distortions of Constitutional values?
'N Ram and I met on the lawns of Mani Shankar Aiyar's bungalow.' 'I pulled out a rolled printout from my jacket and handed it to him.' 'In the cut-throat world of journalism, this was like high treason.' 'But letting a story be killed because you can't publish it is a bigger crime than passing it to the competition,' recalls Shekhar Gupta.
'Children should be brought up connected to our culture and should be introduced to characters from our mythologies. What is this Baa Baa Black Sheep?'
'The only positive I see are the youth of India who were earlier just after money. The young now want to do something for society.'
In his address at the event organised in London by the Institute of Directors India, he emphasised that for too long India has been burdened with an old, cosy, family-and- favourites, under-the-table style of doing and managing business.
Budget is a populist one, wil lbeneift common people
'While military acts such as the Uri surgical strikes are one option, cultural, economic and diplomatic isolation should also be part of the arsenal,' argues Sankrant Sanu.
'The success of the country's economic policies is affirmed by receipt of FDI of $15 billion last year, the highest in the Asia-Pacific after China and India, and well ahead of Indonesia, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand,' notes Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad.
If the impact of the Greece crisis spreads across Europe and parts of the world which are more interconnected than ever before, India cannot hope to be insulated, says Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday address Members of the British Parliament in London where he promised to open more doors of cooperation between the two countries and delved on issues like terrorism and United Nations reforms.
'With his envious academic record, extraordinary research calibre and unparalleled work experience, we can trust him to become the first Indian -- fully Indian, not one of those Americans of Indian origin -- to win the Nobel Prize in Economics,' says Sudhir Bisht.
'What lies at the core of Abe's stance is Japan's crisis management ability amid the increasingly tense North Korean situation,' says Rajaram Panda.
The economy could return to 8% growth by the end of 2017-2018, says Arvind Panagariya, vice-chairman NITI Aayog.
'Emboldened by the BJP victory, the upper castes feel they must assert themselves and regain dominance over the rural power structure.'
Anshu Gupta, the founder of Goonj, has transformed the culture of giving in the country. He has for 15 years now, worked tirelessly to bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots, by making discarded materials a resource for the poor. His weapon, he says, is 'cloth as a tool of social change.'
Constantly evolving rules and anomalies over tax treatment have constrained corporate programmes in the first year that the government's CSR mandate has been in force.
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:
India needs to come up with new ideas to make the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas more appealing to overseas Indians. The Diasporas talents should be used for the country's development, says Thomas Abraham, founder of the Global Organisation of People of Indian Origin
Mudra Bank will be a Rs 20,000-crore institution, which would "primarily be responsible for refinancing all micro-finance institutions.
In spite of irritants and hiccups in the relationship, a few deliverables are expected of the prime minister's visit to China, says Rup Narayan Das.
AAP candidates from Mumbai, Medha Patkar and Meera Sanyal, are poised to play a crucial and complementary role. While Patkar gives voice to the suffering of people at the grassroots, Sanyal is articulating the key principles that could build a more just and equitable society or economy, says Rajni Bakshi.
'If you look at the entire protest on April 2, you will find it was not only about the Atrocities Act dilution, but the accumulated anger of the Dalit community against the BJP over the last four years.'
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