Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence has been trying to engineer trouble in Punjab for the last twenty years, former director general of Punjab Police Kanwar Pal Singh Gill told rediff.com in an exclusive interview on Monday. I am surprised that the bomb attack has come late. Knowing the Punjab militants, I was expecting it soon after the judgement about former Punjab chief minister Beant Singh's murder case," he said.
'It is crucial today to realise where we have reached in this 15 year-period in order to fully and properly assess the profundity of what General Rawat has said,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Where are the funny writers on Indian television and OTT platforms?' 'Where are the sitcoms?' asks Vanita Kohli Khandekar.
Samridh Seth suggests nine must-read books that can help turn your life around.
IBM started using Watson last year in India in two of its key divisions, services and infrastructure, for the bulk of its 150,000 employees as part of its "predictive retention" programme.
'Washington senses that the anchor sheet of India's strategic autonomy lies in its longstanding partnership with Russia, which remains firm and immutable despite the changes in world politics in the post-Cold War era,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.<
Drones, high capacity auto prime pumps, autonomous vehicles, robots, all played a role in the seemingly impossible rescue, reports Pranjal Sharma.
'Surprised by the absence of any sloganeering or even mild protest in an ambience so free and self-regulated, I asked a friend from Delhi whether he too, with sharp political antenna, was surprised at how smooth and easy going everything was,' notes Ambassador B S Prakash.
Half of the people earning between Rs 30 lakh and Rs 70 lakh will lose their jobs in next 10 years.
'I had never in my wildest dreams imagined that this could happen to me.'
In an otherwise agriculture- and public health-focused Union Budget 2018-19, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain technology, internet of things -- jargons that found little or no mention in the previous Budgets -- managed to make their presence felt.
There's nothing wrong in Vidya Balan's performance. There's just nothing new about it, feels Sukanya Verma.
'Kulbhushan Jadhav is a very sad case.' 'I think Pakistan handled this issue very clumsily.' 'They gave too much of publicity and also said that they will hang him.' 'Now obviously, they are not going to hang him.'
'Being one of the 150 million upper middle class consumers, I can vouch that the average expenses on white goods or clothing are minimal. Indians are not consumerist by nature,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The Looming Tower reveals the bitter CIA-FBI turf battles that led to the worst terrorist attack in America's history.
A number of prominent ideologues linked to jihadist outfits in the Middle East took to social media to cheer the prospect of a Trump presidency, The Washington Post reported.
Operating systems are increasingly subject to cyberattacks, as many are built around legacy technologies with weaker protocols
'It is feared that AI can predict the outcome of a case once it is launched.' 'It knows the law, precedents and judicial thinking better.' 'If AI becomes too common, clients will start using the software to measure the chance of success of their cases,' says M J Antony.
'The heart of the matter is that India is not Israel.'
'The downslide has been rapid leading up to the number one and number two of the organisation flinging against each other horrendous accusations of bribery and tampering with investigations for personal gain, and the latest petition to the Supreme Court by the joint director of the CBI, M K Sinha, opening a veritable Pandora's Box of repulsive skeletons,' notes B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant who witnessed the CBI's birth.
Let's looks at 10 former India players, who missed the IPL but had they been active today, they could have forced the Ambanis and the Shah Rukh Khans to loosen their purse strings a tad more.
'Both Doval and Jaishankar are savvy enough to know what is good for them and won't want to meet the fate of Icarus in Greek mythology,' argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Tech-driven skills will be in demand in the post pandemic era, alerts Sonya Hooja, COO and co-founder, Imarticus Learning.
Bollywood pays tribute to former president APJ Abdul Kalam.
The suave actor of the world, sometimes called the last of the Mohicans and familiar to students of cinema anywhere in the globe, acted in 14 Ray films and over 300 others, gracefully transitioning into commercial cinema in a variety of roles.
'In the present era of strategic uncertainty and rapidly changing threats, no military professional now disputes the unavoidable necessity of a joint planning staff for the planning and conduct of joint operations so that integrated operations can be planned 'top down',' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Former Russian spy Sergei Skripal, 66, and his daughter Yulia, 33, were found collapsed after being poisoned last week. Both remain in a serious condition along with a police officer who came in contact with the same substance.
India's national security strategy needs to be revised periodically since the global and regional geopolitical situation is dynamic, points out Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
Despite a steady collection rate, the government faces a steep Budget target of Rs 6.1 trillion for CGST for 2019-20.
He will be remembered not only as a writer but as one of the great chroniclers and interrogators of the history of our times, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Today, the biggest challenge for any state is to evolve indigenous hardware options. It is important for the states like Germany, India etc to increase their stakes in the global IT setup and this could allow them to control the US domination, says Ajey Lele.
The spacecraft is expected to reach Mars orbit in about 200 days from now and then begin its mission to study the Red Planet's atmosphere.
'The Mughals became completely Indian in every sense and united the vast Indian subcontinent, not only territorially, but also the hearts and minds of people with multiple religio-cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversities' 'The Mughals, arguably, made India an enviable superpower in the then world.' 'Are the Hindutva rulers of today scared of acknowledging Mughal accomplishments?' asks Mohammad Sajjad.
'In terms of sheer incompetence, this government has rivaled the Rajiv Gandhi-led government that was derisively called the 'Baba-log' government for its naive handling of many issues,' notes Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Arpi deserves to be complimented for the commitment and hard work that have gone into this production. The frustrations of seeking reliable documentation from the catacombs of the Indian bureaucracy did not deter him from going after the best information available, and the result is one that he can take much satisfaction in. Ambassador Prabhat P Shukla, Member Advisory Council, Vivekananda International Foundation, reviews Claude Arpi's The End of an Era: India Exits Tibet.
'Should the government be in the business of running banks?' 'Particularly when it does not have the fiscal strength to continuously infuse capital into such banks?'
'Dev for me embodied all that kind of charm, optimism, energy, vulnerability, awkwardness and yet strength.' 'He's in every scene for two hours.' 'He has to play drama, melodrama, romance, pathos, comedy.' 'It was a relief when he said yes.'
For Dawood Ibrahim, match-fixing was a sort of 'clean job' as no force or killing were required and only a few players here and there had to be 'fixed' and the money shared, says a new book on the subject.
True, Azam Khan is being targeted rather disproportionately and also because of his Muslim identity. That must be protested and resisted. But to say that he is a big messiah, and his profit-making educational enterprise is an issue concerning all Muslims of India, is absolutely unjustified, assert Mohammad Sajjad and Md Mohammad Zeeshan Ahmad.
'Is Xi's China stable?'
'No one can say whether the regime will fall all at once or if its leaders are devising a new solid and competitive -- anything but democratic -- model.' A fascinating excerpt from Francois Bougon's Inside The Mind of Xi Jinping.
