With his eye on next year's Party Congress, Xi Jinping is using the CCP's centenary celebrations to publicise the benefits for China from its leadership, and boost his image and contribution to China's rise, observes Jayadeva Ranade, the distinguished China expert and retired RA&W officer.
This week's collection of stories that prove we live in a truly mad, mad world
Here's your weekly digest of the craziest stories from around the world.
The Taliban is showing its strong discontent as the high hopes given to it by the Pakistani military have been dashed, observes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'If your oxygen saturation is okay and is maintained after the six-minute walk test -- which has been described all over the world -- and you do not have an unrelenting fever, then you can even be managed at home.'
A slew of draft documents -- for Request for Qualification (RFQ), Concession Agreement Guiding Principles, Project Information Memorandum (PIM) along with a presentation on the salient features of the project -- for discussion on private participation in passenger trains have been uploaded by Niti Ayog on its website which outline the railways' plans of running 150 trains on 100 routes by private operators, envisaging an investment of Rs 22,500 crore.
Telecom regulator Trai on Monday recommended about 39 per cent reduction in the reserve or floor price for the sale of spectrum for mobile services, including the latest 5G offering, as it looked to match revenue expectations with the industry's paying capacity. With large swathes of spectrum remaining unsold in the last two auctions, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recommended to the government for selling airwaves in all existing bands of 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz and new slots of 600 MHz, 3300-3670 MHz and 24.25-28.5 GHz. It has suggested a lower reserve price for all bands, compared to the prices proposed in the previous recommendations in 2018.
Here is a look at some of Aseem Chhabra's favourite memories of 2020 in Hindi cinema, performances by well-known and new actors, special moments in films and shows.
'It has taken us 15 years to get to where we are. It obviously doesn't happen overnight.'
'A participant in many rounds of the border talks with China once told me that China seemed not interested in resolving the border issue as it wanted to keep it as a ready excuse to intervene in the sub-continent,' says Colonel (retd) Anil A Athale.
'Wherever in the world there is political instability, those countries are beset with severe crises today. But India is in a much better position than the rest of the world due to the decisions taken by my government in the national interest,' President Droupadi Murmu said in her address to both Houses of Parliament.
IMD has decided to increasingly use cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in forecasting, both to avoid such glitches and to counter the disruption of normal seasonal patterns as a result of climate change. It has formed various internal sub-groups of senior officials and meteorologists to decide on how best to use AI and ML in predicting cyclone intensity, and in making short-range weather forecasts (those valid for up to three hours) as well as long-range forecasts.
'Others will think twice before attacking our space assets.'
An ISRO official said: "Unless and until everything is intact (lander), it's very difficult (to re-establish contact). Chances are less. Only if it had soft-landing, and if all systems functioned, then only communication can be restored. Things are bleak as of now."
Modi, in his address at the ISRO centre asked the scientists not to get disheartened by the hurdles in the lunar mission Chandrayaan-2 and asserted that there will be a "new dawn".
We bring you a presentation of some of the best photos from around the world in the month gone by
Aviation turbine fuel accounts for 35-40 per cent of the total operating cost of an Indian airline.
With the insistence on data centres to be onshore, entities in real estate believe there is going to be a rise in demand for specialised Grade-A commercial spaces to set these up.
We sorted through countless photographs taken around the world to come up with the top photos of 2019. Together these images tell the story of the year -- capturing moments of hope and heartbreak, triumph and tragedy.
India will shortly unveil a 'One Nation-One Card policy' for public transport that will entail connectivity between various modes of transport
India needs to examine some way in which, assuming that there is either no vaccine or a delay in administering it to everyone, voting can be made safer, notes Aakar Patel.
Though startups find 17 mentions in the Budget speech of the finance minister, and have been promised tax exemptions, the reality is that only 2 per cent of the 4,648 applications received from startups for income tax exemption had been approved as of February 2019, according to an answer to a Parliament question. As India's startup space bubbles with activity - new, young players are tapping into opportunities opening up - there are local anti-portfolio stories circulating about investors missing opportunities in 'unicorns', or companies that have reached valuation of $ 1 billion, says Vandana Gombar.
The Tamil thriller suffers from poor script and bad dialogues.
A round-up of our favourite photographs from the week gone by
The space agency launched 104 satellites, breaking the previous record of 37 by Russia.
Here's your weekly digest of the most weird, true and funny news from the across the world.
If purists are surprised as to why and how people are not demanding prohibition or not talking about past promises, both in the election manifestos five years back and even those made to the courts, the answer lies in how the state has been evolving and changing these past few years, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Here's the full text of President's Ram Nath Kovind's address to the joint sitting of both houses of Parliament on the first of Budget Session 2022.
'I can sense that because we have shared a room for 20 years of our lives.'
Referring to the government's Make in India initiative, he said India has become a hub of mobile phone manufacturing, which has provided employment to 4-5 lakh youth in the last four years and has helped the country save Rs 3 lakh crore foreign exchange.
'We should not minimise the seriousness of Chinese encroachments because their perception is different.' 'Nor should we fall into the trap of accepting so-called 'buffer zones' in areas of overlapping claims. We cannot have buffer zones in our own territory,' asserts Ambassador Shyam Saran, a former foreign secretary.
In the purported suicide note, Raj refuted the allegations calling them 'baseless' and said he did not 'have the courage to face anyone' because people would 'look at me with that eye even if I come clean'.
Nadella advised the start-up community to learn from the failures
Disgraced former Australia captain Steve Smith has tied up with the local arm of Britain's Vodafone Group in an advertising campaign that leverages the nation's ball-tampering shame for marketing purposes.
India and Brazil on Wednesday called for urgent progress in reforms of the UN Security Council, as they agreed to scale up bilateral ties and deepen cooperation in international fora.
Shekhar Chakravarty has developed and patented Curvo -- world's first non-linear ropeway system.
Language is an issue but not a barrier as they are still able to express their love for Bollywood stars Shah Rukh Khan and Amitabh Bachchan. SRK though has a much bigger following than his celebrated senior.
'A breakthrough in eastern Ladakh leading to disengagement and creation of a buffer zone will obviate the need of military deployment through the winter months ahead,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'When I stepped on Indian soil, I lay down on the ground and kissed my homeland.'
In a first, a public transport facility is beating its own drum.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances