When Nitin Gadkari took charge as Road Transport and Highways Minister in 2014, he had set a target of constructing 40 km a day in two years. But construction at this point is a mere 16 km a day. Megha Manchanda on what ails the road sector.
Here's a list of the full first-time ministers in the second term of the Narendra Modi government.
All the action that transpired on and off the football field
'The idea of a 'Hindu Rashtra' only emerged in the 1920s and 1930s.' 'The context at that time was the clear British attempt at 'divide and rule' between Hindus and Muslims and within Hindus on caste lines,' argues military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
During the day, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan held a meeting to review preparedness for COVID-19 management, through video conference with health ministers, chief secretaries of all states and UTs, central ministers and representatives from the related organisations and stressed on the need for keeping testing and quarantine facilities, isolation wards, and labs in active readiness.
The Kerala high court on Tuesday confirmed the death sentence awarded to Govindachamy by a fast track court for brutally raping and causing the death of a 23-year-old woman after pushing her out of a moving train on February 1, 2008.
'This confrontation could have been avoided by a less arrogant administration that initially listened, used whatever negotiating skills they had and tried to be more credible,' observes Ramesh Menon.
The Tamil Nadu government welcomed the decision, hailing it as a 'grand victory for the 'Amma (Jayalalithaa) government' and the state's farmers'.
'We say we are proud to be Indian. Can we be proud of such an India where its people are hungry and on the streets?'
Aseem Chhabra looks at the year's best Non-Hindi Indian movies.
Karnataka claims that that it has supplied 116.697 tmcft of Cauvery water, instead of 100.04 tmcft, to TN.
There is a reason why Surya and Ishan's wedding on May 10 will make history.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to give an urgent hearing to a plea of the Tamil Nadu government for setting up the Cauvery management board for implementation of the Cauvery water disputes tribunal award, saying there is "no urgency" for it.
Modi believes that in the spirit of 'cooperative federalism' the venue for such meetings between him and the chief ministers should take place around the proverbial 'round table'.
In an unprecedented order, the Supreme Court on Monday summoned one of its former judges, Markandey Katju, to appear in person before it to point out the "fundamental flaws", as claimed by him in the sensational Soumya rape case.
2019 will be 'a match between the old caste politics and something new which we have not fully understood in UP,' says Aakar Patel.
'The party will keep to the script that its core supporter understands: temples, statues, Muslims and cows.'
'The BJP can kill two birds with one stone by wresting back control of the message; and the steps are fairly obvious. Once the media is neutral, there is a level playing field,' argues Rajeev Srinivasan.
Siddharth Chauhan, winner of the Satyajit Ray Award
Considering that the Supreme Court has now included two, rather three, new variable to the tribunal's findings, it could imply that whenever the current order comes in for review, the two states could raise specific issues flowing from them, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
'In the 30 years since the Ayodhya movement began, the RSS has created a generation of Hindus who are the mirror image of those fanatic Muslims who take to the streets at the slightest, even imagined, 'insult to Islam,' argues Jyoti Punwani.
What Saisuresh Sivaswamy learnt about the election from television and the newspapers. A must read column, folks!
With a medal, a commemoration letter and a pat of encouragement on their shoulders, President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday handed the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement to 20 talented and brave children on the occasion of Children's Day.
The top court directed the Secretary of the Union water resources ministry to personally appear before it on May 14 with a draft of the Cauvery management scheme to implement its verdict on water sharing between four states including Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday
Aseem Chhabra lists the best non-Hindi language films he watched in 2020, with the hope that they will have a wider reach in the new year.
'The height of irony is that Bobby Jindal will always be known as the first Indian-American Governor, the second Indian-American Congressman and the first Indian-American Presidential candidate, regardless of his claim to be just American. Given the situation in the US, no one will be able to erase his identity in relation to his origin.'
A summary of sports events and sports persons, who made news on Tuesday
In an unprecedented order, the Apex court on October 17 had asked him to appear and debate his Facebook post criticising the judgment by which the accused had escaped gallows in the Soumya rape case in which he was acquitted of murder charge.
'The UPA was the gang that couldn't shoot straight. The NDA is the gang that can't stop shooting. They (the Modi government) are shooting at anybody, everybody, all directions, shooting themselves in the foot.'
'Human rights violations are there in rural areas and in cities. In rural areas it is crude and in the open. In urban areas it is well hidden.' 'Awareness has grown several fold. India has 160 national and state human rights institutions. No other country in the world has this.' 'Unfortunately the right to association, right to assembly, freedom of expression, right to protest and discuss are all being curtailed systematically one by one.'
'The world will remember Kalpana through the characters that showed her brilliance as an actor.'
The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal of ACC Cement, ruling that if a product is manufactured by one firm and sold by another with the latter's brand name, that sale would attract sales tax, not the first transaction.
It was in 1989, 39 years after the setting up of the Supreme Court in 1950, that Justice M Fathima Beevi was appointed. Meet the brilliant legal minds who have shattered the glass ceiling since then.
A possible, easier and less-complicated way for the Centre would have been to approach the SC with the same queries much earlier, before a ground-swell of popular sentiments and consequent political tensions had built up in Tamil Nadu, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
In a startling admission, Thounaojam Herojit Singh, a gallantry award recipient, said that he shot an unarmed 22-year-old Chungkham Sanjit Meitei back in 2009.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
A towering figure in the world of letters, Udupi Rajagopalacharya Ananthamurthy, who died in Bangalore on Friday, was modern in his sensibilities and intellectual underpinnings in his literary works questioned many deeply-held beliefs.
Anupam Kher on why he thinks the prime minister is a genuine person.
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