A round-up of our favourite photographs from the week gone by
A full majority might be difficult, but Mayawati is in a commanding position this time.
With the exam season round the corner, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday exhorted students and their families to treat exams as a festival and not as a source of stress, saying they should "smile more to score more" and not take it as "test of life".
"Crores of Muslim women had always demanded that triple talaq should be banned, as it is also banned in Islamic countries," he said.
Stating that English, Chinese and Hindi will rule the digital world in the coming days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday noted that the language market was huge and companies can cash in on it by developing apps at the earliest.
'Yogi Adityanath will prove to be the most popular and effective chief minister, overseeing a regime of peace and justice, harsh on wrongdoers and rabble rousers, encouraging those who work for India,' says Tarun Vijay.
Rediff.com's Sharat Pradhan who is visiting the Magh Mela, witnessed the Naga babas busy twiddling away on their smartphones, corresponding with their supporters, using modern techniques such as WhatsApp and Facebook.
Dave complained of uneasiness at his home on Thursday morning and was rushed to AIIMS.
The RSS does not mind playing politics with religion-based census data despite knowing well that it is completely flawed, says Syed Firduas Ashraf.
John Wick's Amar Akbar Anthony connection, filmi fundas from Gabbar Singh and best Bollywood songs of 2017 so far, everything you need to know about Sukanya Verma's super filmi week.
A public interest litigation has been filed in the Bombay high court stating that IPL matches must be shifted out of Maharashtra owing to the acute shortage of water in the state. Advocate Ankita Verma, Partner, DM Legal Associates, advocates for the petitioners, tells Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf how hosting the IPL in Maharashtra is tantamount to wasting huge amounts of water.
Photographer S Paul, who died this month, was furiously protective about his independence and intensely sure about his work. So much so that he once walked away from a shoot with a prime minister.
To be held alongside the Japur Literature Festival, the three-day BookMark conference will look at different aspects of the publishing industry -- from self-publishing to e-books, digital content to distribution.
'Why did they not raise their voice against the pollution in the Yamuna earlier?' 'Why were they quiet for so long against construction and encroachment on the flood plains.'
The foundations of the army's own peculiar secularism are potentially being destabilised
Seen as one-of-its-kind event, the festival offers a platform for spiritual and religious leaders, politicians, business leaders, peacemakers and artists to spread the message of global peace and harmony in diversity.
Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav hit out at the Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday over the Muzaffarnagar riots, accusing it of vitiating the atmosphere ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, and promised stern action against all those found guilty.
'If Modi sincerely thinks that Dalits are also Hindus then spread this message to the entire nation through programmes like Mann Ki Baat.' 'We would love to listen to the PM tell the nation to look upon us as fellow Indians and human beings.'
Art of Living's spiritual leader, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, faced the ire of activists and the National Green Tribunal for environmental violations that would occur when an event of this scale - the festival is said to have seen 3.5 million footfalls -- is hosted in an ecologically sensitive region.
Manohar Lal Khattar is a low profile Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader who is known for his quiet work on the field and in the BJP that has earned him the reputation of a tough task master with a no-nonsense approach.
The Ganga agitation and the question of preserving the Himalayan ecology has become a deadly cocktail of politics and religion. Behind the scene, of course, at play are powerful business interests. What is needed is an independent scientific assessment of the problem and preparation of a blueprint for preservation of the Himalayan rivers and associated ecology, says Dinesh C Sharma.
Without civilisational moorings, India, more a sub-continent than a country, could not exist. Primacy of Dharma has been the cornerstone of Indian civilisation, says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'We went around with the story, but no one came forward to finance it. They would say 'Who would want to watch this?' Or they would say 'Ek to ladka dal do is me.' We said no, we didn't want to compromise.'
Saurabh Shukla, Piyush Mishra and Sanjay Mishra are not likely to be in the limelight when a film releases, but they are the ones who eventually light up the movie.
Vinita Bisht and Vinita Kamte lost their husbands -- one an NSG commando, the other an IPS officer -- in the 26/11 terror attack. Six years later, Archana Masih/Rediff.com meets them to discover that closure is one of the hardest things to find.