The country has a fiendishly complicated electoral system that is a combination of population-based proportional representation and party-based national lists, says Aditi Phadnis
India took a firm grip on the first Test against Sri Lanka by taking a first innings lead of 192 and snaring the hosts' openers in the second innings by the end of Day 2 in Galle on Thursday.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
'As far as Kashmir is concerned, a 'solution' was very much in play, and had brought endemic violence across the Jammu and Kashmir regions very much under control before the disruptive adventurism of the present regime resulted in a limited and localised escalation.'
India's batting coach Sanjay Bangar defend Rohit Sharma's repeated failures in Test cricket, saying the Mumbai batsman deserves the same patience Sri Lanka had with their greats, Marvan Atapattu and Kumar Sangakkara.
Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Wilson Manase has declared Pakistan 'safe' for international cricket.
30 years ago, after India sent in troops to resolve a crisis in the Maldives, Ambassador B S Prakash was part of an Indian government team assigned to the islands to help the then president. This is what he discovered. A Must Read!
As the pandemic unfolded, the India-China relationship has come under severe stress. To restore normalcy, agreements between the two countries must be respected scrupulously in their entirety. Where the Line of Actual Control is concerned, any attempt to unilaterally change the status quo is unacceptable, declares External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar.
Maithripala Sirisena was considered so meek and self-effacing that he appeared no threat to anyone. What a mistake his rivals made!
Speaker Karu Jayasuriya questioned the president's decision to suspend parliament till November 16, saying it will have "serious and undesirable" consequences on the country.
Sri Lankan batsmen led by their number three Kavindu Kulasekara provided stiff resistance against the Indian bowlers as the hosts finished the third day's play on 235 for five as the first 'Youth Test' looks set to be heading for a tame draw in Dambulla, on Thursday.
Army, paramilitary and police forces continue going into harm's way with outdated bulletproof jackets (BPJs), and helmets designed for motorcycle riding, not for the impact of a nine-millimetre bullet.
Even as the United States snuggles closer to India with the thinly veiled objective of containing China, the Indian strategy is to avoid alienating either nation.
A municipal school in Tamil Nadu is encouraging its students to excel in karate and chess.
Many BJP leaders are of the view that most key members of the previous Cabinet could be retained.
Shane Warne's tell-all autobiography is every bit as controversial and engrossing as his cricketing career, notes Dhruv Munjal.
As the island heads for elections, two major factors worry Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. One is the division in the Sinhala vote and the other is the prospect of the Tamils and Muslims voting heavily against him.
Maithripala Sirisena, Sri Lanka's president-elect, was a low-profile cabinet colleague of longtime president Mahinda Rajapaksa until he switched sides to become joint opposition candidate and emerge as the proverbial dark horse in the presidential polls.
The Indian ladies are no longer bogged down by the timidity of the past and are more than willing to embrace the temerity of the present, says Dhruv Munjal.
Images of the third Test between India and Sri Lanka being played in Colombo
During sentencing the judge asked Salman, "What do you have to say? Maximum sentence of 10 years?" Salman said, "You are the judge; whatever you say is correct." Sonil Dedhia/Rediff.com on the courtroom drama that resulted in actor Salman Khan being convicted in a 2002 hit and run case.
The jallikattu issue has revived pan-Tamil political sentiments especially among youths, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
A dominant Sri Lanka made it to the final of the ICC World T20 for the third time, knocking out defending champions the West Indies by 27 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis method after thundershowers stopped proceedings in the 14th over of the second innings.
A list of all the foreign visits taken up by PM Narendra Modi this year and their outcomes.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leaders of other South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation countries will meet in Kathmandu on Wednesday with an aim to revitalise the regional grouping and make it a major platform to fuel economic growth through liberalised trade and combat challenges of terrorism and climate change effectively.
Sri Lankans on Thursday voted in large numbers in the bitterly contested presidential election in which incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa is seeking a record third term against his friend-turned-foe Maithripala Sirisena, with an unusually high voter turnout in Tamil and Muslim areas.
India's quest for a historic treble ended in heartbreak as Sri Lanka came up with a clinical performance to beat them by six wickets in the final of the World T20 in Mirpur on Sunday. While Sri Lanka emerged third time lucky in a World T20 summit clash, Mahendra Singh Dhoni's hopes of adding a second World T20 title to the 50-over World Cup triumph in 2011 and Champions Trophy in England two years later ended in disappointment.
'Ex-servicemen engineers and technicians are true professionals worthy of being 'Make in India' agents. They can be trusted to bring long term dividends -- it is in their character to be long term loyalists!' says Air Marshal P V Athawale (Retd).
US hands over evidence linking Pak national in consulate terror conspiracy
Rajat Gupta, 70, the first Indian managing director of McKinsey and who of 17 months in US prison for insider trading, gets ready to tell his side of the story. And he is less than complimentary about Preet Bharara, then the famous crusading US attorney for the Southern District of New York. "The jury, the press and the public saw only... a 'cropped picture', he says. For someone whose life story was a model of the Great American Dream - an Indian of modest means who rose to the highest circles of politics and business, mingling with the White House and Davos crowd - his indictment in 2012 marked a stunning fall from grace. Many ascribed it to the hubris of the rich and powerful, says Kanika Datta.
'Modi has entered blunderland as he does not understand the army. He has actually meddled with the army, which is much more damaging than the ignorance of Sonia Gandhi and Manmohan Singh.' 'People had an impression that the BJP was different. Now it has been made very, very, plain that it is not.' 'Look at the contrast in the behaviour of the prime minister. When they burnt buses in Gujarat for an unjust demand, the prime minister addressed them in Gujarati while the army veterans were on relay hunger strike for the 74th day on that day, but no word on this from the PM.'
Gary Ballance scored an unbeaten 104 as England fought back in the evening session to finish the fourth day on 267-8 and lead Sri Lanka by 389 runs going into the final day of the first Test at Lord's.
The presence of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa was not the only reason why Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa stayed away from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
"Just a handful of Indian youth have joined the ISIS. Some have also returned after being persuaded by their families," asserted the home minister.
World leaders are reacting with caution to Donald Trump's jaw-dropping victory in the US presidential election, with some of them reminding him of the democratic values and the global responsibility he carries.
'If the nub of India's sensitivity over the Chinese presence in Doklam is the enhanced threat to the Siliguri Corridor, a vital link to the northeast, does it serve the national purpose to have the districts along it, and then much of the tribal northeast, in turmoil?' asks Shekhar Gupta.
The 'Raj Bhavan/Nakkeeran Gopal case', in which editor S Gopal was arrested in the morning and set free by the court in the afternoon, is not the first one where the Tamil Nadu's once-reputed police force is seen as faltering in the eye of the law, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
In a minor relief for residents of flood-hit Chennai, the rains have stayed away for the last few hours.
From early indications, the Modi government's foreign policy seems to be pragmatic and reciprocal, says K G Suresh.
