Major Somnath Sharma was awarded the Param Vir Chakra posthumously for his bravery in the Kashmir operations on November 3, 1947.
'Putting your life at stake defending your motherland is the best feeling you can get.'
At war, the Jalashwa can carry and launch a full infantry battalion in a single wave. At peace, the Jalashwa can evacuate 1,000 people in a single trip. Ajai Shukla explains why the Indian Navy's new tender for more ships like the Jalashwa must be treated with special urgency.
New Union minister L Murugan's declaration of Kongu Nadu as his native place, instead of Tamil Nadu, may be part of a grand BJP strategy to create new states out of existing ones, particularly those that have anti-BJP governments, mulls N Sathiya Moorthy.
Al-Qaeda chief's daughters released for ex-Pakistan Army chief's son, claimed a media report.
Rediff reader Major Punjab Singh tells us how he found love.
'...are the deep ruts and fissures in the rotting fabric of our cities and the incompetence of elected leaders and administrators,' notes Sunil Sethi.
'I will need a few more pictures, sir, can I get some time from you for a more extended photo shoot?' asked Singh. Modi, ever-obliging before the camera, laughed. 'Sure, but let us plan to do it after my swearing-in is over in May!' The Balakot effect was evident. A fascinating excerpt from Rajdeep Sardesai's 2019: How Modi Won India.
BJP had on Wednesday tweeted a graphic, saying that the Rafale combat aircraft deal has been "finalised" and the Narendra Modi government had saved over Rs 21,000 crore in the "re-negotiation" with the French government.
'The Union government does not have much of a governance function other than to send orders.' 'But even the sending down of orders it cannot do properly,' observes Aakar Patel.
You won't take away anything from Thackeray when you leave the theatre, says Hemant Waje, reviewing the Marathi version of the biopic.
One can only imagine how it is at the receiving end of the bomb. The sound is deafening, splinters and rocks fly like missiles and the blast sucks in the air around asphyxiating everyone. The shock waves can be felt for miles around.
By some strange and bizarre twist of fate, Omar Mateen did exactly what he did not intend to do. He took the lives of gay people and made them extraordinary. He infused their stories with a poignancy they might not have possessed otherwise. He enabled the rest of the world to see themselves in their stories, to weep at the sheer waste of lives cut short, says Sandip Roy.
As soon as he entered his barrack, Rahul noticed a group of seven inmates seated on their mattresses under the television set. They must be the terrorists, Rahul thought to himself. He knew that such accused are usually housed in murder barracks, far from jingoistic gangsters, who tend to abuse and attack them. A fascinating excerpt from Gangster On The Run: The True Story Of A Reformed Criminal.
BJP leaders rejected the charge, insisting Jay has been 'wronged'.
'If only Cariappa/Thimayya/Chaudhari/Manekshaw were given a free hand, there'll be no PoK, the Chinese would have been taught a lesson, 1965 would have slain the Pak demon and in 1971 just another fortnight's fighting after Bangladesh and West Pakistan would have been occupied.' 'No authoritative military account suggests anything remotely like any of these...' '...Chronologies, names, even periods get mixed up, but, never mind, because the point -- strong Army denied by cowardly Congress -- is made.' 'This is where Modi is coming from,' points out Shekhar Gupta.
'Ramani is not alone in her fight,' the journalists said in the joint statement undersigned by them.
facilities at Bangalore one understands the financial year end frenzy at these establishments and the slipshod slippages in timeframes, quality of overhaul, servicing and quality control across the board, for aircraft and equipment alike,' says Group Captain Murli Menon (retd).
She lived for two-thirds of her life in India, adopted its national cause and customs, and took an Indian passport. She served a prison sentence in Lahore as part of Gandhi's protests against an Imperial power which happened to be her motherland. Freda Bedi delighted in confounding accepted definitions of identity.
John Terry has recovered from an ankle injury and will be available for Chelsea's home clash with Manchester United on Sunday, manager Antonio Conte said on Friday.
"This is the picture of ground zero where the thermo-nuclear device was detonated in May 1998 in Pokharan. No crater was found at all! This picture tells the story that we have to do more homework. Indeed, we have to do more honest homework." said K Santhanam, former Defence Research and Development Organisation scientist dramatically holding the picture in his hand in the press conference held in New Delhi.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday came out in defence of its senior leader L K Advani, who has been facing attacks from party rebels on the Kandahar issue, saying this was 'wrong and uncalled for' as the hijack crisis was resolved after consulting all parties and experts. "People accusing Advani on Kandahar is wrong and uncalled for. The issue is already resolved and it is an 11-year old story," BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said.
Glimpses of the final days of the 1965 War, as seen from the diary then defence minister Y B Chavan maintained during the war.
India and the United States are working on efforts to improve cooperation on UN terrorist designations and expand the sharing of information on known or suspected terrorists "no matter where they may be located," says US Ambassador to India Richard Verma
'The answer for a quicker boost to growth is simple -- run a much larger deficit, use the resulting public resources to ensure adequate price support for agriculture, subsidise wage costs of MSMEs and accelerate public sector construction-intensive activities,' advises Nitin Desai.
'It is time to give back to this city that has given me so much.'
Other strong men have stopped Modi and his hordes in states before, but none of them with a footprint or battle cry to shake up New Delhi, observes Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
'One of the great assets that India has is its enormous intellectual content, enormous intellectual developmental content, and some of the things we need to be working on are unmanned systems, for example, the enormous opportunities for us to jointly partner and develop -- not simply sell our equipment to India -- but actually partner and develop in areas like drones, areas like advanced aircraft and even areas around certain missile systems, where we can have a win-win.'
Stock selection in India remain relatively low-beta given the lack of any conviction here on any near-term upturn in the investment cycle
The film makers agreed to put certain disclaimers and delete some scenes in the movie which were objected to by Khan and Ahmed.
In this conversation with Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt, former Army Chief V K Singh refutes the allegations made in the Indian Army's Secret Board of Officers Inquiry report, which accuses him of misusing of his position
'It's doubtful if serving defence personnel and their families will retain their faith in this government if such gimmicks allowing political considerations to over-ride security issues are allowed to prevail,' warns Brigadier S K Chatterji (retd).
It is important to approach the belief of people in ancient India's achievements with a sense of proportion, balance and empathy, argues B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
Mallya said, the ED on the one side and the banks on the other are fighting over the same assets.
Five talking points from the Premier League weekend:
Just like China wants Trump to lose the US presidential poll, it may want Modi to lose the Lok Sabha polls. So months before the 2024 elections, China may take possession of an important area, say one of the Char Dhams, warns Sanjeev Nayyar.
In a letter sent to Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reforms, 54 lawmakers wrote, "We cannot ignore the multitude of women who have come forward with accusations against Mr Trump. With that said, the President should be allowed to present evidence in his own defence."
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!
We get tangled up in our own crooked web on purchases, and the murky arms bazaar knows it, says Shekhar Gupta.
The first of six French-designed Scorpene submarines which are being manufactured in Mumbai, was launched into the water on Monday, initiating the process for extensive sea trials.
