India and China on Friday signed a record 24 agreements in key sectors
RediffGURUS Ashwini Dasgupta, Anu Krishna, Dr Karthiyayini Mahadevan and Jinal Mehta answer queries from Rediff readers.
'These are people whom very few give importance and they were doing a mammoth job for the nation.'
India's national security strategy needs to be revised periodically since the global and regional geopolitical situation is dynamic, points out Commodore Venugopal Menon (retd).
The Delhi government's budget size for 2022-23 was Rs 75,800 crore and Rs 69,000 crore in the preceding year.
The minister, however, said that there are challenges to boost the manufacturing sector
'Not a single soldier should be left behind in enemy territory.' Nitin A Gokhale's fascinating account on how the Indian Army conducted the daring and successful cross-border operation last September.
The answer has two components: as a leader with a vision who can carry the masses and his ability to realise his vision through his decision-making and executive skills, says Col R Hariharan.
For star sprinter Hima Das, the two months of coronavirus-forced national lockdown was not all about confinement inside her room at the National Institute of Sports in Patiala as she improved her cooking and painting skills besides doing yoga. All the track and field campers at the NIS were forced to remain indoors since mid March only to be given go ahead to train outdoors from Monday, with focus on fitness without specialised-event training initially.
One of cricket's greatest players passed into the ages on Monday. Rediff.com salutes the legend.
The Tamil Nadu government had, on May 28, ordered the state pollution control board to seal and "permanently" close the mining group's copper plant following violent protests over pollution concerns.
Union Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy on Saturday found himself in a controversy over sharing on Twitter a screenshot of Pakistan's daily Dawn website carrying Nitish Kumar's ad of vote appeal, prompting the Janata Dal-United to launch a sharp attack on him and seek his immediate sacking.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Tuesday unveiled a Rs 39.45 lakh crore Budget with a view to fire up the key engines of the economy to sustain a world-beating recovery from the pandemic. This was Sitharaman's fourth Budget. While the taxpayers were left in the lurch, once again, was she able to cheer Corporate India?
Simran Dhir talks about Delhi, Indian parents and the inspiration behind her debut novel Best Intentions.
27 mountaineers perished in an avalanche in the mountains of Uttarakhand last week. The mountaineers were returning from a trek to the Draupadi's Danda mountain peak when disaster struck at 8.45 am in the morning.
Unless controlled and contained, given the untested belief that the north Indian labour support and follow the Hindutva kind of political ideology, there is a potential in terms of ideological clashes with their Dravidian brethren in the local neighbourhoods, and it all escalating into violence, especially during election time, predicts N Sathiya Moorthy.
Ajai Shukla presents an action plan for Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to fix the systemic weaknesses in defence.
'There are major implications for India. Though there was a transparently thin attempt to project the troop reduction as intended to promote peace, the downsizing is actually part of plans to streamline and strengthen the PLA, capable of defending China's national interests at home and abroad,' says Jayadev Ranade.
Prime Minister Modi, who is in Japan on a two-day visit to attend a summit of the Quad leaders at the invitation of his Japanese counterpart Fumio Kishida, penned an op-ed on the vibrant relations between India and Japan in the Yomiuri Shimbun.
'The AMs are a different beast and reflect the political play within the government.' 'Prime Minister Modi does not need to assuage any interest group to take the final call on any decision that belongs rightfully to the Cabinet,' points out Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
'How many people have been skilled up and thus able to escape from needing to be in NREGA? The true success of NREGA would lie in its irrelevance -- that is, people no longer need it as a crutch.' 'NREGA should enable them to climb out of poverty and stand on their feet.' 'But this is expressly forbidden by NREGA rules. Skill development, which is what India needs more than anything else, appears to be outside the purview of NREGA,' points out Rajeev Srinivasan.
'Anyone can string together a few alliterative words, but are they a substitute for serious thought?' 'And do they make for a strategy or plan for coherent action?' asks T N Ninan.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's three-day visit to Britain has seen India and the UK agreeing on Rs 90,000 crore deals.
The Indian shooters fired a blank at the Rio 2016 Olympics with Abhinav Bindra missing the medal by a whisker but the 2008 Beijing Olympic champion said he has high hopes for Tokyo.
Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi says her ministry is working on four core areas of "safety, education, employment and confidence building," which are critical for the 58 crore women population in India which includes over 41 crore in rural areas. She also lays out the detailed roadmap for her ministry including setting up of one stop rape crises centres, hostels for working women among others.
Seven years is a long time for any of Modi's promised actions to show up. If voters are angry and cynical today, it is because the rhetoric stings, argues Ramesh Menon.
The co-founder of Feeding India is changing the way India deals with wasted food.
Entrepreneurs, however, say they are unsure when the many obstacles in India will be cleared.
Tiktok and Helo in a joint statement said they have plans to invest $1 billion over the period of next three years to develop technology infrastructure and owns responsibility of local community.
'The telecom companies are our lifeline now, despite having nearly collapsed under debt because of ill-advised policies.' 'Perhaps our obvious dependence on telecom services will spark well-conceived policies for this sector,' says Shyam Ponappa.
If Mr Modi has to win, he must convince the people of this country how his reforms improved the quality of their lives.
Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.com reports from the Google For India event in New Delhi.
'Unless we get the health and economic situations right at the same time, we will not recover.'
With less than five months to go, it's time you fine tuned your skills and assessed your preparation for the big day.
The prime minister and president stated their intention to expand defence co-operation to bolster national, regional and global security.
'Checkmating India by its nukes, Pakistan can pursue terrorism against India in the Kashmir Valley and also resume launching Mumbai 2008 style attacks.' 'The military oligarchy in Pakistan has a totally different view of what is desirable and possible in the subcontinent.'
'The confidence and the kind of cricket India has played in the recent past will be a big factor.'
Interestingly, in his entire remarks, Modi never once mentioned regional security, Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar points out.
'We should build a military with the capability to fight today's war on priority -- balancing it with the requirements of the future,' says Lieutenant General Anil Chait, one of the Indian Army's most cerebral thinkers who recently retired as chief of the Integrated Defence Staff, in his agenda for the new defence minister.
Most top industrialists rate PM's first 100 days in office as 'good', primarily due to his intentions, not concrete policy measures.
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