The Tejas has flown an unprecedented 450 test flights this year towards a splashy ceremony in Bangalore scheduled for December 20, where Defence Minister AK Antony will preside over its induction into the Indian Air Force, says Ajai Shukla.
'If Chandrayaan 1 had a launch with GSLV, we need not have an orbiter for Chandrayaan 2.' 'We could have gone straight round the moon and landed on the moon.'
With India lagging behind on several human development indices including healthcare and education, the Union government's decision to up the spending on these sectors is a step in the right direction. However, much more needs to be done in the way of increasing accountability and arresting corruption if headway is to be made on these fronts, says Devanik Saha.
Akhilesh told his ministers and legislators that they should not worry about tickets.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday termed his Japan trip as "very successful" and hoped that India's infrastructure will improve and the country will become clean with the help of $35 billion promised by Japan over five years, the highest ever amount ever.
'The creation of Pakistan was integral to Britain's grand strategy.' 'If they were to ever leave India, Britain's military planners had made it clear that they needed to retain a foothold in the NWFP and Baluchistan because that would provide the means to retain control of Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain and Qatar.'
'Wealthy Indians don't give as much as Americans because they believe they must leave their wealth to their children.'
The information and broadcasting ministry's business-like and result-oriented handling of several issues has set a template for other ministries to follow, says A K Bhattacharya.
FIFA legends Carlos Valderrama and Marcel Desailly on Wednesday advised the Indian colts to view the upcoming FIFA Under-17 World Cup as a huge opportunity to shine on the international stage and perform to their potential.
Making it easier to do business is a key element of our strategy, says Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar.
A key UN climate change summit that will be attended by nearly 150 world leaders including Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicks off on Monday under the shadow of the deadly Paris terror attack to try to craft a long-term deal to limit carbon emissions.
Premier Li Keqiang highlighted his government's performance in the last one year and the challenges ahead in various fields. Compared to other reports by his predecessors, Li spoke more frankly about the mounting challenges faced by the country. Srikanth Kondapalli on the two recent Chinese parliament sessions.
'The poor manner in which the RJD stitched its alliance and mismanaged its electioneering, now reveals that Tejashwi was more interested in enhancing his political stature by cutting down many senior leaders, by downsizing and shrinking RJD allies, by displaying arrogance and inaccessibility and by committing silly mistakes in candidate selection,' points out Mohammad Sajjad.
India has remained obsessed with cheap capital and infrastructure spending when instead the central constraint on Indian development remains the abysmal quality of Indians' skills, says Mihir Sharma.
'That the 'I' word is swirling around Washington these days attests to the atmosphere that has taken hold and cannot but have a negative impact on political and economic decision-making,' says Claude Smadja.
'The reason why Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have attended the President's iftar was not merely to break a fast with the faithful, but more importantly to broker an understanding with India's second largest set of citizens,' says Shehzad Poonawalla.
The two countries also asked all nations to stop cross-border movement of terrorists and asserted that a decisive collective response from the international community without 'double standards and selectivity' was required to combat the threat of terrorism.
'The coming two months could unfold unpredictable results or unpredictable consequences or both at the same time,' says Rajaram Panda.
Home-grown taxi booking companies which have a business model similar to Uber's might have stricter security norms imposed on them.
Oil accounts for about a third of India's total imports and higher dollar prices combined with a rupee near all-time lows have increased its cost.
Nitish Kumar has lost his credibility. He is now only a weak ally of the BJP. And he may no longer have a shot at a national role.
Many anticipate that by the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal, the BJP may come to power, says Mohammad Sajjad.
'There will be some issues of contention, especially on H1B visa and on trade policy.'
Ambassador B S Prakash has fond memories of Vinod Khanna, his minister.
'Trump forgets that Kim is not one who likes to be treated publicly as a pauper; he wants to come to the table as an equal, and from a position of perceived strength, not as a suppliant,' says Dr Rajaram Panda.
FIFA's director of communications Walter de Gregorio is to resign after making a joke on television.
N Sundaresha Subramanian digs deeper into what Catalyst, an Indo-US project, brings to the payments ecosystem.
Signal International, its network of recruiters and labour brokers are being sued for trafficking 500 Indian guest workers to the United States and forcing them to work under barbaric conditions. George Joseph reports for Rediff.com from New York
Tamal Bandyopadhyay details HDFC Bank's digital journey.
'We use the word "historic" perhaps too much, but the prime minister's visit certainly was historic in so many ways.'
For existing technologies, unless appropriate financing is available, deployment at scale is difficult.
Will the unpredictable North Korean leader provoke conflict on the Korean peninsula?
'That the two sides allowed such a situation to arise exposed the level of inaction and inefficiency in China-India border management.' 'The Modi-Xi meeting in Xiamen initiated a process to to avert such contingencies in the future.'
'Over the last two decades, the India-French relationship has grown steadily, no major political difference having darkened the sky between Paris and Delhi,' says Claude Arpi.
Greek proposals hailed as "a positive step forward".
'After a strategic pause though, Beijing will revive its policy of slowly creeping towards acquiring sovereignty over the South China Sea.'
In an era when the misguided youth of today are trying to build political careers by subscribing to divisive ideologies, they need to look to independent thinking icons such as Acharya Kripalani, says Mohammad Sajjad.
Pneumonia and diarrhoea have collectively claimed the lives of over three lakh children in India in 2013, posing a major challenge to public health in the country, a report said.
Jamaat-ud-Dawah chief Hafiz Saeed's detention may help ease India-Pakistan tension, media reports in Islamabad said on Tuesday even as supporters of the Mumbai attack mastermind launched protests across major cities against the government's decision which they say was taken under pressure from the US and India.
