The buck for the Gandamal tragedy should not stop with the school-in-charge Meena Kumari. She is just the face of a deeper malaise in Bihar, says Apoorvanand.
Refuting allegations of divisions in the Congress in Rajasthan, Corporate Affairs Minister and Member of Parliament from Ajmer, Sachin Pilot, speaks to Kavita Chowdhury on a range of issues, including the Congress's prospects in the coming Rajasthan Assembly polls.
HPCL is now ready to increase the stake of the state government up to 49 per cent.
Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas with independent charge Dharmendra Pradhan on the controversy over the government's use of Hindi in the social media and how the government is going ahead to execute its plans to honour the 60-month mandate it has been given.
This cult of speed reaches its crowning glory during that peculiar Indian spectacle called medical camps. Medical camps are an activity in which doctors from cities travel to underserved areas, often on weekends, where the poor are then herded in hundreds for deliverance, photo-ops and freebies. In their more evolved form, there are surgical camps where bewildered and overawed patients are put onto operating tables and, much like an assembly line, a series of operations are performed in rapid succession. The surgical instruments are often magically sterilised in minutes between procedures, says Dr Sanjay Nagral.
Sanjeeb Mukherjee, who was eight years old when the deadly gas leaked from Union Carbide's factory, gives his account of living in the city during that fateful period
'If policy-makers hold the lives of animals to be more significant than the welfare of a human populace, I can't believe that they're likely to do anything progressive for India.'
The justice delivery system is struggling to cope, creaking at the joints and bursting at the seams. Indian courts have to deal with about 30 million cases with a judicial strength of just about 19,000 judges.
'Renu Raj has exploded many civil services myths.' 'The popular belief is that unless they come from English speaking, sophisticated and affluent families, prepare at a young age, get educated in a first rate college, go to a coaching class in one of the metro cities, take the examination several times, the aspirants cannot make it to the civil services list, particularly its very top.' Ambassador T P Sreenivasan -- who serves in an honorary capacity at the NSS Academy where Renu coached for the IAS -- on how she surprised even herself by topping the UPSC exam.
'I always say I am a teacher by choice and an entrepreneur by chance.'
Uncooked, fresh and unprocessed -- that's the diet a number of people are swearing by
'I can tell you, Mr Chairman, from personal experience that there is nothing sadder than witnessing a close one, a loved one with mental illness at close quarters.' 'I have lived with a victim of mental illness. Like many in that condition, very often such people are in a state of denial.'
For distressed farmers in Mandya district of Karnataka, Madhuchandan is a true saviour.
'The diplomat's arrest has led to a major diplomatic spat, the likes of which I have not seen in my nearly three decades of covering the US-India relationship, says Aziz Haniffa. 'The knee-jerk reaction by the powers-that-be in Delhi was myopic to say the least.'
'Just how strong were the ties between the world's largest and oldest democracies that an incident involving a diplomat and a maid led to anger threatening the relationship itself? Or had the relationship been weakening in the past few years, masked by the empty symbolism of State dinners, asks Devesh Kapur.
Ritu Jha/Rediff.com reports from California on the largest TieCon ever.
Director Anil Sharma gives us an insight into the Deol men, and other Bollywood Greats.
Meet Randeep Hooda, the man with a great sense of humour, an actor who loves his craft, an animal lover and, over and above all that, a Jat lad in touch with his roots...
'Unless it is a situation where a patient must be hospitalised, that patient can be very easily treated at home... Patients recover in situations where they are more comfortable.'
Dr Kalyani Gomathinayagam, a young Indian doctor who volunteered to spend four weeks in west Africa helping those suffering and dying of Ebola, speaks to Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com why she took on an assignment many would shy away from.
This is the joint statement issued by the ministry of external affairs on the visit of US President Barack Obama to India.
The controversy over Sant Rampal and his army of followers taking the law into their hands has once again thrown the spotlight on the clout that India's godmen possess.
Full transcript of President Obama's speech at the Siri Fort Auditorium in New Delhi.