The president outlined the government's agenda in the coming financial year in his customary address to the joint sitting of both the Houses of Parliament.
Tista Sengupta/Rediff.com speaks to aspiring plus size models who, for the first time, will walk at Lakme Fashion Week.
On International Yoga Day, South Delhi-based yoga teacher Saudamini Chandra found herself shepherding the young girl students to their first taste of India's heritage that was being celebrated across the world. This is her experience.
They are shaken by the mass molestation in the city on New Year's Eve. But they are not waiting to be rescued. Nikita Puri reports.
'Where they lose, you never ask why they failed there, like in Bihar and Punjab.' 'You are stuck on the UP victory, thinking they have the mandate to rule for all times to come.' 'The BJP has 282 MPs, but can I honestly say that the BJP is the party for everyone?'
'Dadri was an extension of the cultural fascism that was happening in the country.' 'All the people in the country suffered under the Emergency, but now we see one community trying to crush the other community. Do they know what is brewing in the minds of the other side? What is happening today can lead to a very dangerous situation in the country.' 'We have lost religious tolerance in today's India.' Writer Sarah Joseph on why she returned her Sahitya Akademi Award.
An active politician for over four decades, Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday completed one year in office as a copybook President, a period that was marked by proactive steps within and outside Rashtrapati Bhavan.
'We are by no means anywhere nearing having external financing difficulties or internal financing difficulties. The government's credit is solid, there is absolutely no difficulty for the government in borrowing and it is borrowing effectively from the public today in a fairly free public debt market,' the RBI governor tells a meeting in Washington, DC
For distressed farmers in Mandya district of Karnataka, Madhuchandan is a true saviour.
In March 2012, UP made Akhilesh Yadav the state's youngest CM. In March 2017, he finds himself in the opposition. At this turning point, we look back at the Samajwadi Party leader's political trajectory.
Anjuli Pandit wants to use her skills to educate more and more Indians, says Chaya Babu
'It is common knowledge that cash is anonymous.' 'When demonetisation was implemented, one of the intended objectives was to put identity on the cash holdings in the economy.' 'With the return of Rs 15.28 lakh crore in the formal banking system, the almost entire cash holding of the economy now has an address.' 'It is no more anonymous,' says Arun Jaitley.
'The desire to force others to act according to the way we want the world to be is strong in our parts. This is particularly so because we have not fully internalised the idea of individual liberties. The fact is that our moralism will get us into trouble,' says Aakar Patel.
Her great grandfather began sugar co-operatives in Maharashtra. Her grandfather was an eight time MP. Her uncle is currently leader of the Opposition in the Maharashtra assembly. Her cousin joined the BJP on Tuesday, March 12. Nila Vikhe Patil, who could one day become prime minister of Sweden, unravels her India connections in an e-mail interaction with Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel.
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We present Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's full speech as he addressed the country on the occasion of 66th Independence Day, from Red Fort, Delhi.
'Human rights violations are there in rural areas and in cities. In rural areas it is crude and in the open. In urban areas it is well hidden.' 'Awareness has grown several fold. India has 160 national and state human rights institutions. No other country in the world has this.' 'Unfortunately the right to association, right to assembly, freedom of expression, right to protest and discuss are all being curtailed systematically one by one.'
'Many who haven't even seen the documentary are claiming that it defames and damages the image of India, makes it sound unsafe, and gives the rapist a forum.' 'This couldn't be further from the truth, and the film shows the best qualities of India and Indians in standing up against evil as much as it shows the unvarnished truth.'
'The Reserve Bank's independence has remained a work in progress, an enduring challenge that the nation has been grappling with on an ongoing basis,' says RBI Deputy Governor Dr Viral Acharya.
'India alone cannot walk the path of peace. It also has to be Pakistan's journey to make,' says Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the government's geo-political flagship initiative "Raisina Dialogue-II".
'What we need is right skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling.'
'We need to be in a perpetual state of aggression, and able to swiftly change the goal posts to keep Pakistan in a state of imbalance,' argues Sanjeev Nayyar.
Aadhaar-related schemes and the Aadhaar Act exist on the assumption that Right to Privacy is not a Fundamental Right.
'I felt like a used and discarded rag.' 'The pro-dialogue constituency has shrunk in the valley.' Academician and author Dr Radha Kumar was among the three interlocutors which the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government appointed on Kashmir in October 2010, speaks of how the panel report was never acted upon.
'The Congress era was already over anyway! The real question is: Has India opened a new, post-coalition era and I'm very doubtful about that,' Christophe Jaffrelot, author of several books on Indian politics, tells Archana Masih/Rediff.com, analysing Mandate 2014.
MUST READ: The speech Nayantara Sahgal was not allowed to give.
Battling on Rahul Gandhi's behalf, Priyanka Gandhi took on Narendra Modi over his shehzada, namuna and other barbs at her brother on Tuesday, saying the Bharatiya Janata Party leader is aspiring to be prime minister but indulging in childish behaviour and that he should maintain decorum.
With fresh enrollments crossing 100,000 mark, the total number of Indian students studying in the US reported a sharp increase this year.
Successor Anandiben Patel isn't having an easy time, with a protest movement by her own community and new challenges in keeping the mandate
Even Delhi does not have a full-time registrar of chits.
'The Pakistani military has encouraged and supported terrorist organisations, especially in Kashmir, as a means of waging proxy war against the Indian military and the country's superior economic resources.' 'The evidence is irrefutable with the recent killing of 46 paramilitary troops being just the latest example.'
Mehbooba Mufti said that incidents like the ones at Handwara and Nathnusa are "unacceptable" and come as a major setback to the efforts of the state government in consolidating peace dividends in the state.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Myanmar is aimed at transforming the arch of Bay of Bengal into the Circle of Southeast Asia, says Anirban Ganguly.
'Hindu voters in coastal Karnataka lean more towards Hindutva than Hinduism which explains why the Siddaramaiah government's perception as anti-Hindu worked wonders for the BJP in coastal Karnataka.'
'It should be of concern that some youth in Kashmir have started raising Daesh flags along with those of Pakistan.'
The notes argue that it will widen the talent base available to govt to deliver increasingly complex services to a demanding population.
The chief minister said there is a need to take "bold measures to address the issue as the people of Jammu and Kashmir were our own".
For the philanthropy, we wanted also to have big impact, a kind of a new dimension.
J Sandhya, member, Child Rights Commission, speaks to Shobha Warrier about the recent incident where more than five hundred poor children from Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal were being sent to Kerala orphanages, and why children's rights need to be protected with vigour.
'They don't always agree with our governments, their teachers or their parents, but it is the conviction of their ideas, and their determination to share them with the world that, I believe, is one of the greatest sources of hope for our planet.' 'The colonisation of space, understanding the very building blocks of matter and the universe, utilising our understanding of the human genome to conquer disease -- these are the tasks waiting for a fellowship of minds to realise new triumphs in our collective destiny.'
Partyless democracy is an idea whose time has come, says Sandeep Pandey
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