In fact, the Taliban apparently collects about 10 per cent as cultivation tax from opium farmers and 15 per cent as heroin tax from laboratories and smugglers that smuggle narcotics into Pakistan. This, by itself, is a revenue stream estimated at USD 250-300 million.
'There will be more than three to four lakh tractors and farmers, four to five times that number, displaying their resolve in front of a deaf, mute and a government blind to their plight.'
India has realised that one can only deal with China from a position of strength and that is not palatable to Beijing, observes Dr Rup Narayan Das.
Falling valuations, slowing funding rounds and faltering investor sentiment seem to have prompted many start-ups to lay off employees in a bid to conserve cash. The latest to do so is SoftBank-backed Cars24, a leading e-commerce platform for pre-owned vehicles, which has laid off over 600 staff, according to sources in the know. The move, they said, is aimed at conserving cash amid cautious investor sentiment and a slowdown in funding.
'We may be weak now, but the importance of the Congress cannot be denied.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday interacted with world leaders, including US President Joe Biden, on the sidelines of the G20 Summit, exchanging pleasantries and showcasing a spirit of camaraderie.
'If he loses Gujarat, then he has a major, major, problem coming up in 2024.'
'We didn't know where the story was going. But I knew I was telling the story of an extremely lonely journalist.'
The proliferation of domestic Twenty20 leagues poses a threat to international cricket and the game must find a way to balance both, according to South Africa's former captain Faf du Plessis.
"Before January 15 next year, when the election will be one year away, we are planning to select candidates for at least 150 assembly constituencies, so that they can start working," Kumaraswamy told reporters.
Ramping up e-commerce operations and going beyond its current strongholds are key challenges for the grocery chain in its battle with Mukesh Ambani's retail behemoth.
'The BJP's all-India plans can be expected to become clearer around 2022-2023, particularly if -- as some anticipate -- the senior Congress leadership cracks, broadly as between the Nehru-Gandhi loyalists and those who may be termed 'pro-changers',' observes Arun Bhatnagar, a retired IAS officer.
The Emergency greatly influenced the RSS' makeover from a fringe force in the Indian political imagination to one that could have its own man sworn in as prime minister in two decades' time. A riveting excerpt from Christophe Jaffrelot and Pratinav Anil's India's First Dictatorship: The Emergency, 1975-1977.
Aadhaar architect Nandan Nilekani on Friday India is well-placed on the government and businesses fronts to leverage artificial intelligence (AI) in unique ways to solve challenges and tap into opportunities. Nilekani noted that over the last few years, the government has focussed on how to make transactions more efficient and effective, which has driven digitisation across the board. He added that as a byproduct of this, huge data now across systems has been generated and that the time is right to apply AI across the board to India's most challenging issues across areas like healthcare and education.
'Our movement was not about putting any flag on the Red Fort, but it is to secure our livelihood.'
'There is a need for the Congress to introspect.' 'Introspection means to find out where we have gone wrong in the last eight-ten years, how we have gone wrong, where we have failed to succeed.'
'The Congress has indeed become overly dependent on the RJD.' 'A few Congress leaders have successfully convinced the national leadership about the benefits of maintaining ties with the RJD.'
In his address to the high-level UN General Assembly session, Jaishankar said those who politicise the UNSC 1267 Sanctions regime, sometimes even to the extent of defending proclaimed terrorists, do so at their own peril.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday met Bharatiya Janata Party general secretaries and discussed organisational matters as also measures to strengthen the party ahead of assembly elections in some key states.
India and Indians can ignore Pakistan, but that cannot be said of other nations in the neighbourhood, where New Delhi's 'Neighbourhood First' policy constantly reverberates. Four of the eight SAARC member-nations are Muslim -- Afghanistan and Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Maldives. The rulers decide the nation's India or anti-India policy in the first two, and street-opinion contributes to the same in the latter two, points out N Sathiya Moorthy.
That's because India does not have a serious venture capital industry with an appetite for risk, observes T N Ninan.
He's not a cakes-and-candles kind of person, the legendary superstar confesses to Subhash K Jha.
Colonel Ajay Kothiyal, Kirti Chakra, Shaurya Chakra, is one of the most decorated soldiers to join politics. He still has two bullets lodged inside his body sustained in a gun battle with terrorists in J&K.
'Government shouldn't be in the business of running airlines, instead it should develop the ecosystem of civil aviation.'
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron held extensive discussions on a range of bilateral and pressing global issues, including the raging conflict in Ukraine, the situation in the Indo-Pacific and terrorism, as the two top leaders agreed on a blueprint to work together in making the India-France strategic partnership a force for global good.
