Modi government has pledged to lay 700,000 kms of broadband cable.
Clearly, rich Indians have little confidence in India. Perhaps we are also chronically dishonest.
"This election will dictate the direction the nation takes. As an Indian living abroad, I am ashamed of the negative influences in my motherland, especially the crime rate, which is increasing rapidly."
'As long as Pakistan exists, the situation will not stabilise and violence is bound to erupt from time to time.' 'Though not a final solution, a step that could help localise the abscess -- trifurcate Jammu and Kashmir state into three parts: Jammu, Ladakh and the Valley.'
'Some men and women did seek shelter in our dhaba but not one of them disclosed that they had been raped. They were in our dhaba for over two hours till such time as the cops arrived. If they had been stripped and raped, or had been lying the fields for a long period of time, they or the male members of their families should have spoken about it.'
The rather drab 87th Academy awards wasn't without its share of high points.
An Olympic campaign saved by the fortitude of three women, a cricket team that rediscovered itself under a bold and zealous Virat Kohli -- Indian sports in 2016 was a dramatic mix of highs and lows wherein athletes mostly raised the bar but administrators found new ways to embarrass the country.
'India's military posture has become significantly stronger than China's on the 3,500-kilometre Line of Actual Control.' 'This is enhancing confrontation between the two sides,' points out Ajai Shukla.
Olympic and Paralympic track star Oscar Pistorius will stand in a Pretoria dock on Monday to face a charge of murdering his girlfriend, opening the decisive chapter in the story of the rise and fall of one of the world's most recognisable athletes.
With what joyous expectations I welcomed you! You have tumbled me into a cauldron of gloomy forebodings, says B S Raghavan.
Looking for a place where you can party all night? Here's a global list of destinations that is sure to interest the party lover in you.
Though Indians were no strangers to scams, spectrum loss was beyond their wildest imagination.
'Pornography is available on every phone today. Even children are watching it' 'If there is no pornography in India, good things will happen in the country.'
'Once, when I was standing around on the set one day, whining about something -- you know we were gonna work through supper or the long hours or whatever, Tommy Lee Jones said to me, 'Isn't it such a privilege, Meryl, just to be an actor? Yeah, it is, and we have to remind each other of the privilege and the responsibility of the act of empathy. We should all be very proud of the work Hollywood honours here tonight.'
A divided party -- not the quashing of the Adarsh report -- will spell doom for the Congress in Maharashtra, argues Neeta Kolhatkar.
The winds of revolution are blowing all over the Arab world. A bit, slowly in Saudi Arabia, perhaps, but nevertheless. Some women did drive, defying the ban and were duly arrested. But the day is not long, may be, just another century at most, when women can actually drive, in women-only lanes, of course, says B S Prakash.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com examines how Salman Khan went from a reviled, spoilt Bollywood brat to being a well-loved superstar.
Right in the midst of bustling Kolkata lies what might be the most prominent population of Britons in India.
'I think the AAP is still in transition from being a movement to a political party so there is a mix of people who form the party. So there is somewhat of a overlapping and commonality of purpose.' 'Look at the way the government and party is functioning, not a single woman minister in the cabinet, or no woman member in the political affairs committee, it is all very tactical now.' 'After the 'sting' I decided to step back. I realised that my moral basis has been questioned by Kejriwal, it is truly despicable. He is around 15 years younger to me, I was aghast by his words.' AAP 'rebel' Prof Anand Kumar speaks of what went wrong with the party in the last few days in this interview with Upasna Pandey.
'You can see the essential contours of his new Pakistan strategy. Rather than keep engaging with or humouring them, he'd rather work on taking their four biggest supporters -- the US, China, the UAE and later Saudi Arabia -- away from them.' 'In his calculation,' says Shekhar Gupta, 'with the total support of all four of these, Pakistan will be forced to moderate its policies.'
Henry Blofeld, who charmed the cricket world for more than 40 years, bids farewell to the microphone come September. Haresh Pandya salutes the Master.
'The anti-Digital India campaign is a vindictive hatchet job rather than a fact based, rationally sound appraisal; a personal attack rather than issue based criticism; an ideological assault rather than altruistic effort. It must be called out for what it is,' says Vivek Gumaste.
It would be wrong to blame only Bollywood or the fairness cream industry, or the masses that cater to both, because clearly, all of us encourage this lust for whiteness that films and companies only cash in on.
'Nehru is often portrayed as a visionary with his head in the clouds. But he had his feet firmly planted on the ground when it came to building and nurturing institutions and setting them on the right path with the right traditions,' says B S Raghavan.
Hamid Anasari's was not talking of reservation for the whole religious community to which he too happens to belong. Yet, sections of media chose to put words into his mouth and then subject him to the criticism he never deserved. This does not augur well for our media or democracy, says Mohammad Sajjad.
As investors try to second-guess the US Fed, corporate and election results could have a bearing on market direction
It emerges that not only does the CIDR project fails the test of fairness, justness and reasonableness besides the test of not being fanciful, oppressive or arbitrary; it also fails the test of Arthashastra, Hadith and the Bible.
'Would not proudly showing President Xi Jinping that people from India's North-East are as much a part of India as those from anywhere else be like a slap on the face of Chinese aggression?' asks Chitra Ahanthem.
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.
BJP leader Ram Madhav's rant about Vice President Hamid Ansari's absence at the International Yoga Day celebrations goes deeper, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf, deep into their brain.
>What happens when two teenagers -- one Israeli and one Palestinian -- discover that they were accidentally switched at birth? The Other Son is a wonderful vision of Israel and Palestine. There is no positive future for the region and its people without this vision, feels Aseem Chhabra.
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.
A new logo can harm image than doing good, say experts.
After all the drama that preceded the book launch of former Pakistani foreign minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri's book launch, the discussion that ensued on the book the same evening turned out to be a fiasco. Here's why
There would have been no controversy if the convicted rapists were by now punished according to law and sent to meet their maker, in short hanged! But our criminal justice system remains dysfunctional. Ultimately besides the genuine social reform and gender equality it is the lack of effective laws that are at the root of women's insecurity, says Colonel (Dr) Anil Athale (retd).
The Sochi Winter Olympics are meant to be Vladimir Putin's crowning achievement as Russian leader but are in danger of becoming a symbol of his country's problems.
The gulf between Hindi cinema's finest current actor and his contemporaries widens with each film. But even Irrfan Khan, in Mick Jagger's words, can't always get what he wants. Raja Sen tells us why that's not a bad thing.
The EC is perhaps the only body in the country still untarnished and commanding universal respect round the world. It has often been savaged by the ruling political dispensations in the past also, but the EC has come out with flying colours in every case including the latest one against West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, says B S Raghavan.
Despite criticism of a lack of transparency and communication from the Modi-led government, BJP leaders point to "good beginnings" on several fronts to defend its performance. Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com reports.
Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani is predictable but who cares? Romance is back with a bang and it is exuberant, entertaining, dazzling and worth your time, writes Sukanya Verma.
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