While Raju and Brijesh Saroj have found help from the Uttar Pradesh government as well as the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Zahid Qureshi is struggling to make ends meet.
'It is the RJD, otherwise known for misgovernance, which has offered a candidate of clean and performing credentials, rather than the NDA,' points out Mohammad Sajjad.
Charles 'Biharilal' Thomson, an Australian who speaks fluent Hindi, on how India has bewitched him.
Experts believe adoption of AI in developing countries will be much faster than in developed nations, as the magnitude of change it will bring will be far larger.
'It is very hard to get the police to file a report against someone from an upper caste.' 'Things are so bad that sometimes we have to sit on a dharna with the body of a Dalit victim to get the police to file a complaint.'
Shubham Kumar Gautam, son of a farmer and a Super 30 student, recounts how, in a journey laced with perseverance, grit and determination, he achieved what seemed impossible.
The various meat bans across the country are an attempt to attack civil liberties, says civil rights activist Kavita Srivastava.
'Communalism and communal riots happened in India only during and due to colonialism. Pre-colonial India didn't have this problem of communal conflicts and religious strife.'
'On her birthday, I decided to meet her and dressed up for it.' 'Then I saw her walking towards me with a boy. I thought it could be her brother.' 'But when she came close, she asked, "Have you met my boyfriend?"' 'That day I realised the value of sad songs in India.' 'That was the first time I was heartbroken.'
'I have nothing more to lose. My three sons were killed. I am not going to sit silent.'
Rescue and relief operations continued in full swing in Chennai with over a hundred people taken to safety by teams of Army, IAF and NDRF, including a seven-month pregnant woman who was airlifted on Thursday from one of the worst-affected areas in the flooded city.
'In the name of pluralism-secularism, the kind of politics that was pursued revealed to many that it was basically a favour to Muslim conservatism and communalism -- a politics of minority-ism, rather than of secularism.' 'This is how significant sections of Hindus have been made to loathe the very idea of Indian secularism by now,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Kota, Rajasthan, is both a beacon for the educationally deprived and a cynical place in which 16-year-olds live in Dickensian boarding houses, while teachers drive Audis.
13 out of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in India. Most shockingly, the latest Central Pollution Control Board statistics reveal that the pollution levels in Gwalior, Raipur and even little known Kashipur are higher than that of Delhi which means we have some of the most polluted zones in the world.
We sorted through countless photographs taken around the world to come up with the top photos of 2019. Together these images tell the story of the year -- capturing moments of hope and heartbreak, triumph and tragedy.
Bomb blasts on Thursday rocked Assam and Manipur during Independence Day functions injuring one person even as chief ministers asked extremists to abjure violence and return to the mainstream.
All international passengers will henceforth be screened at airports, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said at a press conference. Earlier, travellers from only 12 countries were screened at airports for the disease that has claimed over 3,000 lives and infected more than 90,000 worldwide.
'They will talk about secularism, but communalism -- they just won't say there exists such a beast.' 'It's harmful for society to brush it under the carpet.' 'If we talk about secularism, we must talk about communalism.'
'Karpoori Thakur must be remembered by people today who are tired of witnessing fractious politics where corruption, bigotry, hatred and violence seems to have become distressingly recurrent,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
'There is no remorse over the Dadri lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq or of Pehlu Khan by cow vigilante groups.' 'But should you not have remorse for those who came to kill them?' 'They were Hindus. Do you accept that?' 'That to kill one Pehlu, 20 Hindus have become murderers.' Rajdeep Sardesai in conversation with Ravish Kumar.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that it is imperative to maintain high growth rates.
'A fierce crusader against communalism, George joined hands with majoritarian forces, never to revisit or re-assess his saffron association.' 'He was a Union minister in 1998-2004, a time when people like Graham Staines were lynched in Orissa.' 'On the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, George went on to kind of justify the slashing of pregnant women, by saying in the Lok Sabha that this was nothing new for India.' 'Thus, he was in sharp contrast to what he had himself stood for in the heyday of his political career in the 1970s and 1980s, says Mohammad Sajjad.
'Did the government learn any lesson from the disasters of 2008, 1987, 1975?' 'Certainly not!' 'They are making people believe that the 2017 flood was unexpected, so no preventive effort towards reducing the loss of human lives was to be expected from the government,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Their families are poor and do not know what IIT is but their sons dream of IIT and working for ISRO and NASA one day. One man is helping them towards their dream. As Bihar goes to the polls, Archana Masih salutes its greatest success story.
'We live in a time when hideous anger easily flares up, particularly on identity-related issues.' 'Often advocates of harmony and compassion fall victim to the same anger and end up hating the 'haters'!' 'This changes the moment we are able to turn the slanging match into a conversation.' 'More often than not you may find that there is agreement on a fundamental truth -- respect for the life and dignity of all.'
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.
Earlier, The Nitish Kumar government had banned sale and consumption of country and spiced liquor in rural areas from April 1 this year, but had allowed sale of foreign liquor in towns and cities.
Months after take off, Durgapur airport in West Bengal struggles to stay afloat
He also gave examples witnessed at various places, like changing of the crop pattern in view of scarce water and adoption of sprinklers, drip irrigation, water harvesting and water recharging methods.
'If JNU students are anti-national, why do we send in the police? Why not send in intellectuals like M V Kamath to have a debate and discussion?'
'The animosity in the BJP against Swamy continued for a good more than thirty years.' 'It was only after herculean efforts by a reconstituted and more just RSS, that Swamy was finally inducted into the BJP in 2013.'
Why are far right Hindu organisations growing in strength? Why is there a rising subscription to Neo-Wahabism, the Saudi Arabian version of contemporary Islam?
'This is the first time a majority ruling government is nominating a Dalit for President.' 'So, the moral credibility definitely will go with the BJP, particularly Narendra Modi.'
'Nitish is now a helpless junior ally of Hindutva.' 'He just cannot think of reining in the hoodlums raging, marauding and killing in the mohallas,' argues Mohammad Sajjad.
'The clearest interpretation of the November 8 mandate is that the backwards, Dalits and minorities, and a huge proportion of women cutting across caste and class, displayed massive consolidation to the extent that despite chipping of votes by the Left Front, by the Third Front and by the BSP, Mahagathbandhan candidates won, and in many cases by huge margins,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
Jayapur, with a population of a little over 4,200, was like most other villages before Prime Minister Narendra Modi adopted it on November 7.
'By resorting to divisive issues, the BJP is giving the impression that even if it is voted to power it won't do anything new to give Bihar a facelift. It will repel voters with the belief that the BJP can't do anything without communal polarisation as its core ideology. This is sad and unfortunate,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
'There are 25 million farmers in India with at least 2 to 3 cows each.' 'If all them use biogas to cook, millions of LPG units and firewood can be saved.'
'We are a plural society that for centuries, not for 70 years, has lived in a certain ambience of acceptance.' 'It is under threat,' outgoing Vice President Hamid Ansari tells Karan Thapar.
'The BJP has replaced huge portraits of the two BJP leaders from Gujarat with very small portraits of many leaders from Bihar. Much is being read into this changed tactic of hoardings and banners,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
