The transcript of the Milkha Singh Rediff Chat.
'The ultimate satisfaction of helping in the country's space programme is the bigger achievement attracting women to space research -- and they are so good at it!'
'Absolute non-violence is not only sinful, but immoral.' 'This doctrine of non-violence benumbed the revolutionary fervor, softened the limbs and hearts of the Hindus, and stiffened the bones of enemies.' A revealing excerpt from Vikram Sampath's Savarkar (Part 2): A Contested Legacy, 1924-1966.
'Here is a woman who has got widespread appreciation for her work.' 'Social media was full of posts wanting her as the chief ministerial candidate.' 'This kind of popularity did not go well within the party.' 'See, today the party is Pinarayi Vijayan!'
India must be aware that there is no question of the US fighting the Chinese on land. We have to fight our own battles, points out Virendra Kapoor.
After months of anticipation (and 31,000 submissions from the British public), the Britain's Duchess of Cambridge's final selection of images for Hold Still is available to view on the National Portrait Gallery's website. Designed to "capture and document the spirit, the mood, the hopes, the fears and the feelings of the nation" during lockdown, the project brings together 100 moving amateur shots of everything from at-home haircuts to make-shift classrooms; exhausted NHS staffers on duty to dedicated postmen in superhero costumes; pensioners FaceTiming with their grandchildren to mothers cradling their newborn babies. Below, see 22 remarkable images from Hold Still - then head to the The National Portrait Gallery website for the full exhibition.
Shriya and Adhya Beesam won the competition while Vineet Edupuganti won the top individual award.
'The politician in him saw to it that the foundation stone was laid in Ahmedabad in the run-up to the assembly election in Gujarat in 2017.' 'But the statesman in him also wants it to be his legacy.'
Verma, 46, is the first Indian-American to be the US ambassador to India and is expected to be sworn in shortly.
Fewer than half of Americans plan to go to sports events, concerts, movies and amusement parks when they reopen to the public until there is a proven coronavirus vaccine. That includes those who have attended such events in the past, an ominous sign for the sports and entertainment industries hoping to return to the spotlight after being shut down by the pandemic.
The contemporary problem with the BJP in Tamil Nadu is that it has been trying hard to package the DMK especially as anti-god and anti-Hinduism, and seeking it to link to Periyar and M Karunanidhi, and by extension to Stalin, the latter's son and successor to the party mantle. Their hope was to consolidate the perceived 'pro-god, pro-religion votes', which they saw returning to the fold post-MGR, post-Jayalalithaa. But no such substantial vote-bank existed even in Periyar's time, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
If your children live abroad, rely more on financial assets as they are easier to liquidate and move across borders.
'For the Tamil Nadu protestors to openly ask popular film actor Vijay Sethupathi not to don Murali in 800 is a travesty in every sense. It may have given them a cause to tell the world, and the governments in New Delhi, Colombo and Chennai, that the Sri Lankan ethnic issue was still alive in the state -- more so, during the current run-up to two major events in the first half of 2021,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Why did the Chinese military take over the lab in Wuhan in end January? Did something go wrong? Claude Arpi glances at the mystery surrounding the origin of the coronavirus.
"On the one hand he says I was a 'yachak' (somebody pleading) and on the other hand he accuses me of having arrogance. It's very contradictory. I am willing to plead with the Centre for the cause of Bihar. He is the prime minister and can say whatever he wishes.
The actress will be see in Aparna Sen's Bengali film Arshinagar.
A time has thus come when state encouragement for rural students led to empowerment of the socio-economically marginalised sections of the population. It included women. Today, with greater exposure and consequent enlightenment, it has gone beyond 'empowerment' to become 'entitlement', says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Dil Chahta Hai revolutionised the language of Hindi films. Sukanya Verma shows us how.
Import curbs on Chinese panels and modules may help, but low demand and capacity remain problem areas, says Shreya Jai.
A local Mumbai court on Tuesday remanded the senior Nationalist Congress Party leader and former Maharashtra Public Works Department Minister Chhagan Bhujbal in the custody of Enforcement Directorate till March 17, a day after he was arrested in a money laundering case in connection with the Maharashtra Sadan scam.
'Imran Khan would only have spoken with the full awareness of Modi's complex political personality.' 'He has the great advantage of being privy to the confidential exchanges between then Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif and Modi during the latter's celebrated surprise visit to Lahore in December 2015 as well as the 'back channel' conversations between the national security advisors of the two countries,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Did Xi deliver a message to Modi at Mamallapuram, which though couched in a velvet glove was time-bound? What was that message? It is clear Indian/Israeli/US spy satellites would not have missed detecting Chinese troop movements towards the Ladakh-Tibet frontier. Then why did some important functionaries in the Government of India choose to only ask the Russians about this in April 2020? Was Russian reassurance of Chinese troop movements being part of a routine exercise the reason that the Leh-based XIV Corps did not mobilise itself for its annual summer exercises near the LAC? A fascinating excerpt from Iqbal Chand Malhotra's new book Red Fear: The China Threat.
'You look at her in wonder, blinking to see if she is real, as she talks calmly about her project to spread menstrual health awareness and bring cheaper sanitary napkins to the poor.'
A lowdown on what's happening in Hollywood.
A total of 37 deaths were reported since Thursday evening of which 14 fatalities were reported from Maharashtra, nine from Gujarat, three from Uttar Pradesh, two each from Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh,Tamil Nadu and Telengana and one from Karnataka, ministry data stated.
This is going to be the first such exercise of its kind in the 27 years that Congress has been out of power in the state, which it had earlier ruled for four long decades.
Dollar's strength and falling crude oil prices force downward revision of 2015 growth forecast.
The IIM-B's 'Karnataka innovation report' has become the basis for the Congress party's election narrative, particularly to distinguish it from the 'Gujarat model of development', reports Archis Mohan.
Fighting sex trafficking and forced labour became Police Commissioner Mahesh Bhagwat's life mission. The winner of the US State Department's 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report Heroes Award speaks to Rediff.com
With exit polls having projected Bharatiya Janata Party defeat in Delhi Assembly polls, party leaders met in New Delhi on Monday to take stock of the situation and motivate the party workers.
'Our only child. A Communist.' 'There was an encounter by the police inside this room, five years ago. He was shot in one arm, but managed to escape.' 'Missing since then. May Jesus keep him alive.' A revealing excerpt from Asim Mukhopadhyay's Half Man: A Novel On The Naxal Movement.
It was in the 1960s that the Beetle attained its cult status, when it became almost synonymous with the hippie movement -- and succeeded in shaking off the grim history of its origins. As Volkswagen announces the end of the Bug's journey, Amrita Singh goes down a nostalgic road.
Fifty per cent of bank restructured assets were in infrastructure, steel, power and telecom sectors.
David Cameron will return to Downing Street as Britain's prime minister, after an extraordinary election night in which the Tories outperformed even their own expectations and Labour and the Liberal Democrats suffered painful losses.
The Chinese leader will display his grip on the Communist party and chart his plans for his country's future.
'The most ambitious part of the BAE-HAL agreement involves building an advanced version of the Hawk, which could be used as a light, manoeuvrable, fighter that could operate in the narrow valleys of India's Himalayan frontier, where high-performance fighters cannot turn,' reports Ajai Shukla.
Real estate sector cheers reforms in the Budget.
Income from renting of properties is taxed at a flat rate of 10%.
A crafts NGO in New Delhi is giving wings to India's first all-women puppeteer group, discovers Geetanjali Krishna.
