'The starting point of the Udta Punjab casting was that we didn't think stars would do a film like this, so we'd take non-stars. As the names kept rolling in and we had Kareena Kapoor and Shahid and Alia Bhatt, I was like yaar yeh ho kya raha hai?'
If elected, Hillary Clinton would become the first women president of the US.
Making nuclear exemptions for India, says Senator Edward Markey, 'only infuriates Pakistan and leads them to further increase their own nuclear capacities.'
Stressing on the 'Make in India' initiative, a Ministry of Defence appointed committee has recommended enhanced private sector involvement by granting manufacturers tax and import concessions.
20 years ago this day, May 11, 1998, India conducted its second nuclear test at Pokharan in Rajasthan. In a fascinating interview on Rediff.com, K Subrahmanyam revealed how Indian PMs reacted to nuclear ambitions.
As the political battle for the future of Maharashtra's political quinquennial future nears its electoral conclusion, Shreekant Sambrani looks at the intertwining nature of national and regional interests and the place for and value of inclusiveness in electoral politics.
Haider will haunt you long after you've left the theatre, promises Sukanya Verma.
Prem Panicker, one of the finest cricket writers, on the ICC's Code of Conduct.
Sohini Deb who cracked CAT 2013 with 98.11 percentile and secured admission at IIM Kozhikode shares her study secrets.
Mr Modi must stop talking, and start writing
Any delay in passing the coal bill may cause a crisis in the coal sector which would also affect the power sector.
However, he refrained from speaking on Mexican immigrants and also declined to repeat his frequent promise to force Mexico to pay for the wall.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh interacts with readers on Rediff Chat as he discusses the period that changed India's history, forever.
The second part of BJP president Amit Shah's interview to Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com, to mark the completion of one year of the Narendra Modi government.
On a day (Tuesday) when India's much-followed men's team succumbed to a humiliating defeat against New Zealand, the women's team won their opening encounter of 2016 ICC World T20 by a comprehensive 76-run margin against Bangladesh. In a chat with BCCI.TV ahead of India's World Twenty20 campaign, the captain of India's women's team and star batsman Mithali Raj spoke about the team's journey and analysed her team's strengths for the tournament.
'For Nitish Kumar the message is to be democratic. With the support of the BJP, he had suppressed criticism in Bihar. He would also need to change his highly authoritarian way of governance.' 'The Grand Alliance, given the decisive mandate in its favour, cannot afford to fail the people. They have a duty to make it a model for the rest of India,' says Apoorvanand.
Siddhartha Kaul, president of SOS Children's Villages International that has been involved in earthquake relief work in Nepal, speaks to Rashme Sehgal.
Here are the big takeaways from the debate.
'To expect that he has a magic wand to resolve all differences and announce breakthroughs in all issues during his first visit to the US is to be unrealistic,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
Admittedly, EVMs too have a UID number and any convergence of data can make the secret ballot system a party of history, warns Dr Gopal Krishna in the 5th part of his series against Aadhaar.
'...But my strong suit will not be dancing,' Kal Penn tells Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com, in the concluding part of the interview.
'By his very presence in Delhi on Republic Day, Obama is revisiting the most defining relationship of the 20th century after a period of stagnation,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
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Because of corrections in property prices and oversupply in the office segment, the rich are investing in hospitals, warehouses, ATMs and other alternatives to traditional investment options.
Incidents of arson, firing and vandalism were reported from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab as protesters agitated against the dilution of the SC/ST Act.
'Mahendra Singh Dhoni has at his disposal a range of multi-skilled players who possess the ability to turn the game around at the flick of a switch.'
The government has provided a long-term vision.
'I have seen in action six prime ministers and ten chief ministers, considered stalwarts in their days, and it is the first time, in all my experience, that a prime minister has gone into such great detail, laying down even the standards of cleanliness that should be maintained in all offices,' says B S Raghavan, former chief secretary, West Bengal.
'Alas, in this scheme there is nothing to stop the black money flows of the future.' 'On the contrary Modi has sown the seeds of more, through the issue of Rs 2,000 notes.' 'But have you heard one politician decrying this aspect of the scheme?' 'They must be secretly rejoicing that while Modi is taking away their past, he has not shut the door on their future,' says banker S Muralidharan.
'We cannot forget that Pakistan is a criminal State, it is a rogue State and yet we want oil pipelines to go through their State, we want to have people-to-people contact, want to increase trade with them.' 'When Modi was prime minister-elect, he said there can be no dialogue in the face of bombs and bullets. After becoming prime minister, he is saying talks will continue. Was he then misleading the public then or is he misleading the public now?' 'Nobody goes around abusing China. The fact is China is a great power. I do not think India is a great power. People spit on our face and we still go grovelling before them.'
In his last column for Rediff.com, Praful Bidwai joins issues with those lauding India's covert operation against Naga rebels based in Myanmarese territory.
'The crisis-hit brand needs to react, and react without sounding outraged or angry. '
Round-up of the Ranji Trophy games being played across the country
'The BJP suddenly seems vulnerable. This is not entirely surprising. In the past too, governments and leaders who won a thumping Lok Sabha majority lost popularity in a matter of months... The by-polls results shows that a degree of disenchantment with the Modi government is setting in,' says Praful Bidwai.
'Imagine how secure are our seaports and airports that 10,000 objects can leave every decade and our custodians are not even aware?' 'This kind of targeted looting when thieves pick and choose the best of Indian art and steal on an industrial basis will eventually impoverish our great land.'
A summary of the Ranji Trophy matches played on Sunday.
Abstaining from voting on a UNHRC resolution on Sri Lanka was dictated as much by necessity and self-preservation as by a desire to place bilateralism at the front and centre of New Delhi's ties with Colombo, says Ramesh Ramachandran.
'That was the key to a game where, on paper, there is nothing to separate the two sides: Intensity. From the first ball of the innings to the run out of Southee, the Australian bowlers and fielders buzzed around like predatory yellow-jacketed wasps.' 'Adding teeth to the bowling and relentless fielding is the captaincy of Michael Clarke, leading in his last one day international. His body may require an entire college of medical specialists to maintain, but his mind is scalpel-sharp, cutting through the complexities of the game to hit on simple solutions.'
The Mars mission is overwhelmingly irrelevant to space science and won't advance the frontiers of knowledge. It will divert attention from the real technological challenges facing the Indian space programme, and will further distort our science and technology priorities, says Praful Bidwai.
'If you destroy the assets in Pathankot, you degrade the combat potential of India; you degrade the war potential of India.'
Rediff.com's Indrani Dey digs up chilling details of the ongoing investigation in the Bardhaman blast case, which exposed the a militant network that had been operating in West Bengal since many years.
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