Nagender Chindam, founder and chairman of Pravasi Bharat, a UK-based right group that has been campaigning for the right to an absentee ballot, on his journey and experiences as a NRI professional turned voting rights campaigner. Exclusive to Rediff.com
'While economic ties are making incremental progress, it is in the security and strategic domains that the India-Japan synergy is more compelling,' says Dr Rajaram Panda.
'The Congress has finally drawn a line in the sand over its pro-poor credentials.'
'The rich better watch out.'
'All PoWs recounted that one of the worst aspects of their captivity in Tibet was the constant attempt at brainwashing by Chinese Communist propaganda,' reveals Claude Arpi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday left for home after wrapping up his six-day tour that took him to China, Mongolia and South Korea.
An insecure political class, with little knowledge of the military, has unquestioningly internalised the fear that a powerful tri-service chief would threaten democracy, says Ajai Shukla.
'It is an uncomfortable situation for a woman.' 'She has been on her own, separated from family.' 'That is the point of isolating her -- breaking her to a point where she bends to their will.'
Ana Konjuh has opened some eyes at Flushing Meadows as the 18-year-old former world number one junior emerged to reach her first Grand Slam quarter-final at the US Open.
'While we are all trying to stay indoors and help flatten the curve, all recruitment processes have been put on hold and I am unable to find a job for myself.'
This is the lowest investment grade rating.
'The events of 2020 have actually put our relationship under exceptional stress.' What External Affairs Minister Dr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told the All India Conference of China Studies on Thursday, January 28, 2021.
FDI inflows into India were $34 billion in 2014, up 22%.
'The one thing India has over these two States, whose toughness awes us, is our ability to embrace diversity with ease. 'The way ahead lies in learning from Vajpayee's method, not in Xi Jinping's,' says Shekhar Gupta.
For months, Hong Kong's streets have seethed with discontent. Scenes show protesters, sometimes numbering in the hundreds of thousands, many wearing surgical masks and carrying umbrellas that have come to signify resistance. The images are astonishing, and the issues that set the protests in motion are complex. Amid these 11 weeks of protests, here's how daily life unfolds.
'When you see Modi standing there at the G20, or in New York or at the United Nations, amongst all the leaders, he stands out in the crowd.' 'He looks different, he sounds different, and he has something about his quality of presentation, his oratorical skills, which clearly set him apart from the crowd.' 'The relationship between Modi and the rest of the world and India and the rest of the world has been reset as a result of the election in 2014.'
'Savarkar was the closest the RSS had to a freedom movement icon, however flawed.' 'Indira Gandhi wasn't going to gift him to them.' 'And a non-career politician like Dr Singh understands it.' 'It is just that his party never listened to him,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Text of PM Narendra Modi's press statement after delegation level talks with US President Obama at the Hyderabad House in Delhi.
It is bound to fail like the earlier ones, again causing Pakistan enormously more damage than to India, points out Shekhar Gupta.
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.
We present our alphabet of 2020, pulling in everything you'll remember about this year we'd rather forget.
'As casualties go, Maoism has been exacting a heavy price, and with a sickening regularity.' 'Yet, it is the other threat that hog all the limelight, the headlines and the TV studio debates,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.
Tennis great Vijay Amritraj says there should be least controversy with regards to India's doubles combination in Davis Cup since the doubles match matters only when there are 'even singles matches'.
The implementation of their recommendations means that an adequate apparatus to change this is at the disposal of the government.
Aseem Chhabra watched some great films and some huge disappointments in 2020.
The terrorists were armed with AK-47s, grenades, pistols, knives, many rounds of ammunition. Sepoy Jagdish Chand's weapons were his bare hands and enormous courage. He died, but not before he felled one of them. Archana Masih/Rediff.com speaks to the family of Sepoy Jagdish Chand, one of the 7 soldiers martyred in the terrorist attack on the Pathankot Air Force Station.
Images from Sunday's action at the Australian Open.
Russia has described the killing of Andrey Karlov at an art exhibition in Ankara as a terror attack.
'I got married to Reena secretly through court marriage, with three witnesses. My wedding with Reena was most economical. I took the Bus No 211 and bought a ticket of 50 paise. I got down at Bandra Station West, crossed the bridge, landed in the East and walked towards the highway. I crossed that highway and entered the Griha Nirman Bhavan, where there's a Marriage Registrar Office. So my wedding cost me less than Rs 10!'
Abbasi will be sworn-in in later at a special ceremony at the President's House.
'The Modi government is about privatising profits and nationalising losses.'
'Scindia's willingness to consort with the BJP, a party he has rightly, and eloquently, excoriated in various speeches and statements in the recent past suggest a shallowness and hollowness of convictions and principles.'
'The world is silent because your rhetoric is dishonest and rings hollow,' says former RAW officer Tilak Devasher.
With clouds of storm hovering over Parliament's budget session, President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday sought the "cooperation" of all MPs in the smooth conduct of legislative business but gave no indication of plans to bring changes in the controversial land acquisition ordinance.
'This is the first time the US has formally recognised the threat India faces from terrorist organisations based in Pakistan.'
'Could the Khar police and the CBI have tinkered with the driver's call data records?' 'And did their fiddling with the information not make it that they were tampering with the lives of people that were in the balance as a result of this case?'
Xi-Kim meeting took place amid concern in Beijing that the North Korean leader is getting too close to US sidelining China pointing to its declining importance in the Korean Peninsula peace process.
Taliban attackers' brazen assault on a school in Pakistan's Peshawar city that claimed the lives of over 150 students on Tuesday has brought back chilling memories of a similar bloodbath in Russia in 2004 when Chechen rebels stormed a school.
The differently-abled deserve a normal life. Nothing will stop Poonam Natarajan from ensuring that India, slowly but surely, gives it to them, discovers Shobha Warrier.
'Modi's investment in the relationship with Washington is the biggest deliverable of this visit. He means business and that's fantastic!'
General Zhao Zongqi is well known in India for having commanded the Chinese troops during the Dokalam episode. Zhao knows every inch and corner of the Indian border, at least the Eastern and Central sectors, including the Naku La area which witnessed fist-fights between Indian and Chinese troops in April/May. Claude Arpi introduces us to the PLA generals masterminding the Chinese aggression in Ladakh.
