We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
She had got 849th rank in the 2014 civil services exam and was allotted the Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise).
The coaching-tuition-profiteering model built on the back of a broken education system is a scandal and an abomination, and must go, asserts Shekhar Gupta.
No book on South Asia published in recent years has received the kudos veteran diplomat Howard B Schaffer's The Limits of Influence: America's Role in Kashmir, published by Brookings Institution Press, elicited.In an interview with rediff.com's Aziz Haniffa, he explains why the Barack Obama administration should intervene in resolving the contentious Kashmir issue.
rediffGURU Geeta Ratra offers expert advice on international courses, student visas, immigration processes and more.
A retired Indian colonel working with the United Nations was killed in Gaza when the vehicle he was travelling in came under attack in strife-torn Rafah, the 'first international' casualty for the world body since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict.
'There is no reason to anticipate a drastic change in Canada's attitude towards Indian students.'
United States Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has named her Chief of Staff, Domestic Policy Advisor and National Security Advisor -- an all-women team -- which she said has the experience to hit the ground from day one.
Meet the Indian-American deans, who have established their leadership and managerial skills taking up high-profile jobs at prestigious institutes.
PV Sindhu while addressing the newly-appointed Assistant Directors of the Sports Authority of India through an online session, stressed on the importance of parents, coaches, administrators working as a team to build up a champion.
Misri, a 1989-batch India Foreign Service officer, is presently serving as Indian envoy in Myanmar.
Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova has conveyed to her Indian interlocutors Kyiv's desire to build a stronger and closer relationship with New Delhi.
To be eligible, students must have a score of 60 per cent, or an equivalent grade at the undergraduate level.
The agency has also summoned Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot's son Vaibhav Gehlot for questioning in a case related to alleged contravention of the foreign exchange law, official sources said on Thursday.
The Israeli military reported on Saturday that it has enlarged its combat operations inside the Gaza Strip following several nights of limited ground incursions.
The Enforcement Directorate on Saturday said it has searched the Bengaluru-located office and residential premises of Edtech major BYJU's and its CEO and co-founder Raveendran Byju and seized 'incriminating' documents and digital data as part of a foreign exchange violation probe.
The 13,000-strong UNRWA staff in Gaza includes teachers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, warehouse workers, logisticians, technicians and drivers.
How scrap material became a magnificent Rudra Veena... How children learnt about animals, the real way... How the BRO is strengthening India...
'But he was very quick and did a very stylish adab.' 'Of course, I didn't expect him to hug.'
The talks took place in a beach resort in Benaulim on the sidelines of a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
'Israelis have great love for India,' says Ashish Mehrotra looking back at his memorable visit to Israel a few years ago.
Diplomats agree that amid stormy relations with China and Pakistan, Modi has posted impressive foreign policy successes, notes Aditi Phadnis.
'We could hear from the phone the bombing and the shooting and the Arab screaming.'
The President-elect also announced the nomination of former Secretary of State John Kerry as Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, the first such official to sit on the national security council.
International air travel of passengers has been permitted in a limited manner under the Vande Bharat mission. Further opening-up will take place in a calibrated manner.
AzaadiSAT had around 75 small payloads developed by schoolgirls of 75 rural schools.
Christine Fair, who infuriated New Delhi when she alleged that India was meddling in Balochistan, has been offered the India portfolio in the Obama administration.
The brutal Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan assault has claimed 141 lives, including 132 school children, six terrorists and three armymen.
Scenes from Ukraine after Russian drones rained fire on its citizens last week.
Russia's Permanent Representative Vassily Nebenzia told an emergency UN Security Council meeting following the attack on the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant in Ukraine, that radicals and extremists in Ukraine 'were and are' under the 'close guardianship and protection' of Western nations.
It is when one looks away from the immediate song and dance and at the granular detail of what has been going on since 2014 that one realises what the quality and competence of thinking and execution is in this project we call New India, asserts Aakar Patel.
South Asia expert Christine Fair believes this week's Obama-Singh summit will accomplish little in terms of getting Pakistan to rein in terrorist groups using its soil to mount attacks on India.
Any investment proposal in India has to be cleared by the Cabinet which leads to a vicious cycle of approvals and rejections, says
'We have not taught children their rights and responsibilities, nor life skills,' says Mitali Saran.
Maharashtra has reported 31 positive cases, Kerala 19, Uttar Pradesh 11, Delhi and Karnataka six each, Ladakh three, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Telangana two each; and Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab one case each. The total number of confirmed cases also includes 17 foreigners -- 16 Italian tourists and a Canadian, it said.
'Indira Gandhi was a great influence on Sonia Gandhi. Like her mother-in-law, Sonia is a very good listener. She dresses very much like her mother-in-law. She maintains her figure.' K Natwar Singh pays tribute to Indira Gandhi.
'Even during the worst days during the 1990s, India was dealing with the Taliban.'
Amid mass layoffs in the tech sector, the federal agency for immigration services has said it is wrong to assume that sacked workers holding the much-sought-after H-1B visas have to leave the country within 60 days, asserting they have multiple options to stay in the US. The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.
'There is no doubt that the US would like all their friends to agree with them. We are not in the habit of doing that,' says former diplomat Arundhati Ghose.
'The BJP is trying to change this mantra.'
