'The finance minister has done as much as she can when you look into the fiscal constraints she had.'
'Before you work on your business plan, before you build your team, you should have a clear idea about what your product is, who your customer is, how valuable the product is, and whether the market is deep and wide.'
'Otherwise, the minorities would not have acknowledged his leadership quality. I am happy the BJP is working towards achieving a secular image,' Vellappally Natesan, the OBC leader in Kerala who has created a controversy by supporting Narendra Modi, tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
'They refuse to be transparent. They refuse to be accountable.'
'The launch of Nila, our very first satellite was very emotional as well as nerve wracking. We tried to calm ourselves by cracking some poor jokes!'
While the Congress and DMK headquarters bore a desolate look with party supporters shocked at their dismal performance, the AIADMK and BJP offices were in a celebratory mood. Ladoos, drums playing and dancing on the streets were seen outside the party headquarters. Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com presents the different scenes.
'The southern states will have no voice.' 'Political parties in future need to focus only on one region, the northern region, to win the general election.'
'The time has come to have a relook at the Constitution as every document has a shelf life.'
'Corporates decide the development and social needs of the people in Gujarat. It is not that Modi is the new inventor of Gujarat.' Social scientist Dr P Radhakrishnan, whose new book Political Villainy, UPA's Fall, AAP's Surge hit the stands recently, discusses the implications of the 2014 election.
'If an employee has a contract with the employer that he cannot moonlight, you should honour that contract.'
'There will be no change of seats for Delhi, Assam and Maharashtra.' 'Andhra, J&K, Kerala, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, West Bengal and Telangana will lose seats while there will be an increase for MP, UP, Bihar, Haryana, Gujarat and Chhattisgarh.' 'It is a big mistake if you make it a north-south issue.'
'You can focus on Vande Bharat but focus on the common man too.' 'You can have both. They are mutually exclusive.'
'Unfortunately, most of our students use AI to replace knowledge when they should be using the AI tools to enhance their knowledge.' 'I am sorry to say, even those students who have opted to study AI have no idea what AI is.'
'All the tournaments I played in recent times had a lot of bad moments, but the Candidates was a perfect tournament... Everything about the World Championship was very depressing.' Enjoying a break at his Chennai home, Viswanathan Anand, the former World chess champion, speaks to Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
Professor P Radhakrishnan, a sociologist from the Madras Institute of Development Studies, draws the difference between the LTTE and the ordinary Tamils of Sri Lanka.
'If you compare the data from 2017 and 2023 of the US imports from the world and China, you will see that the US was a complete loser in the trade war, and China was a complete gainer.'
'We face the risk of remaining a low-income country for a very long time unless something changes in the next few years.' 'Instead of constantly talking about becoming a developed economy, we need to start fixing the problems of the economy one by one.' 'There is so much potential, and we are squandering away the opportunity.'
Siddharth Roy Kapoor on UTV's expansion in the Southern film industry.
When dealing with risky technology, it is most important to take people into confidence and tell them what the real risks are, says environment justice activist Nityanand Jayaraman.
Kudumbashree is a revolution worth replicating wherever there are women in need of help. Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com travels to Thrissur to learn about the success story of the largest network of women in India.
Rama Murali's CARE 3 -- care, connect and community - aims to build a strong caregiver community. Shobha Warrier meets Murali, the woman behind the enterprise.
Shashi Tharoor, minister of state for HRD, outlines his plans for the young in India.
In an exclusive interview with Shobha Warrier, Shashi Tharoor, minister of state for human resources development, outlines his plans for the young in India.
Sri Lankan Tamil poet and journalist Theepachelvan Pratheepan shares the experiences during his petrified childhood days spent in the war-torn island nation with Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
Our economic growth was never broad based. We have not been able to harness technology for the overall development of industry.
Our economic growth was never broad based. We have not been able to harness technology for the overall development of industry.
Our economic growth was never broad based. We have not been able to harness technology for the overall development of industry.
Growth in manufacturing sector is very important for any economy.
'Our prime interest is to help the victim get justice. When we speak of justice, what we mean is, all the people who exploited her should be punished,' KK Shailaja, general secretary of the All India Democratic Women's Association, tells Shobha Warrier
Cho Ramaswamy talks about the Sri Lankan Tamil issue, the DMK walking out of the UPA and also his thoughts on the next Lok Sabha elections.
Kalki Subramaniam talks about her journey from being a harassed child in school to a successful social activist and an entrepreneur.
Jayalalithaa and Sasikala have made peace after a three-month tiff and though her return may not have any political repercussions, it will impact the government.
'Our Constitution as well as the Right to Education Act do not make any distinction between Indian or foreigner; it only talks about 'child'.' 'It says that every child has the right to get education.'
Professor T Pradeep talks about the nano material he and his associates have fabricated and how it can be used in an affordable water filter in an interview with Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier.
'If Ajmal Kasab had spent his youth in solitary confinement, away from people and society, that would have been the biggest punishment India could have meted out to the terrorist,' feels Shobha Warrier.
'The earlier a child is given a smartphone, the worst it becomes when they are 17, 18.' 'Every year you delay in giving a smartphone to child, the outcome becomes better.' 'The behavioural changes that are very specific to smartphones are aggression and anger.'
Why has the friendship between Jayalalithaa and Sasikala, that lasted almost 25 years, soured all of a sudden, asks Shobha Warrier
'The noise that we are hearing is because the five big IT players are not hiring significantly.'
The amazing story of how two young women set up a home for mentally ill homeless women.