The scenic mountainous valley, which earlier bustled with presence of foreign tourists, now wear a deserted look. Kunal Dutt reports
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During April-February, the index of industrial production, a measure of factory activity, declined 0.1 per cent compared with a 0.9 per cent growth in the corresponding period of 2012-13.
A group of women traveled 5000 kilometers in India over eight cities in 28 days to spread the message of women's empowerment and safety while on the road.
Through the Uravugal Trust, Khaalid Ahamed has enabled the dignified burial of 150 plus unclaimed bodies in Chennai.
How do you translate a first love into a profession? How do you become a writer once you set your heart on it? Susmita Bhattacharya, who once worked as a graphic designer in Mumbai, now teaches the basics of English to newcomers to Britain and is also a creative writing tutor. Her first novel The Normal State of Mind was published earlier this year after a grim battle with cancer.
'I remember him going to school in a cycle rickshaw. Even in the rickshaw, he would be reading some book. He never spoke to the other children who traveled with him in the cycle rickshaw. He was only interested in reading and getting good marks.' 'In Chennai, we call such boys, "IIT boys".'
We bring you a fresh collection of offbeat, quirky stories from around the world.
Shopkeepers are losing buyers in droves to e-tailers for everything from fashion to smartphones, and are struggling to find solutions.
'So they are extracting a price from me for letting me marry their son, is it? Manas, I cannot believe that you subscribe to this view of theirs. This is our child growing in me. It is part of me - girl or boy. Can I just throw it away if it is not a boy?'
Shah said the Opposition's 'irresponsible' conduct caused a loss of over Rs 333 crore of public money and the ruling National Democratic Alliance MPs' decision to forgo their salaries was a 'call of conscience'.
'After three days, most people resigned to the idea of living with minimum facilities. By then, they had stopped getting angry, irritated and worried. As days passed by, one heard less and less complaints.' 'In a crisis like this, you expect the administration to help people but I didn't see any administration here. I saw only NGOs and people helping themselves' 'I feel people have not leant anything from this disaster. Unless we learn to respect nature, learn to take corrective measures, this will happen again and again.' N Rajasekharan Nair recounts his ordeal as the flood waters rose around his apartment complex.
In a historic decision, President Barack Obama announced a series of steps aimed at normalising relations with communist-ruled Cuba, with which the US had severed diplomatic ties decades ago imposing a series of sanctions on its island neighbour.
'You don't need a godfather to protect you from dangers of Bollywood because nobody will.'
Upstaged by the swanky malls in town, both M G Road and Brigade Road have lost their "happening" status
'Restrict the amount of time you spend on social media.' 'We have people who are glued to it from morning to night, which is certainly not what we recommend.' 'And do not take the stuff that you read on WhatsApp as sacrosanct.' 'A lot of it is absolutely nonsense.'
'My own Indianness has kept me evolving and changing -- and that's something that nobody and nothing can take from me,' says Roopa Unnikrishnan, who left the Indian shores a decade ago. As India gears up to honour its pravasis to mark their contribution in the nation's development, Rediff.com presents different perspectives on the Diaspora.
Global working conditions have worsened in 2014.
There's more to this country than just the Northern Lights.
'Disney is presenting Black Panther as Manoj Muntashir's film.' 'Such a big studio, a billion dollar film is being released as Manoj Muntashir's film.' 'It is in the same space of Baahubali, which I wrote.' 'The film has got a kingdom, kings, treachery... things which are very much up my alley.'
'The world wants India to succeed. It also worries now that India over-promises and under-delivers,' says Shekhar Gupta.
From the Syrian civil war to the Ukrainian crisis to the terror unleashed by the dreaded Islamic State, there was no lack of news in 2014. In this five-part series,rediff.com presents a selection of the year's most enduring moments year from around the world.
'India has set standard of beauty rules. They feel that everyone needs to be perfect.' 'You may be beautiful and have the perfect body. But if you have big boobs, you'll still get teased.'
Here's your weekly collection of stories that prove it's a crazy, funny world out there!
The government has set up a control room to coordinate the cleaning process across the state and the civic bodies have been entrusted with the task of managing the work, official sources said on Thursday.
'All those photographs I had seen before about Ladakh were not photoshopped.' 'Ladakh, truly, was nature's masterpiece.'
'He totally gets the Gandhis...' 'If anything, he pays too much attention to the Gandhis.' 'I feel that in places like UP, where the Congress doesn't matter, he often spends time blasting the Gandhis.'
Australian model Alicia Komodromos talks about travelling to India to pursue her modelling dream and how she found her second home and friends for life.
India must streamline reforms, only then it will see success.
With a massive final push, which began mid-November, Syrian forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad took over the last remaining rebel strongholds in the historic city of Aleppo on the night of December 12. They only won a ruined city and ruined lives.
'I'm not withdrawing any allegations. I want those CDRs (Peter's call data records).' 'Those are my feelings.'
'Unless Modi uses his power to make people work, he will not succeed. He may cry hoarse but he will not succeed.' V Kalyanam, Mahatma Gandhi's personal secretary, tells Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com why Modi's Clean India campaign won't succeed easily.
The band's trip to Rishikesh delayed their split till 1970! This & other unheard stories...
This does not mean isolating parochialism but of new way of thinking about economic systems, says Rajni Bakshi.
Meet the cleanliness warrior from Nagaland who is cleaning up the holy ghats of Varanasi...
London Fire Brigade fire fighters worked through the night to try and account for whole families that are still missing in the huge fire at the Grenfell Tower on the Lancaster West Estate in Latimer Road.
Raja Sen feels The Lunchbox id this generation's Masoom.
'Patel was more in tune with the popular mood than Jawaharlal Nehru. While the principle that Hindus and Muslims should be able to live together remained central to Nehru's vision for India, the Sardar was less sentimental.' 'Nehru would angrily face down mobs himself, rushing from trouble spot to trouble spot. A veritable tent city, filled with Muslim refugees, sprouted on the lawns of his bungalow... Mountbatten feared Nehru's impulsiveness would get him killed, and assigned soldiers to watch over him.' Nisid Hajari's Midnight's Furies: The Deadly Legacy of India's Partition casts fresh light on the events and personalities behind the horrific division of the subcontinent which haunts the India and Pakistan to this day.
The Union Health ministry put the number of positive cases at 82, eight more since Thursday night, which includes the woman and a 76-year-old man from Karnataka who became the country's first coronavirus fatality besides 17 foreign nationals, Health Ministry officials said.
Meet Cassie de Pecol, a 27-year-old traveller from Connecticut, United States, who visited 196 countries in 18-and-a-half months, making her the fastest person to visit every country in the world.
