Raghav tells Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier how he and his cousin Mukund co-founded Renew IT, which refurbishes discarded computers and makes them affordable for the poor in rural India.
Switzerland has been named the happiest country in the world.
A round up of all the health news from around the world.
The US wants its trade with India to grow multi-fold, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal told lawmakers.
Four individuals who have taken up poker professionally tell Norma Godinho/Rediff.com how their stars have changed for the better.
Jyoti 'Jay' Chaudhuri, general counsel and senior adviser to the state treasurer of the US state of North Carolina, was elected chairman of the board of the Council of Institutional Investors, last month.
A more rigorous training in core skills is required to boost the engineering talent in the country, instead of a varnish of 'soft skills', says Ajit Balakrishnan.
And no, the commercial sporting leagues didn't cause the drought, says Shekhar Gupta.
The annual fee has been hiked from Rs 90,000 to Rs two lakh.
Nandini Gupta who interned at an IT firm explains how Artificial Intelligence can change our future.
'She dwarfs every known politician of recent times with her imperious aura, iron will, tremendous drive, dauntless pursuit of goals she set before herself, ability to capture the people's imagination and unshakeable grip over her party and government,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
'The household sector, which is still the largest contributor of financial savings, has been experiencing a decline in the last six years, and it has fallen below 8% of GDP.'
'I can snap my fingers and get 1,000 people overnight, but I can't guarantee that they will develop because there has been zero change in education in the country in the last nine years.'
'It affects our economy, it is very important in many ways.' 'So we have to be the foremost experts in the world on the monsoon.' 'But the best minds in India have not devoted their time to the study of monsoon and they have followed the fashions of the West.'
Bisexuals make better lovers, fathers and partners, a new study has revealed.
Shalini Krishnan discovers the amazing talent and creativity of tribal children in Odisha.
'The origins of the model of planned economic development adopted by independent India was a direct consequence of the war.' 'The war provided an opportunity for groups at the margins of Indian society to find new avenues for mobility.' 'The war also led to the emergence of India as a major Asian power and set the stage for it to play a wider role in international politics.'
Did you know that a food security officer in a leading company can earn upto $84,000 a year by just protecting data?
Can we make high speed 4G Internet available at 10 cents per GB, and make all voice calls free of cost -- that too in a large and diverse country like India? Can we make high-quality but simple breast cancer screening available to every woman, that too at the extremely affordable cost of $1 per scan? Can we make a portable, high-tech ECG machine which can provide reports immediately and that too at the cost of 8 cents a test? Can we make an eye imaging device that is portable, non-invasive and costs 3 times less that conventional devices? Can we make a robust test for mosquito-borne dengue, which can detect the disease on day 1, and that too at the cost of $2 per test? Amazingly, says Dr R A Mashelkar, the eminent scientist, all this has been achieved in India, not only by using technological innovation but also non-technological innovation.
'Mulayam has by design cornered the people's attention back to the party and Akhilesh.' 'People were only talking of Modi and demonetisation, but now suddenly everybody is talking of Akhilesh and the SP.' 'My personal subjective impression is that the SP is neck and neck with the BJP.'
Son of a Madurai farmer, Dr Vijayaragavan Vishwanathan has built a unique device for agriculture that can save water as well as electricity. Ironically, Vijay got support for his project from different international bodies but is still looking to get support from Indian government organisations when the product was specifically made for India.
For the third front to become a reality, it needs a party that has a pan-India presence and wins more Lok Sabha seats than all other parties in the front, say experts.
'The government lights lamps for nurses but when we demand what's due for us, they don't listen at all.'
'The BJP has latched on to the idea of nationalism, but the nationalism they advocate is not nationalism as we have understood it since the time of the freedom movement.' 'This is not secular nationalism, it is Hindu nationalism.' 'It is a form of nationalism that is exclusionary and it tends to conflate national interest with the government.' 'So, if you disagree with the government, for example, on surgical strikes or demonetisation, you are anti-national or holder of black money.'
'Studying History, we come close to all of the messiness of human life -- we understand what motivates people, what makes them get along or go to war, what dreams they had for themselves and their futures.'
'His prowess in Aikido -- a Japanese martial art that focuses on harmony with the opponent to peacefully resolve conflicts -- gives Rahul Gandhi an advantage that fanatical adversaries lack,' says Sunanda K Datta-Ray.
The average Indian soldier remains as hardy as before but he is certainly confused with the pace of change occurring all around him. It is here that the leaders -- the officers -- will have to adapt themselves to the new reality, says Nikhil Gokhale
'The overarching fact of modern social behaviour isn't that we are irresponsible women and men, but that we are never quite sure, when and how to act responsibly.' 'This is the real side of every Twitter outrage, where those who tweet about stories of 'unreported domestic abuse' end up feeling superior to those neighbours who are summoned up as clueless witnesses.' 'This view of the supposed spiritual decay of our times, which is at the core of Gali Guleiyan, is thus more fashionable than perceptive,' says Sreehari Nair.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's solid solo performance in Maharashtra and Haryana assembly elections confirms continuation of some of the trends that emerged in the Lok Sabha elections in May this year.
'Muslims, like people of all other faiths, are quite comfortable with the idea of nationalism and democracy today. But are they following Islam in its spirit? That is a different question.'
'The SP-BSP have almost come to an understanding that the BSP will take the larger share of parliamentary seats and take care of national politics.' 'The SP in future assembly elections will take larger seats and take care of state politics.'
'The boundary dispute notwithstanding, China has always had leaders who have been, on the whole, positively disposed towards India.' 'Given the centrality of the Chinese Communist Party, we need to strengthen the linkages with the crucial personalities in the highest echelons of the Communist party and political leadership,' notes China expert Alka Acharya.
'What we need is right skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling.'
The President may not have agreed with the government on many occasions. Not once was this ever made public -- though he told off ministers in private.
'We need uranium to fuel our reactors. Our scientists and engineers have been handling uranium safely since 1967. They must not feel disheartened by the activities of well motivated local or foreign agencies.'
She said her party has been consistently advocating dialogue, both with Pakistan and all sections of the society within the state, including the separatists, for a permanent resolution of the Kashmir issue.
'A change of government will bring about a lot of changes because everything is frozen for the last two years. So, the frozen energies of India will be released.' Swadeshi Jagran Manch convenor Swaminathan Gurumurthy discusses the Modi phenomenon with Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com
'Openness is a great weapon in the armoury of more open societies. That's why the fight with Pakistan isn't just about India be six times bigger, but equally bitter and insecure Pakistan,' argues Shekhar Gupta.
Creating many more half-decent jobs for the 10 million plus new entrants to the labour force each year must surely constitute the primary development challenge for India today.
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