'While visits and personal meetings are useful, changes of strategic significance have occurred recently, with Beijing trying to take the lead which Modi must take note of.'
The BJP and the Shiv Sena rule the state in coalition, apart from officially being partners in Delhi as well, while also never missing an opportunity to portray each other as a bungler deserving to be dumped.
The celebrations after the 2017 World Cup went on for the next few months. But there was one question that the Indian cricketers failed to respond to in their interviews. 'What was their next assignment?' Nobody knew; the players were waiting for the BCCI to tell them. The BCCI, with barely any time from its endless legal tangles, had nothing in mind immediately. The likes of Australia and England were back on the field, battling it out in the Ashes in front of sizeable crowds. But for Mithali Raj and team, there was no road ahead.
'The Modi government's lurch toward America has not brought it any dividends so far. The Western world is simply not in a position to make big investments in India... India needs to take a leap of faith vis-a-vis China.'
The BRICS summit made clear that China's support for Pakistan is unwavering. China will continue to pressure India to ease tensions with Pakistan and resolve the Kashmir dispute.
The Sochi Winter Olympics are meant to be Vladimir Putin's crowning achievement as Russian leader but are in danger of becoming a symbol of his country's problems.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has cancelled his visit to WEF annual meeting after a deadly Taliban attack in his country.
'Anything that is anti-growth is demonised because growth is the biggest religion.' 'Growth is synonymous with progress. In fact, it is the opposite.' 'Exponential growth is cancer.'
'The year in pictures' treks across the globe, looking back on the moments that shaped 2016. From the United States presidential race, to demonetisation in India to the refugee crisis, the news has kept pouring in. Here are our top 50 moments from the world.
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As home deals are down to a trickle, most are looking at life beyond broking.
'An operation such as the Mumbai attacks, which needed expert technical assessment, money and time to prepare, could not have been carried out without the knowledge of the ISI's leadership.'
The third and final part of BJP president Amit Shah's interview to Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com.
The man sought after by parents when they want to admit their children to Ivy League colleges tells Anjuli Bhargava how a hobby became a source of livelihood.
Contrary to the bragging that marked its two-year anniversary, the government's timidity on reform is simply astounding.
The AAP has adopted policies in an ad hoc manner, without thinking them through or deriving them from a broader framework. This must change if the AAP is to become a credible alternative, says Praful Bidwai.
The largest athlete's village in the history of the Games is a visceral monument to now-faded optimism. Planned when Brazil was booming, its harnessing of private sector wealth was meant to set the gold standard for a sustainable Olympics. Instead, the worst recession in generations pushed the luxury apartments out of reach.
'Chinese leaders rarely receive their foreign guests in cities other than Beijing. Such respect for India!' 'Does it mean that Modi could replicate "the warmth and unconventional way" by sending Indian troops into Tibet, as Xi did in Chumur (Ladakh) when he arrived in India? Of course, Indians are far too polite to do so,' says Claude Arpi.
The temptation to rehash Manmohanomics is not going to deliver the achche-din that Narendra Modi has promised, warns Sriram Balasubramanian.
It's been 100 years since Lenin and the Bolsheviks overthrew the government, and its legacy remains visible even today in the buildings and monuments scattered throughout St Petersburg.
As Ashraf Ghani and Abdullah Abdullah form a joint government after contesting the presidential election against each other, Prakash Bhandari reports from Kabul on the problems facing the new, US-brokered arrangement.
Ever pragmatic, the Americans are convinced that the future is in the Indo-Pacific.
There is a new Indo-Pacific century, and India has to decide whether it has its eyes on the prize, says Rajeev Srinivasan.
Here's this week's collection of wacky and funny stories from around the world.
New Delhi and Beijing are the only two regional capitals that have commented on US President Donald Trump's speech on August 21 outlining the way forward in Afghanistan. The Indian foreign ministry statement was effusive in praise, while the Chinese statement has been one of cautious and guarded hope. Delhi has identified itself with Trump's Afghan strategy, whereas the Chinese stance is calibrated -- observant and objective, keeping a distance, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The focus on non-issues like 'love jihad' has dragged radicals like Vijaykant Chauhan from the fringes to the mainstream in Uttar Pradesh
The real estate sector is set to enter a progressive phase in 2015.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi enjoys a close relationship with Shinzo Abe. For Abe, "a strong India is in the best interest of Japan, and a strong Japan is in the best interest of India."
'The "Hollandisation" of British policy may not bring the expected gains as the future may show,' says Claude Arpi.
'India is likely to do better than other emerging markets.'
Oil Minister M Veerappa Moily has suggested pricking the ballooning oil bill with everything from a street theatre campaign encouraging lower fuel use, to shutting fuel stations, to increasing imports from Iran.
The India Abroad Person of the Year Awards, held at the National Museum of the American Indian in New York City on Friday June 12, honored 14 achievers in seven categories.
Despite their promised and announced reduction in power prices, the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government may want keep the issue on the burner for sometime longer, since none of the concerned players are ready to give an inch, and seem raring for a fight, says Upasna Pandey
After a series of defeats since 2012, the results of the recent panchayat polls are being seen by her as a tide changer for the upcoming UP assembly elections
The main culprit in vitiating the inter community/caste/class relations has been the so called 'targeted' approach. This is nothing but discrimination on the basis of faith/caste/class. When an equally poor and deprived child is denied scholarship, despite equal merit, resentment begins to brew, says Colonel (retd) Anil Athale.
In the pitch dark of the African night, a herd of cape buffaloes gather at the watering hole for a drink, taking care to stay by the edge to avoid the crocodiles lurking in the depths. In Gangiova, a village in Romania, a doctor places her stethoscope to the chest of a newborn baby, listening intently for the beating of his tiny heart. These are just some of the moments that have been picked by the judges for the Sony World Photography Awards. For the 2017 competition, photographers entered 227,596 images across the awards' Professional, Open and Youth categories. The Open competition winner will receive $5,000 (Rs 3.3 lakh), Sony digital imaging equipment and flights and accommodation to the awards ceremony at Somerset House in London. Sony World Photography Awards has been kind enough to share some of their shortlisted pieces with us.
Kainchi, near Nainital, attracts devotees from near and far, 42 years after the death of its spiritual leader, Neem Karoli Baba.
Two young designers from Meghalaya are making a positive impact with their skills.
'Crafting a coherent, transparent and consistent policy vis-a-vis our neighbours, leave alone the rest of the world, is unlikely to be high on the priority list of the new Indian government, which will be sworn in before June,' says Ramananda Sengupta.
Twenty-eight years ago almost to the day, 37 unarmed Muslims were killed in cold blood, an act of wanton violence for which no one has so far been held guilty. Jyoti Punwani and photographer Uttam Ghosh visited the Meerut locality after the trial court recently acquitted the security personnel charged with the killings, and found a town untouched by its grim past.
'It was only relatively recently that Subhash Kapoor was able to secure the sources in India, Afghanistan and Cambodia, that allowed him to get the really highest level objects, and that helped propel him in recent years up the ranks.'
'I can tell you the case that hurts me the most is the one in which the little boy is forced to sign the Kohinoor over.' 'You take a mother away from a child, you surround him with grown ups speaking a different language, you tell him he must sign this over or else...'
