'We did not know we would one day dominate nearly 70 per cent of the market.' 'Today, of 100 diamonds available for trade in Antwerp, 93 are cut and polished in India.' A fascinating excerpt from Shantanu Guha Ray's The Diamond Trail: How India Rose To Global Domination.
Global expansion to drive the company's fortunes
Germany was on high alert on Friday as police hunted for up to seven people suspected of plotting a New Year's Eve suicide attack in Munich in the name of the Islamic State group.
The biggest challenge is not the airline's debt, but downsizing its 16,800 employees, says Surajeet Dasgupta.
Darryl D' Monte, the distinguished enviromental journalist, discusses how the media covers floods in Mumbai or Texas, but ignores Assam or Bangladesh.
The US election campaign has provided plenty of ammunition for the CCP to make its case that its political system is superior.
We bring you a collection of some of the best photographs taken this week by ace photographers.
She lived for two-thirds of her life in India, adopted its national cause and customs, and took an Indian passport. She served a prison sentence in Lahore as part of Gandhi's protests against an Imperial power which happened to be her motherland. Freda Bedi delighted in confounding accepted definitions of identity.
'It is absolutely important for us to continue to message to people that they must wear masks, keep physical distancing, as much as is practically possible, at work or at home.'
A 'soft' approach must be nurtured to complement the hard-line of spending billions in physical conflict; that is the only way to 'degrade and destroy' ISIS.
'In India, we are very far away from the per capita incomes of the West. And so the need to support many more people with much more money will come sooner in India than in other nations,' says Aakar Patel.
Iran has complained of irregular shipments
'If one observes a common man passing a church or gurdwara or dargah, he instinctively bows his head. It is this prevalence of polytheism that has ensured that monotheists and minorities flourish in India. This may sound preposterous in wake of the recent communal clashes in Muzaffarnagar. But it must be understood that in a county of over one billion people that was at worst an aberration,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and JPMorgan, the three bulge-bracket banking groups of the US, are likely to get active in Indian real estate after a long gap, according to executives with property funds and consultancies.
Mumbai's break dancers pin their hopes on their passion to dance to get out of city's ghettos.
The $10.5 billion arms and equipment deal helped to arrest the recent drift in the 'special and privileged' strategic partnership, observes Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
Technology can certainly gain India membership in the comity of modern nations in the 21st century.
The India-Japan joint naval exercises are a strategic signal for China, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
He said that energy will be the first chapter to be addressed.
It has been rated second after Cambodia's Angkor Wat.
Have a look at these photos taken from the incredible world we live in. These are the winners of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition 2020.
'Mercifully, the Supreme Court is currently playing the role of the elderly wise to prevent wrong-doing,' says Amulya Ganguli.
'In Chinese perception, India is strategically getting closer to United States and some Chinese analysts fear perhaps one day it may become a part of American arrangements against China.'
In this series, Rediff.com presents a selection of the year's most enduring moments year from around the world.
The broader Nifty also succumbed to the pressure before recovering to close lower by 6.35 points, or 0.07 per cent at 8,693.05
We mourn the passing of Admiral J G Nadkarni, who passed into the ages on Monday. The admiral -- one of the finest officers to head the Indian Navy and a most remarkable human being -- was one of Rediff.com's earliest columnists. His assessment of why India won the 1971 War is a classic and we republish the column today to celebrate his brilliant mind and salute an office and gentleman, the likes of who we will not see again.
'Shivaji was among a handful of Indian rulers to realise the importance of sea power... Not much attention is paid to his remarkable achievement: Building a modern navy and the revival of Indian maritime power.'
'Disgruntled, disillusioned, Muslim youth -- of whom there is no dearth, given the Muslim world's sorry state -- are ready to take on the might of the West and attack it in any way they can.' 'For them, it is their faith, and not the reasoning of Newton or Descartes that has stayed with them, sustained them through the misery their world had sunk into,' says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
'It has taken bombings in Beirut, bombing of a Russian airliner and now terror attacks in Paris for people to realise that we are not going to achieve our objectives of destroying ISIS if we drive in second gear. We need to get into top gear.'
Components manufactured in India are low-value products like casing and box packaging that constitute 5% of the bill for materials required in phone manufacturing.
Modi should bluntly ask Chinese President Xi Jinping why he was willing to put his neck in the Pakistani noose, ignoring all that is known of Pakistan's perfidy, says B S Raghavan.
Addressing a joint media event with Macron, Modi said the two countries have robust cooperation in the fields of defence and security.
Starting as a maker of hydraulic pumps, the Bengaluru-based company graduated to components for automakers like BMW and Audi, and then Airbus and Boeing
Pricing can help prioritise the best use of conservation efforts and funding
A vilification campaign against Rosneft has begun in right earnest, says M K Bhadrakumar.
How China's all powerful Communist party bungled the response to the coronavirus crisis.
'Freedom of expression is not a freedom to abuse those who do not agree with you.' 'It is also about being liberated from prejudices and intolerance.' 'To me, freedom is the right to be who I am and what I am without hurting the same rights of others.'
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
The US foreign and security policy establishment, says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar, apprehends that Trump may compel them to exorcise the 'unipolar predicament', and bring foreign and security policies to reflect the desires and priorities of the American public.
