'The BJP's defining character is Hindutva. The party's political strategy is based on a combination of Hindutva+Development.'
India has maintained communication with both Russia and Ukraine. It is time Narendra Modi steps up on the world stage and plays the role of peacemaker, suggests military historian Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
According to a new study, China, India, Indonesia, USA, Russia have the largest number of smokers.
'As people have moved from cities to small towns and villages, they have carried the infection into new territories.' 'Poor healthcare infrastructure in these places should be a big worry in the days to come.'
'By the time actual action began, it was already too late.' 'The virus was raging.'
'The violence in Bangladesh has been used as an excuse to start violence by communal political fanatics.'
COVID-19 has emerged as an important form of diplomatic currency around the world as nations try to showcase their soft power gains. In this race, India has an edge as India is already a pharmaceutical giant having produced some 60 per cent of global vaccines and now justly seeking to strengthen ties and expand its influence in its neighbourhood and beyond, observes Dr Rajaram Panda.
India must also not rule out dialogue with Pakistan. However, talks with Pakistan must be structured, and further progress must be based on visible results.
The best of India's brains are instead busy solving the world's problems (I deliberately exaggerate a bit to drive home the point), as our policies incentivise them to do so.
World leaders thanked India for its help and support in combating the coronavirus pandemic through "early and meaningful" shipments of COVID-19 vaccine doses, as they addressed the high-level UN General Assembly session this year.
India has so far reported nine cases of monkeypox, including one death.
Last week, two BSF troopers from Rajasthan, members of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Congo, were killed by protestors. Do we need to lose lives fighting in a country not ours, in a war that is not ours and for a cause that is not ours, asks Air Commodore Nitin Sathe (retd), who served in the UNPKF in Congo.
The Budget oration of the finance minister and the confidence with which she delivered it, along with the measures and the recent upsurge in the economy would all contribute to unleashing the storied 'animal spirits' and help the economy run on the growth path quite smoothly. Or so the government hopes, notes Shreekant Sambrani.
India is in the midst of its biggest crisis since Independence. It is a national emergency and begs to be dealt with. Politics can wait. Lives need to be saved. We need to vaccinate India at a pace faster than any country in the world, asserts Ramesh Menon.
'It's a very tough situation. We're talking to India. We're talking to China. They've got a big problem there'
In a report submitted Monday to Rajya Sabha chairman and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs also said there was a need for a comprehensive public health law to keep a tab on private hospitals and check black-marketing of medicines.
With a focused and integrated approach, India has the potential to produce more than double the current output of pulses.
The Supreme Court and its committees, the two states and the central government must become objective and take the present and not just the past in mind.
'Its efficacy is 97.6 per cent.'
'We lost our place in being first in the epidemic, when it hit India so hard, but we were actually the epicentre of the epidemic from essentially April 2020, for almost an entire year. We had such high cases. We were the country that had the most mixed response.'
'We are not yet out of the woods.' 'If India sees the South African or Brazilian type of mutations, our numbers will rapidly rise.'
Currently, India recycles around 300 of the 1,000 ships which are demolished per annum globally. However, countries like Japan, Europe and the US were not sending their ships for recycling to India in the absence of ratification of a global convention. That scenario is set to change with the Recycling of Ships Act, 2019.
Gujarat and Karnataka have been ranked as the best performers in developing startup ecosystem for budding entrepreneurs, according to the ranking of states and Union territories by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT). Among smaller states having population of less than one crore, Meghalaya has been adjudged as the best performer. The rankings are based on the initiatives taken to develop the startup ecosystem for promoting budding entrepreneurs.
'It is in electronics that the gap between where we are and where we need to be is most obvious and most persistent.' 'It is not only a national security issue, but also a commercial issue,' argues Rajeev Srinivasan.
Once the shock value and comic potential of a woman selling condoms runs out, Janhit Mein Jaari loses its mojo, observes Deepa Gahlot.
Concerned about the rise of antibiotic resistance and the time it takes for drugs developed abroad to reach Indians, the government is considering holding its own clinical trials. Clinical trials for new drugs have so far primarily been conducted only by private Indian or foreign drug firms. But given the stringent nature of India's regulatory environment for clinical trials, several pharmaceutical companies have moved their trials out of India. As a result, only 1.2 per cent of global clinical trials take place in India.
'All imaginary figures are pushed by government bureaucrats.' 'They never showed that the production of wheat was less this time.'
'A new doctrine now needs to be evolved for a new situation, and the army will do it.' 'You won't see more Kashmiris driven in front of army columns.' 'Nor will the army massacre hundreds, Dyer style,' says Shekhar Gupta.
This is the fifth consecutive day that COVID-19 cases have increased by more than 50,000 in the country.
Shortage of ICU beds, oxygen, ventilators, vaccines, doctors, nurses and crematorium space in India has dominated headlines around the world in the past few weeks with Covid-19 cases surging beyond control and the government failing to deliver. Yes, election rallies, Kumbh Mela, blatant flouting of social distancing and mask protocols coupled with a messy vaccination process are said to be responsible for the health crisis of colossal proportions that India is facing today. But an analysis of Budget speeches made by finance ministers over 75 years also offers a glimpse of how low on the priority list healthcare has featured for the political class and policy-makers, which is a significant reason for the current situation.
The recent drone scare at London's Gatwick airport has exposed the lack of preparedness against drones, says Pranjal Sharma.
The Serum Institute of India, the largest vaccine maker in the world, has been chosen by Oxford and its partner AstraZeneca to manufacture the vaccine once it is ready. Trials results for the first two phases were published earlier this month.
'The Shiv Sena and the Ambedkarites are two powerful social forces in Maharashtra with a presence in the toiling classes. However, they were made to fight each other by the powers that be. Now, they are joining hands while overcoming this contentious past.'
'Whatever modelling we have, people are saying end of July or beginning of August we will see a peak of COVID-19 in Maharashtra.' 'After which the decline will begin.'
Performance-based incentives were recommended by the 13th Finance Commission, but omitted by the 14th Finance Commission
Endorsing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of India outlined in his address to Parliament, India Inc said the efforts to improve farm productivity, rein in price rise and impart skills to youth will transform the nation in the days to come.
'The immune protection may well wane somewhat, and that's what we have to monitor.' 'Should it wane to the point where vaccinated individuals are getting severe disease, then we really will need to give them booster shots and that'll apply regardless of what vaccine they've got the first time.'
She also called upon the partymen to continue to put pressure on the union government to ensure that the daily rate of vaccination trebles so that 75% of the population gets fully vaccinated by end of this year.
'COVID-19 and diabetes have a very intricate relationship.' 'People with diabetes tend to get the most severe forms of COVID-19.'
The splendid rock figures around Cappadocia and the silent, eternal ruins of Ephesus made a trip to Turkey even more memorable.
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