The cardinal rule for Mughal princes was 'Ya Takht, Ya Takhta' (the throne or the funeral pyre). They often went to battle against their brothers, even their father, to become emperor, points out Syed Firdaus Ashraf. Nothing bloodless about it.
Historian Stanley Wolpert, author of several books on India, passed into the ages recently. We remember Professor Wolpert with Rajeev Srinivasan's March 1997 interview published on the occasion of his controversial book on Jawaharlal Nehru.
Javadekar was at the event, where presence of his ministerial colleague V K Singh last year had drawn flak from the media, for around 20 minutes, and extended his 'best wishes' to the Pakistani people on the sidelines.
Ajit Balakrishnan reflects on pariahs, small businesses, and blockchains.
Dangal's success in China opens up the world's second-largest film market for India. But there are risks, warns Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.
Dangal's success in China opens up the world's second-largest film market for India. But there are risks, warns Vanita Kohli-Khandekar.
"Japan will participate in MALABAR this year which is our largest bilateral naval exercise with India and it's scheduled to take place at the end of this month," Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for South and Southeast Asia Amy Searight told lawmakers during a Congressional hearing on Thursday.
Syed Firdaus Ashraf on the futility of the 'who is a Hindu?' debate.
A senior former Obama administration official said if another attack would have happened like that, it would 'quickly escalates into a regional war'.
At the summit, India signed the SCO's memorandum of obligations, kick-starting the process of its accession into the group as a full member.
Obama made no reference to any country in his speech but said that his administration works to promote religious freedom around the globe.
'The reason why Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have attended the President's iftar was not merely to break a fast with the faithful, but more importantly to broker an understanding with India's second largest set of citizens,' says Shehzad Poonawalla.
JNPT, the country's largest container port at Navi Mumbai, and Kandla in Gujarat's Kutch, the largest port by total cargo, will come together to form a Special Purpose Vehicle to operate the terminal at Chabahar, under a revenue-share agreement with the Port and Maritime Organisation, Iran.
Biswal, who is in her late 40s, said there is a lot of fear and anxiety in a lot of communities.
US Senators want Obama administration to clarify what India's 12 agreements with Iran are all about.
'If the US intention was to use the FATF platform to isolate Pakistan and impose sanctions against it, that is not going to work when influential countries such as Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China and Russia will not lend support to the US campaign,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Sons-in-law are 'in' these days in the circles of power.
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.
'Whatever the two countries are doing these days, on the diplomatic front and on their borders, that hostility is not sustainable.' 'Today's world doesn't approve it.'
Two projects in Iran, which India is to execute involving major financial commitments on its part, are of particular significance for Indian steel.
A high power satellite, GSAT-15 is being inducted into the INSAT/GSAT system. GSAT-15 carries a total of 24 communication transponders in Ku-band as well as a GPS-Aided GEO Augmented Navigation (GAGAN) payload operating in L1 and L5 bands.
'It is important to note that American officials were trying their best to use the Taliban for their oil games till December 1997 when Mullah Ghous was invited to America. State Department officials did not show any interest in capturing or killing Osama bin Laden even at that time.'
China wants a code of conduct for troops on the India-China border areas. While the Indian side has reacted cautiously, it is not clear what effective additional protocols that the current proposed code will bring forth to usher stability in the border areas, says Srikanth Kondapalli.
Higher local output estimated to depress cross-border sales
Data spanning the years 1951 to 2014 show that temperature and pressure conditions at specific locations in the Arctic region during the pre-monsoon period correlate with the Indian summer monsoon rainfall, points out Charu Bahri.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will visit Japan, a key strategic partner, next month as he embarks on a busy foreign travel schedule in coming months that will include Bhutan, Brazil and the US.
Aziz Haniffa, who has covered every Indian Prime Minister's visit to the US since Rajiv Gandhi in 1985, gives us a peek into what's happening in Washington, DC on the eve of the Modi-Trump summit.
The developments in Af-Pak region, particularly the fall out of Pak political paralysis, would make President Xi Jinping's task a little more complicated, says Colonel R Hariharan.
This new Silk Road has the potential to once again have a lasting impact on the commerce and culture of this region for generations to come
Interrelations of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan on Thursday took centre stage at the Jaipur LitFest where panelists discussed the upswing in talks between Pakistan and Afghanistan besides India's ties with its neighbour.
India and Tajikistan on Monday pledged to further deepen their cooperation to fight terror and agreed to step up defence ties besides boosting trade and investment.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated Afghanistan's new Parliament built by India in Kabul
'What should worry India and which needs to be expressed is Russia's simultaneous proximity to both China and Pakistan from a strategic angle. That hasn't happened ever before,' says Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd).
Arguing that Pakistan will remain a key player in counter terrorism post-2014, the United States has proposed $280 million in military assistance to the country, although it wants to cut civilian aid in an effort to acknowledge India's concerns about misuse of the funds.
Through its early days to the 1980s, Pakistan sought to expand its sphere of Islamic influence through Afghanistan to Central Asia and got Pakistani citizens recruited in the Afghan government institutions in the 1990s when the Taliban were power. Now, it is looking eastward through India to Bangladesh and Myanmar to establish an imaginary caliphate.
Domestically, China's 'strike hard' policy is alienating Uighurs further in Xinjiang. China's quid pro quo with the Taliban is hardly any lasting solution to the Afghanistan crises or to regional security, says Srikanth Kondapalli.
'If push comes to shove, Pakistan does have the capability to make it difficult for the US and NATO forces to make even a withdrawal of troops out of Afghanistan in orderly fashion,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'India can replicate what Pakistan did to Kulbhushan Jadhav should the need arise.' 'Hopefully, Pakistan will see reason before that transpires,' says Ambassador G Parthasarathy, former high commissioner to Pakistan.
India and Pakistan fear that any instability in the war-torn Afghanistan following the withdrawal of American troops could result in "surplus terrorism" in both the countries, a top US official has said.
US admiral's suggestion for a revival of a strategic maritime quadrilateral with Japan, Australia and India leaves China livid, says Rajeev Sharma.