The government must justify why we need to buy foreign reactors when we have developed up to 700 MWe unit-size pressurised heavy water reactors, a design which can be easily extended to 900 to 1000 MWe unit size. Why can't the 'Make in India' philosophy apply to indigenous nuclear reactors, more than 18 of which have been designed, built, and being operated by Indian engineers, asks Dr A Gopalakrishnan.
Fires are blazing across Jammu and Kashmir, the state of Uttarakhand and have reached the doorstep of Himachal Pradesh's capital city Shimla.
Mumbai-based serial entrepreneur Shreekant Pawar, who is all set to launch a device to help fight diabetes tells us more about the lessons he's learned in the journey
Meet Sabriye Tenberken, a German woman who is changing lives in India.
Telecom Secretary J S Deepak has resolved the toughest issues facing the sector, but his real test will be in delivering on the govt's Digital India dream
2015 will be a real test for Modi govt.
Before Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha was proceedings were disrupted by a relentless Opposition over the demonetisation issue, other topics such as compensation for military personnel, counterfeit notes were spoken of. Here's what happened in Parliament.
Unless the judges factor in the ungovernability of technologies and their beneficial owners, present and future Presidents, prime ministers, judges, legislators and officials handling sensitive assignments may become redundant with reference to their age-old roles for securing 'national resources and assets', warns Dr Gopal Krishna.
Downplaying concerns of delay, Amitabh Kant, managing director of Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMIC), says the project will be delivered on time.
Gargi Vijaraghavan feels that the human species is a bigger danger to her beloved snakes.
'In his eulogy at Sandy's memorial service, President Clinton recounted the unusually hot US Independence Day, July 4, 1999, when most of official Washington was more interested in watching fireworks than international diplomacy. Sandy insisted that Clinton confront Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in no uncertain terms.' Former US Assistant Secretary Raymond E Vickery, Jr salutes Sandy Berger, Clinton's National Security Adviser, as a true friend of India.
'With the recent challenging of the notion of the Indian Ocean Region being India's strategic backyard, China is gradually upping the ante in the maritime realm around India.'
Sofia Ashraf's video 'Kodaikanal Won't,' slamming Hindustan Unilever for alleged 'mercury poisoning,' has gone viral with over 25,000 online petitioners demanding that the multinational clean up the mess as well as compensate those who worked at its thermometer factory in Kodaikanal.
The visit of Park Geun-Hye to India, though a symbolic one, will certainly give a further impetus to the strategic partnership between the two countries says Rup Narayan Das.
Is it inconsistency in policy, or the lack of robust support?
'The Cauvery river has become excessively politicised by all political parties.' 'They see a vote bank in an emotive issue of this kind.'
Swaraj Samvad has moved on to be a nationwide agenda, says group convenor Professor Anand Kumar.
'We know many things are going to happen.' 'People should be preparing for sea level rise, for increased cyclonic activity, for drought.' 'One reason I wrote the book is to alert people to the dangers that they face.' 'For example, Mumbai faces enormous threat.'
Armed with green nod and fund infusion, Gujarat govt getting ready to issue tenders to build infrastructure at the mega investment region
Scientists at the India Meteorological Department warn that not only has India turned hotter in the last two decades, but that heat waves are projected to become more intense, have longer durations and greater frequency, thereby resulting in more deaths.
'The AAP is likely to take root in some metropolises -- although it won't be easy to replicate the small-scale Delhi model with equal intensity or cadre-strength in a large state,' says Praful Bidwai.
'Sasikala, already determined to keep both the party and CM's post for herself, might not be able to do it, if she were to wait any longer,' says N Sathiya Moorthy.
Pablo Bartholomew, the legendary Indian photojournalist whose searing images from the Bhopal gas tragedy stunned a nation's conscience 30 years ago, speaks to Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com.
Prashant Lingam and Aruna Kappagantula are changing the way houses are being built in India.
'I would like to request the AERB, UCIL and DAE to introspect. The world is changing, so is India. The wave of development and modernity will not stop for those who continue to live in the past. The future belongs to the youth who believe in the values of honesty, transparency and efficiency.'
'Big countries do not agree on every set of issues.' 'Look, one of the differences in the relationship is that when we do not agree, we are sitting down and talking to each other.'
The fragmentation of politics and the pressures of coalition management have contributed to a near-secular rise in budgetary social expenditures and spending on subsidies since 1991, leaving little fiscal space for government-led capital investment.
'AAP's real value must be measured not by the number of Lok Sabha seats it wins in the election -- which may not exceed 10 or 15 -- and not even by the number of votes it takes from the BJP, but by its ability to deflate Modi's superhuman '56-inch chest' image and the charisma so assiduously manufactured around him by the corporate-controlled media.'
'Pakistan has employed force to curb Baloch aspirations and rights. There have been charades of giving rights and concessions and packages, but all of them are hollow and meaningless and not even worth the paper these are written on.' 'Pakistan is appeasing China for the investments which will benefit them. The economic corridor with China will not only deprive the Baloch of their land and resources, but will turn them into a minority because of the influx of outsiders.' 'The Balochs want to be masters, not slaves and hired labour in their own land.'
We need to question ourselves if we are to be implicated as well in the institutional murder of Rohith and many other Rohiths, if not bodily but in spirit, because of our complicity in naturalising this elitist, exclusionary, discriminatory-to-the-core conception of education, says Kishalaya Mukhopadhyay.
But he is actively pursuing greenfield steel plants in Karnataka and Jharkhand; ultimately, only one of these might come up.
The idea that every citizen in this country is to be numbered is the primary thing in the project.
Despite the recent electoral reverses, Rahul is getting ready to walk the fire once more. The question is whether he will get burned or burnished in the process, says Saroj Nagi.
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.
'We are rushing to 'develop' without carefully valuing natural areas.' 'With careful land use planning and scientific zonation at least 5 to 10 per cent of the country's land can be secured for tigers and other such species, and another 5 to 15 per cent kept under low-impact uses to support biodiversity that can coexist with human uses.'
The new ordinance on land acquisition will allow land grabbers to deprive millions, destroy agriculture, horticulture, rivers, forests, tree cover and mangroves to extract minerals as well as ground water, without replenishment at a pace that will not leave anything for the next generation, warns activist Medha Patkar.
This is the joint statement issued by the ministry of external affairs on the visit of US President Barack Obama to India.
