The need of the hour is not a divisive, slanging match of accusations and counter-accusations, but a call for sanity,' says Vivek Gumaste.
Businessman P C Mustafa wants Indian Americans to return home, Cognizant CEO Francisco D'Souza outlines how Indian tech companies could grow, Gaurav Dalmia has some investment recommendations while Subramanian Swamy warns that India is flirting with a debt trap.
'Did the government learn any lesson from the disasters of 2008, 1987, 1975?' 'Certainly not!' 'They are making people believe that the 2017 flood was unexpected, so no preventive effort towards reducing the loss of human lives was to be expected from the government,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
BSE Midcap index outperformed the benchmark indices to end with 0.4% gains.
The Sensex was up 70 points and the Nifty was up 20 points led by SBI on robust Q2 earnings.
'Are moving towards a political culture that provides more space for violence and a paranoid political rhetoric,' asks Nitin Desai.
Sensex ended above 26,000 led by telecom shares amid TRAI's spectrum sharing norms.
Watal panel had suggested an independent payments regulator be set up.
'Amartya Sen is a citizen of the country who has every right to criticise or give his opinion on a policy decision.' 'Get back at him! Why get back at Harvard?'
There is ample fuel in the computer revolution to do many useful things.
Sensex is under pressure due to concerns in the global market.
'There is a great scope for enhancing the use of organic fertilisers'.
'Hindu voters in coastal Karnataka lean more towards Hindutva than Hinduism which explains why the Siddaramaiah government's perception as anti-Hindu worked wonders for the BJP in coastal Karnataka.'
'People on both sides of the Hindutva debate need to read and understand the texts first,' Bibek Debroy, translator of the unabridged Mahabharata, tells Kanika Datta as he gets started on a similar project for the Ramayana.
'I don't think there is a need to order a fresh investigation into the complaint against Modi & Co. As the amicus curiae Raju Ramachandran said in his report to the Supreme Court, the existing material is more than sufficient to prosecute Modi and other high-ups of his regime,' Manoj Mitta, author of the book The Fiction Of Fact-Finding: Modi and Godhra tells Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore.
The 30-share Sensex ended down 414 points at 25,481 and the 50-share Nifty slipped 119 points at 7,603.
Women are opting out of high-flying career due to family responsibilities, says a study.
'I can tell you, Mr Chairman, from personal experience that there is nothing sadder than witnessing a close one, a loved one with mental illness at close quarters.' 'I have lived with a victim of mental illness. Like many in that condition, very often such people are in a state of denial.'
While there is no denying that certain sections of the community deserve aid, the politics of reservation can be suicidal for India.
The 30-share Sensex lost 12 points to end at 29,559 and the 50-share Nifty climbed 4 points to close at 8,914.
Narayanswami Srinivasan suffered a major setback on Thursday as the Supreme Court barred him from contesting any election of the Board of Control for Cricket in India on grounds of conflict of interest.
The 30-share Sensex dropped 298 points to end at 27,209 and the 50-share Nifty has lost 93 points to end at 8,174.
'I felt like a used and discarded rag.' 'The pro-dialogue constituency has shrunk in the valley.' Academician and author Dr Radha Kumar was among the three interlocutors which the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government appointed on Kashmir in October 2010, speaks of how the panel report was never acted upon.
'As they grow bigger, the trail of their pioneering success often leaves behind a causticity marked by deficient human resource practices, negligible focus on corporate governance and rife sexism.'
'For years American academia has used the concerns about Hindutva in India to almost completely trash the concept of Hinduism.' 'In the American debate, Wendy Doniger's point of views perpetuated Hinduphobia.' 'Americans were willing to change... Indian intellectuals let us down badly.'
'The anti-Digital India campaign is a vindictive hatchet job rather than a fact based, rationally sound appraisal; a personal attack rather than issue based criticism; an ideological assault rather than altruistic effort. It must be called out for what it is,' says Vivek Gumaste.
'The lack of zeal to serve the country in the mammoth government machinery will be the biggest challenge for Narendra Modi and his government as he tries to change things; there will be not just resistance, but a lack of response to begin with.' If Narendra Modi becomes prime minister, Sheela Bhatt/Rediff.com says the issue of human resources, lack of talent and value system in governance will be his biggest challenge.
'The Modi wave is superimposed by an anti-Congress wave. While there is anger against the Congress, there is also a pro-Modi sentiment. Together, it will lead to a Modi victory.' Psephologist Dr Rajeeva Karandikar explains to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com the science behind his prediction that the Narendra Modi-led NDA will win Election 2014.
Several brokerage houses have given a year-end target of as high as 30,000 for the BSE bourse's benchmark Sensex, with fund managers telling investors not to redeem though the index is still only around 25,000.
Tamal Bandyopadhyay discusses his latest book Bandhan: The Making of a Bank at Bandhan headquarters in Kolkata.
'An America at war with itself, groaning under a mounting debt, with woolly-headed economic policies of a neophyte president who is more feared and suspected among the comity of nations does not augur well for the world.' 'It would be well justified in asking,' says Shreekant Sambrani, '"Is this how you expect to make America great again, Mr President?"'
BJP leader Ram Madhav's rant about Vice President Hamid Ansari's absence at the International Yoga Day celebrations goes deeper, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf, deep into their brain.
'Dadri was an extension of the cultural fascism that was happening in the country.' 'All the people in the country suffered under the Emergency, but now we see one community trying to crush the other community. Do they know what is brewing in the minds of the other side? What is happening today can lead to a very dangerous situation in the country.' 'We have lost religious tolerance in today's India.' Writer Sarah Joseph on why she returned her Sahitya Akademi Award.
The decision marks first successful policy intervention.
'The over-reaction by the BJP to District Magistrate Pranjal Yadav's decision will prove a double-edged sword.' 'On May 16, if the BJP gets a handsome number of seats and if Modi wins from Varanasi and Vadodara, his opponents can repeat Modi's scathing remarks against the Election Commission, that it was not 'impartial'.'
Incidents of arson, firing and vandalism were reported from Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab as protesters agitated against the dilution of the SC/ST Act.
'Live a healthy lifestyle. Like what our parents taught us. Like our parents' parents taught them.' 'We become obese. In obesity the chance of cancer increases.' 'Any new symptom? Please talk to your doctor. Some screening test might need to be done.'
India is threatening to block the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s trade facilitation agreement (TFA) reached at Bali last year unless its agricultural policies are permanently excluded from multilateral scrutiny.
Talmiz Ahmad is a former Indian ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE. In an interview with Aditi Phadnis, he says the disequilibrium in Iraq will continue to prevail. Ahmad also says there are indications that the US is now anxious to avoid intervening militarily in West Asia, and that this is the appropriate moment for Asia to assume responsibility for its own security. Edited excerpts:
