The relative ranking of castes can vary across regions and localities and depends on a number of factors including control over land, wealth, and political power. Castes have often tried to 'upgrade' themselves (a process sociologists refer to as Sanskritization), and sometimes get 'downgraded'. A revealing excerpt from Upinder Singh's Ancient India: Culture Of Contradictions.
'It is perplexing to see the leader of the First World with a first rate medical infrastructure come up short on its foresight to handle the pandemic,' notes Group Captain Murli Menon (retd).
Financial shares were among the top gainers with HDFC leading the gains.
In corporate India where family disputes have become far too common, the Miglanis work as a team.
'It's pretty likely that Kissinger, Rice et al came bearing gifts (read Trojan Horses) from McDonnell Douglas, Boeing, Grumman, Northrop, and all the other Military Industrial Complex stalwarts,' argues Rajeev Srinivasan.
These photos prove we live in an odd, odd world!
From farmers to cement, steel, logistics, transportation and automobiles, the back-end is struggling to get going due to the liquidity crisis.
The top losers from the Sensex pack are ONGC, Coal India, Vedanta, Reliance Inds and L&T.
Many emerging economies have witnessed a flight of foreign portfolio capital and their currencies have slumped against the dollar.
Jindal Steel and Power and JSW Steel, are in competing talks to buy parts of insolvent Italian steelmaker Lucchini.
It sets up internal panel to iron out issues companies face with delisting regulations.
Thanks to the increased thrust on cow protection, the enforcement of the ban on cow slaughter and the relentless crusade by cow vigilantes, the agrarian ecosystem from Haryana to Uttar Pradesh has been irrevocably altered. There's a huge spike in the number of stray cattle roaming the countryside, destroying crops. Ten cows/bulls take barely an hour to eat and destroy a bigha of crop land.
The central bank's currency management will be critical over the next few months. A weaker rupee could help to revive exports. But, the currency must fall slowly and in controlled fashion, says Devangshu Datta.
'A fierce crusader against communalism, George joined hands with majoritarian forces, never to revisit or re-assess his saffron association.' 'He was a Union minister in 1998-2004, a time when people like Graham Staines were lynched in Orissa.' 'On the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, George went on to kind of justify the slashing of pregnant women, by saying in the Lok Sabha that this was nothing new for India.' 'Thus, he was in sharp contrast to what he had himself stood for in the heyday of his political career in the 1970s and 1980s, says Mohammad Sajjad.
Metal sector is not too happy from Budget announcements for the sector
Ranju Sarkar finds out more about Nowfloats, the start-up that is used by 240,000 businesses that reach 13 million consumers.
Legal experts are not sure if threat of confiscation of property will be deterrent enough for fleeing offenders
Praising villagers where he went to lay the foundation of a toilet for naming it as Izzatghar, Modi said, "I liked this word so much".
'The cow is sacred to many of us, but these killings are definitely not part of the Hinduism we know and practise,' says Jyoti Punwani.
The fall in metal and mining stocks comes on the back of weak Chinese trade data
Modi seems to have forgotten the solution to rising tomato prices he had in mind in 2014.
The 30-share Sensex ended down 208 points at 28,261 and the 50-share Nifty closed 64 points lower at 8,571.
Modern science, has taken decades and decades to prove what has been clearly documented almost 3500 years ago in our ancient texts like the Ashtanga Hridaya, says V R Ananthoo, a strong advocate of age-old healthy eating practices and one of the coordinators of Safe Food Alliance.
'Modi and BJP have fooled us enough by creating a Hindu-Muslim divide. Our anger is about jobs and farmers getting a good price, but Shah needs to be taught a lesson for betraying us.'
Union Budget 2014-15 is positive for metals and mining companies.
The 30-share Sensex ended down 261 points at 28,747 and the 50-share Nifty ended down 83 points at 8,684.
The 30-share Sensex ended down 339 points at 28,119 and the 50-share Nifty closed 100 points lower at 8,438.
'The farmer is furious because the MP government is trying to crush their agitation violently.' 'Such actions will have nation-wide repercussions.' 'Why this drama (Shivraj Chouhan's fast) after violently crushing the farmers' agitation?' 'He should resign immediately.'
The primary problem is that India's garment factories are too small and they typically have 150 people and about 80 machines.
'Too much energy these three years has been invested in turning the party into an election-winning machine.' 'To recover its mojo, the Modi government needs a more impressive set of economic figures to flaunt,' says Shekhar Gupta.
Recalling her visit to Nairobi, Rediff.com's Anita Katyal speaks to immigrants she met on her trip, who say they are shaken by the incident but indomitable.
2016 is difficult to predict, and this uncertainty will drive volatility in global markets.
Stay ahead of the game; learn the tricks from Ecom king Jack Ma.
Performance counts more than populist slogans when you are in power, says N Sathiya Moorthy.
The index had risen over 585 points in the previous three sessions.
The three main regulators have different approaches to grievance redressal and different standards to stop harmful from coming pitched at the consumer.
Voters in Sri Lanka's Tamil majority Northern Province on Saturday began voting in the first local elections in 25 years to elect a council to govern the former war zone, four years after the military defeated the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam after decades of bloody civil war.
'It's not only holy reverence that drives them to such vigilantism -- there is adventure too.' 'Some of the younger gau rakshaks enjoy the thrill of the chase: Stopping vehicles, wielding weapons, badgering passengers and then gloating.'
The main culprit in vitiating the inter community/caste/class relations has been the so called 'targeted' approach. This is nothing but discrimination on the basis of faith/caste/class. When an equally poor and deprived child is denied scholarship, despite equal merit, resentment begins to brew, says Colonel (retd) Anil Athale.
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