With all its ups and downs, 2015 is now concluding. And the New Year will bring new expectations to all of us. So tell us your expectations from 2016:
Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar examines why India's southern states register more suicides than the northern states. Shobha Warrier reports
'It is important to destroy, to undermine, to debunk the narrative of ISIS,' Olivier Roy -- one of the world's leading experts on radical Islam -- tells Rediff.com's Vaihayasi Pande Daniel in an exclusive interview.
'After Modi, Yogi is the most popular face of Hindutva, but it's too early to say that he is someone who could succeed Modi.'
The close-onto four years (since November 2015) Peter has spent in Arthur Road jail, central Mumbai, in judicial custody, have taken their toll, lending him a bit of a melancholy stoop, a laborious gait and a tired face, turning him prematurely into a much older man than his nearly 64 years. Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com reports from the Sheena Bora murder trial.
'...that it cannot accommodate dissent and objection.' 'Are its foundations so delicate that it feels endangered even in instances outside of armed rebellions?' 'The question that needs to be asked of the political supporters of such laws is not why they are confident of the importance of the law on sedition.' 'It is instead why they are lacking in such confidence about India.'
'If they were really serious (about conferring the Bharat Ratna on Savarkar) what were they doing for the last five years?' 'Why do they have to take so long?' 'Gandhi himself never got the Bharat Ratna so it does not really matter.'
'I had to submit my resignation from the BJP after just two weeks because they were very regressive.' 'There was no space for a free thinking individual.'
Can a woman stay in the same hotel room with a man she is not married to or vice versa? Seems an outdated question in this day and age? Not exactly, says the hospitality industry.
Tiger Shroff has got the goods of a solid action hero but it's time to step out of the show reel space and shine under an actual script and a skilled hand, feels Sukanya Verma.
'Beef-eating is the new media frenzy that is being orchestrated to wrongly implicate the BJP government and is reminiscent of the false anti-Christian acts highlighted by the media when the BJP first came to power in 1996,' says Vivek Gumaste.
The top posts on social media from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
Did an officer in the Tamil Nadu Intelligence Bureau deliberately keep mum about the plot to target BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani during his October 2011 Rath Yatra? Was a police informer behind the failed operation?
Though the list of superstitious beliefs is long, often dissolving distinctions of class, caste, religion and education, Karnataka's anti-superstition bill is seen as a big step ahead.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on range of issues -- from Rafale deal to Ram temple and triple talaq.
This is possibly the last election in Bengal where two sides are squaring off against each other. Don't expect the BJP to be a bystander five years hence, says Devanik Saha.
Want to know about some weird stuff happening in your backyard? Read on...
'The effect of demonetisation has been largely to drive black money above ground. But there are several interesting side-effects. One is the uncomfortable realisation that this can happen again, which is a deterrent to future sinners,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
'Now with many itchy-fingered ex-bosses being raked through the mud, their marriages ruined, their careers trashed, their finances hit, the inclination of many male hiring managers will be to hire fewer women,' believes Rajeev Srinivasan.
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
India's beloved President -- there has been no other who has influenced the nation as much -- never stepped back from inspiring people to be the very best that they could be.
'They have realised that class war is not possible in India, so they are trying to bring about a caste war.'
'In 2013, Modi said his government would be of Dalits and OBCs.' 'During his tenure, the highest number of atrocities have taken place.' 'What they want is that this Ambedkar Constitution must not be practised in India in the future.'
Dr Ganesh Rakh has delivered 436 baby girls free of charge. The son of a coolie and housemaid, the good doctor wants to change the mindset of a 'boy- obsessed' society.
In 2016, the Tamil Nadu railway police rescued 2,128 children; nearly six children a day, or a child every four hours.
Four fishermen who traveled to the Middle East, dreaming of earning more money, instead ended in an Iranian jail.
The world is still figuring out the man as he continues his enigmatic journey towards the first 100 days of his presidency.
'To expect that he has a magic wand to resolve all differences and announce breakthroughs in all issues during his first visit to the US is to be unrealistic,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
The sentiments of the ignorant are what politicians unfortunately fan to inflame passions for political gain, says Murad Ali Baig
'The court came to a conclusion using one person's case... Based on that one case, the term "rampant misuse" was used as if it is a generalisation.' 'If one in 10 cases turns out to be false, is it possible to call the Act a charter for blackmail or charter for personal vengeance?' 'Is there any Act either in India or anywhere in the world where there are no false cases?'
'My wife was asked to get out of an autorickshaw because she was married to me. My children were targeted and branded a traitor's children. In spite of the Supreme Court and the NHRC having cleared my case, the state government is yet to close it. Local politicians are behind this. Why can't they close the case, give me compensation, accepting gracefully that they have wronged me?' Dr S Nambi Narayanan, the scientist who was accused and then exonerated in the 1994 ISRO spying case, speaks to Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier about his continuing travails and his recent meeting with Narendra Modi.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh agreed for an all-party meeting to discuss the issue after the law commission submits its report on the law which has come under focus in the wake of the Jawaharlal Nehru University controversy.
Though 15 years have passed since the World Trade Centre bombing, the mystery of the circumstances surrounding Dr Sneha Ann Philip's death has not been unravelled and might remain that way forever. Yet her memory lives on in other ways.
'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.'
"Saudi Arabia continues to be a land of opportunity for Indians. Indians have benefited the most from the amnesty scheme as 1.4 million people got their residency and work status legalised," says Faiz Ahmad Kidwai, Consul-General of India, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Before the Supreme Court struck down Sec 66A of the IT Act, it was used with devastating effect against anyone posting critical comments online.
'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.'
Analysts say the Sun Network's fundamentals may be sound but the troubles faced by Maran have caused a lot of volatility.
'The Left's decline is now a reality, both nationally and in West Bengal.'Behind it lie: Ideological rigidity and confusion, outdated party programmes... a socially conservative upper-caste leadership,' says Praful Bidwai.
Dismissing Kejriwal as an anarchist and trying to corner him on that score is unfair because the AAP is unlike any other party we have so far seen. It takes its strength directly from the people not just by way of votes but being participatory in its decisions, says Mahesh Vijapurkar.
