President Pranab Mukherjee presented five Padma Vibhushan, eight Padma Bhushan and forty-three Padma Shri awards at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi.
We sorted through countless photographs taken around the world to come up with the top photos of 2019. Together these images tell the story of the year -- capturing moments of hope and heartbreak, triumph and tragedy.
Image Alert: These models will make your screen MELT.
Gandhi accused BJP of re-inaugurating projects launched by the UPA dispensation.
More than 25 years after the Babri Masjid was destroyed, another generation proclaims its commitment to building a Ram temple.
'The BJP has latched on to the idea of nationalism, but the nationalism they advocate is not nationalism as we have understood it since the time of the freedom movement.' 'This is not secular nationalism, it is Hindu nationalism.' 'It is a form of nationalism that is exclusionary and it tends to conflate national interest with the government.' 'So, if you disagree with the government, for example, on surgical strikes or demonetisation, you are anti-national or holder of black money.'
'After being a housewife for 13 years and a mother of three, I was put on stage with Shah Rukh Khan! I was trembling on stage and did not know what to do. From singing bhajans with Anup Jalota, I was doing hip-hop and item songs!' Baby Doll singer Kanika Kapoor tells us her inspirational story.
Muslims constitute 20% of UP's electorate. Currently, Muslim voters are divided between Akhilesh's SP and Mayawati's BSP. What will tilt the balance? Can Muslims back the winning party? Mohammad Sajjad explains the mysteries of UP's Muslim politics.
'It is very hard to get the police to file a report against someone from an upper caste.' 'Things are so bad that sometimes we have to sit on a dharna with the body of a Dalit victim to get the police to file a complaint.'
Rajnath Singh, under whose stewardship the Bharatiya Janata Party has stormed to power with its highest-ever tally, took charge as the Union home minister.
Ecotrail Personal Care, a start-up by sisters Mauli and Grishma Teli, is the only company in India that makes halal cosmetics
'Before my scene with Amitabh Bachchan, my father asked me, "You are acting opposite Amitji. Are you scared?"' 'I foolishly said, "No. He is an actor and so am I. He will say his lines and I will say mine. Why should I be scared?".'
'What has hit me between the eyes is Modi's seeming utter contempt for public perception of the yogi being an unrepentant bigot who also carries the baggage of many criminal cases against him,' says B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.
'Narendra Modi is single-handedly changing the formula to win elections. With money, human resources, mobile technology, the Internet, advance planning and tremendous confidence, he has spread his image more in UP villages than in urban areas.' Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt reports from Lucknow on how Team Modi is changing the rules of the election game.
'Our grandparents' generation knew one another.' 'In our generation, you could go a lifetime without meeting someone from the other country,' British Pakistani novelist Kamila Shamsie tells Rahul Jacob.
Sudhir Bisht recalls the battle of 1984, in which UP's strongman H N Bahuguna was felled by Bollywood superstar turned political novice Amitabh Bachchan.
Before the Supreme Court struck down Sec 66A of the IT Act, it was used with devastating effect against anyone posting critical comments online.
'They must take the bull of conservatism within their own ranks by its horns as much as they need to speak out against the fallacies of the non-Hindutva (or 'Muslim-friendly') political forces as well,' argues Mohammad Sajjad.
Besides the polarisation in favour of the BJP, there could be other reasons for the under-representation of Muslims too, says Shafeeq Rahman.
They aid patients needing drugs and doctors via their online venture.
Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah on Saturday released the party's manifesto for Uttar Pradesh assembly elections promising to make efforts to ensure construction of Ram temple under constitutional provisions if voted to power.
'What we are today witnessing is the final act of the Pakistani army trying to retain its turf,' argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
Medha is an organisation created with the idea of bringing in better employment opportunities and life for educated youth.
'It's very tough for someone, who doesn't have a filmi background, to get work in Bollywood. It's not a smooth ride unless you are really lucky. But I think one has to be prepared for that. I must have given 30 auditions for films alone.' Rajkummar Rao survived the struggle to give us some brilliant films.
There is so much goodness in Garm Hava, says Aseem Chhabra/ Rediff.com
Our problem is that we look at these words from a non-Indic perspective, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
Moments after a court in Delhi awarded the death penalty to the four men convicted of the rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedic student, a man emerged from the court and in one statement to the media, managed to deflect attention from the case that has shaken the nation, and from the issue of woman's safety, to himself.
The Modi-Shah definition of secularism is, India is a confident, resurgent Hindu, and therefore secular, country.
'The animosity in the BJP against Swamy continued for a good more than thirty years.' 'It was only after herculean efforts by a reconstituted and more just RSS, that Swamy was finally inducted into the BJP in 2013.'
'You have to move from one skill to another skill.' 'An employee can't say this job is my right and even if you train me, I refuse to get trained.' 'Those who participate in re-skilling will remain in the industry.' 'Those who refuse to get re-skilled will have to go.'
'In the name of pluralism-secularism, the kind of politics that was pursued revealed to many that it was basically a favour to Muslim conservatism and communalism -- a politics of minority-ism, rather than of secularism.' 'This is how significant sections of Hindus have been made to loathe the very idea of Indian secularism by now,' says Mohammad Sajjad.
In four years, Rekhta has become the largest online repository for Urdu poetry and literature in the world, says Veenu Sandhu.
In an online chat with readers, chef Sanjeev Kapoor shares interesting anecdotes from his culinary journey.
When the universe is your workspace, the sky is the limit, and there's no such thing as a glass ceiling. Divia Thani Daswani meets the women behind Mangalyaan
Is politics gaining at the expense of civil society?
'The regional market has been brought to life. This is a big development in India's aviation sector,' says Civil Aviation Minister Jayant Sinha.
India's secular democracy remains mortgaged to rabid communal politics. Quite clearly, the bloodshed by the religious communities is absolutely political. Even non-BJP political formations have their own Narendra Modis, says Mohammad Sajjad.
'The military in Pakistan is capable and self critical, but intelligence is stuffed full of lifers who resist change, which is why career soldiers in Pakistan try with all their might not to be transferred into the ISI.'
Unlike Al Qaeda, ISIS recruiters are proactive and internet savvy. They know there is angst among Muslims about their helplessness even in a vibrant democracy like India, leave alone other parts of the world where Muslims live. So ISIS feeds them a regular diet of the golden age of the Ummah, creating for these youngsters a live yet make-believe world which is completely disconnected from the reality around them, says Syed Firdaus Ashraf.
BJP prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi left no stone unturned to make frontal attacks on Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, repeatedly blaming them for Amethi's neglect. Sharat Pradhan reports
