Here are some of the most stunning moments of the week that was.
In a 35-minute address to the Indian diaspora, the prime minister said that his government was not afraid of taking "big" and "tough" decisions in the interest of the country.
He called for delineation of the 3,488-km Line of Actual Control (LAC) which China has refused earlier.
'In the last 55 years India and Pakistan have gone to wars, but nobody spoke about scrapping the Indus Waters Treaty.'
The wide gap in national income held by the ultra-rich and the poor is striking.
Weakened by two fierce political opponents and the army in Pakistan, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's United Nations speech was to address his domestic audience.
'Crafting a coherent, transparent and consistent policy vis-a-vis our neighbours, leave alone the rest of the world, is unlikely to be high on the priority list of the new Indian government, which will be sworn in before June,' says Ramananda Sengupta.
Because no other leader cared for Indians as selflessly as he did -- and it all started from a remote corner at the edge of this vast country, 100 years ago.
Not only is Modi's India not the shining land of dynamism and prosperity that he promised -- though it may be that, for some people, in a few years from now -- but socially it has the positively regressive tendencies that were entirely predictable.
'Ishaqzaade released on May 11, 2012. It has been seven years. But if you had spoken to me on May 10, 2012, and said that I would do 13 films with so many good directors and actors, I would have said, 'Chal jhoota.''
Besides the five Indian films that are playing at the Toronto International Film Festival this year -- a rather large collection at an international film festival, says Aseem Chhabra -- there are more films with an Indian connect.
India's decision to skip the meeting came after a year of bilateral discord over China's stubborn opposition to India's entry into the Nuclear Suppliers' Group and a UN ban against Pakistan-based terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed leader Masood Azhar.
'... For the India-US relationship to continue its positive trajectory, it will require India to adapt to a different approach.' Nisha Desai Biswal -- who as the Obama administration's point person for South Asia was in the inner circle of all the Obama-Modi Summits -- tells Rediff.com's Monali Sarkar why she is hopeful that India and the US are on an irreversible forward course.
Sujatha Gidla's scathing observations about Mahatma Gandhi and other highlights from Jaipur Literature Festival 2018.
Ambitious diplomats continue to be attracted to politics but do they make good politicians, asks Jyoti Malhotra
'One cannot escape the conclusion that Pakistan has won the Paris-Bangkok-Islamabad round. To be able to resume the composite dialogue without making any progress on the Mumbai attack trials is a dream come true for Pakistan.'
'When you come through the hassles and struggles of business life, your mind is wired differently.' 'You are more connected to reality,' Akali Dal MP Naresh Gujral tells Rahul Jacob and Archis Mohan
The Union Health ministry put the number of positive cases at 82, eight more since Thursday night, which includes the woman and a 76-year-old man from Karnataka who became the country's first coronavirus fatality besides 17 foreign nationals, Health Ministry officials said.
'What matters is that India's perspective on global issues -- climate change, intellectual property, free trade, trade routes being kept free, digital technology -- are listened to with respect,' says Ambassador B S Prakash.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has positioned himself as a credible partner for Bangladesh. He has scored by getting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to travel with him to Dhaka, says Srinath Raghavan
Describing Bangladesh as an 'exceptional neighbour', India on Friday said Modi's 'historic' visit there from Saturday will help the two countries.
'It will make good sense for military men on that side of the table to be confronted by our own.'
'Sehwag, Yuvraj, Zaheer, Harbhajan and Irfan Pathan. The bunch that formed the formidable force of Dada's team. Have we seen the last of them?' wonders Abhijit Masih.
"I am sitting on a Satyagraha till I get a clarification on details of international travel expenses of some senior AAP leaders. It is not a dharna but a satyagraha. I would like to send out a message to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal to put out the details of the foreign tours of his five AAP leaders -- Satyendra Jain, Ashish Khetan, Raghav Chaddha, Sanjay Singh and Durgesh Pathak in public domain," Mishra told the media.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday began summit-level talks.
For the first time the Ford Foundation is placed under a watch.
'Not only the poor in India want sons, but even in the Indian community in the US and Canada. The more educated they are, the more access they have to money and use of technology in gender choice.'
We bring you a collection of some of the best photographs taken this week by ace Reuters photographers.
Back in 2007, Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt had profiled Yakub after he was sentenced to death by the Terrorist and Disruptive Actives (Prevention) Act court for criminal conspiracy and financing air tickets to send co-conspirators for arms and RDX training to Pakistan.
Saudi Arabia relies more heavily on migrant labour than any other large country.
Back in 2007, Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt had profiled Yakub after he was sentenced to death by the Terrorist and Disruptive Actives (Prevention) Act court for criminal conspiracy and financing air tickets to send co-conspirators for arms and RDX training to Pakistan.
'India is a huge market for Chinese goods. I don't think a war stands to logic when you have economic compulsions, but then Chinese are known to do illogical things.'
Given our troubled relationship with Pakistan, we need to keep our security apparatus in a state of alert with state-of-the-art equipment. All bilateral issues with Pakistan -- political, military, economic -- will simply have to go on the back-burner till Pakistan decides it wants to live as a good neighbour, says Vikram Sood.
'China's growing nexus with Pakistan and the two countries' unresolved territorial disputes with India continue to pose a formidable national security threat to India,' says Brigadier Gurmeet Kanwal (retd).
'All judges are conscious of the historical legacy they leave behind. Chief Justice Thakur understands the important question of Constitutional law involved and the change in public mood,' lawyer Anand Grover tells Sunil Sethi.
'Emojis were conceived to add a dash of pizzazz to our text lives.' 'That's what they do still.' 'Hoping that they will usher social change is optimism on steroids,' says Shuma Raha.
'Modi's victory is his own victory. Now what he has done thereafter, it seems to me, leads us to believe that he was a bit too prolific with his promises.' 'One achievement of Modi's I will praise is that he has put the fear of God among his ministers and officials.' 'Indira Gandhi's sentiment of controlling everything, centralising power in to her hands is the quality that persists in Modi' Veteran journalist Inder Malhotra casts his experienced gaze on one year of the Modi Sarkar.
Critics say that there's no 'Modi wave' in four Muslim-dominated parliamentary constituencies in Bihar's Seemanchal belt, but Bharatiya Janata Party leaders are hopeful to retain three out of the four seats here. In 2009 general elections, the BJP won in Purnea, Katihar and Araria but lost in Kishanganj.
The National Investigation Agency is busy taking apart each and every possible lead connected to the Patna serial blasts after the suspects held in connection with the terror strike revealed some shocking details to sleuths of the probe agency.
British Defence Secretary M Fallon on Thursday laid a wreath at the war memorial at India Gate to commemorate India's contribution during World War I.
