India's breakthrough in countering a 'dirty bomb'.
Here's this week of truly crazy and mad stories that will make you laugh.
Rediff.com Reporter Anita Aikara spotted a Mumbai constable violating the rules on Sunday, February 4. When, like a good citizen, she objected, she was abused and manhandled by the constable. Her PAN card was taken away and she was then charged with a false crime.
'I truly believe that I have to do everything in my power to make sure that kids are protected and safe,' Megan Peterson, who has filed a case against the Ottacamund diocese and Bishop A Amalraj, tells Ritu Jha/Rediff.com
The car can go from 0 to 100 kmph in just 3.9 seconds.
Rediff reader Ramesh Menon shares his experience of eating on Indian Railways.
The unfolding scenario has thrown up doubts in the minds of people whether the government will be able to complete its tenure.
Lack of consensus on 'how not to let Jignesh Shah get away' could become a huge embarrassment for the government.
Businessmen love low import duties on their inputs and high duties on their outputs. And the Bharatiya Janata Party has a keen ear for business sentiment.
Trying to guess Subramanian Swamy's motives or next step has been a rather difficult exercise for decades, says Archis Mohan
Europe will have to make some hard choices if it wishes to take on the militant group responsible for the horrible attacks in Paris.
Modi has debunked the uncontested wisdom of foreign and strategic policy remaining unchanged and running on a broad national consensus. This is clearly seen in his unhesitating embrace of the US and the clear hardening shift in India's stance on Pakistan, says Shekhar Gupta.
'The previous (Congress) government at least did not veto provisions of the cattle laws.' 'The BJP is actively weakening the provisions.' 'The BJP government tried to export goats from Nagpur for slaughter to the Middle East.' 'The whole country was aghast and offended. We are a country of Ahimsa.' 'The BJP has incentivised the butcher industry so meat export has gone up, live animal export has gone up, leather export is on the rise, smuggling has gone up.'
For FY14, the first full year of the law's implementation, the spend could go up to nearly Rs 8,700 crore (Rs 87 billion), given that India Inc's profitability has grown at a compounded 7.5 per cent annually in the past three years.
Upasna Pandey goes out on the streets to gauge the mood ahead of the polls
Former external affairs minister, K Natwar Singh, shares his critique of the Narendra Modi government's foreign policy in this e-mailed interview with Aditi Phadnis. Edited excerpts
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Nepal visit was an eye-opener for most Indians, as it appears as though the hard feelings of 17 years of neglect by Indian PMs has been overcome by this single, sincere visit, says Rajeev Srinivasan.
An air of calm descended at Wimbledon on 'Tranquil Thursday' as Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams avoided the trail of destruction that had decimated the field at the All England Club on day three of the grasscourt major.
'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?"'
The more mud his opponents fling, the stronger Arvind Kejriwal emerges.
'The government, supposedly manned by wise and experienced officers, was all at sea, unable to act cohesively, and with restraint. Each agency was out to score brownie points.'
'From the beginning (I have told her) "Whatever it may be -- you are losing or winning -- on the ground you're not going to cry!" She never cried.' '"I don't want you to project that you are a loser. You are a winner".' Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com speaks to Leela Raj about her famous daughter, now in the West Indies for the women's T20 World Cup.
The regularisation of our homes may take time but at least restore water, electricity and gas pipeline connection, say the harrowed residents of Campa Cola Compound Residents' Association after the Supreme Court ruled January 30 that they can make a fresh representation to the new government in Maharashtra and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation to regularise their homes. Prasanna D Zore reports.
'Voting also involves communal factors, caste factors and so on, but increasingly, the caste factor is making less and less sense to the Indian voter,' says journalist and author Manu Joseph.
'People don't talk about any role that my father did -- it is always Gabbar Singh. He regretted this. He would tell me, 'I started at 25 floors and couldn't go any higher because I had started too high.'
'The incidents have remained confined to the paramilitary forces on both sides with both the armies scrupulously avoiding getting involved. While this incident has been going on, the LOC has been reasonably quiet. Cross border firing achieves no tactical or strategic aims and is more a symptom of hostility. Unfortunately, India has to learn to live with this. Like Israel, we must construct shelters for the border populations and be ready to retaliate in kind,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
The RSS uses its resentment against mosques and loudspeakers to stoke anti-Muslim feelings among other Hindus, whenever it can, be it during riots, or before elections, says Jyoti Punwani.
Ganesh Chaturthi no longer has the power that Lokmanya Tilak had seen in it way back in 1893 -- the power of bringing people together. This, say 83-year-old Vinaysheela Govilkar and 19-year-old Arnav Thakker, is the festival's biggest tragedy.
Vikki Khanna and his family allow us to share the joys and the sorrow of these beautiful last moments, as they prepare to bid adieu to Lord Ganesha.
"Though Sonia Gandhi was not a member of the Congress in 1984, she later became president of the party and now she shields the perpetrators of the genocide of Sikhs in 1984," alleged attorney Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, legal adviser to Sikhs for Justice, which has filed a civil suit against Gandhi in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
'It was almost as though there was widespread relief that the defence bureaucracy, and the minister, could find someone willing to shoulder the blame for everything that had gone wrong with the services under Antony's charge -- the poor preparedness of the forces, slow acquisitions caused by indecision, cancellation of contracts and whimsical blacklisting of defence contractors over the tiniest suspicion that they may have paid speed money or kickbacks.'
Upstaged by the swanky malls in town, both M G Road and Brigade Road have lost their "happening" status
Very few old-style RSS workers-turned-leaders have survived Narendra Modi's political ambush in state politics. Harin Pathak's end closes the chapter for Modi who started his post-2002 riots journey with a new mix of profit-centric development and middle class-pleasing commerce, technology-driven communication with voters, and an unspoken Hindutva that speaks only through posturings and symbols. Rediff.com's Sheela Bhatt reveals the real reasons for the Modi-Pathak rupture.
'Kejriwal has taken a leaf out of Modi's campaign of 2014 and improved upon it.' 'That suit will haunt Modi till he exits politics.' 'Of all the factors that favoured Kejriwal, the biggest was the arrogance and over-confidence of the Modi-Shah led BJP.' 'What the Congress could not do in the last two decades in Gujarat, Kejriwal did it in no time in Delhi.' 'The BJP has behaved exactly like the Congress in decoding Kejriwal's politics.'