Over the past year we have heard a lot about policy reforms to improve the ease of doing business in India.
Kangana Ranaut is gobstoppingly spectacular. The actress has always flirted with the unfamiliar but here -- at her most real, at her most gorgeously guileless -- she absolutely shines and the film stands back and lets her rule.
In an online chat with readers a few hours after the Union Budget 2015-16 proposals were announced by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Sundeep Agarwal, Director, PwC India, answered related queries to help put the announcements into perspective.
20 years ago this day, May 11, 1998, India conducted its second nuclear test at Pokharan in Rajasthan. In a fascinating interview on Rediff.com, K Subrahmanyam revealed how Indian PMs reacted to nuclear ambitions.
Zakir Naik, a gentle, rockstar televangelist, is dangerous as young Muslims may be swayed by his fundamentalist interpretations of Islam and justify victimhood and extremism, says Shekhar Gupta.
PM said Kovind will make an 'exceptional President'.
'Well begun is half done, today there are more hits than misses by the Modi government in its support towards science in India,' says Pallava Bagla.
'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.
Dr Raghuram Rajan's departure holds lessons for all, be it sections of the media, politicians or the people themselves. We need to learn how to value and retain talent. At the same time the talented must realise that talent alone does not ensure the top job, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
'I looked at the smiles around and realised that each day that I smiled was amazing.' 'So I put into play something that I have been toying with for years.' 'I called it the Rich Universe.' 'You often hear people say "I wish I become a superstar and my life gets made".' 'I wondered how it would be if I said if I hug my father, it would be an amazing day, or if I hugged my mother and said how lucky I am.'
'The other day, someone told me they saw Sarbjit again and it still haunts them.' 'They said I made Aishwarya do what she's never done before.'
Yash Birla, one of most prominent businessmen of India, had a lively interaction with rediff.com readers when he hosted a chat on Tuesday.
The Question hour in the Lok Sabha was also washed out for the second consecutive day as an aggressive opposition stalled the proceedings over the same controversy.
Advait Chandan decodes Aamir Khan.
The Marxists are heading for their worst debacle in many elections. How will May 16, 2014 affect India's Communists? T V R Shenoy surveys the landscape.
'It is imperative to restore the dignity and authority of the services chiefs. Erosion of this has resulted in lowering of service efficiency. It is also time to end the practice of taking seniority as the sole criterion for appointing chiefs.'
'If the dimensions of the strategic partnership worked out by India and the US seem like a grand alliance targeted at you-know-who, China had better realise that it has fathered it,' says B S Raghavan, a long time observer of China.
'It is a great misfortune that the Nehruvian Stalinists of India have colluded with the grand project of demeaning and destroying Sanskrit. Today, the number of Sanskritists in India is low, and falling,' says Rajeev Srinivasan.
The propaganda aspect of the movie -- despite it stemming purely from the writer's deepest convictions -- is a clincher for it is highly unlikely that you'll walk out of a screening of Talvar saying, 'I loved the movie, but I still think the parents are guilty.' If you are swept away by the power of the movie, it's also sure to swing your perception in a certain direction,' says Sreehari Nair.
'My father became a very popular villain and in some films, was paid more than the hero. He was a very simple person. All he needed was six pairs of white shirts and trousers for the whole year, one or two packets of Dunhill cigarettes a day and books.' Shehzaad Khan on his famous father Ajit.
