The task of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley to keep inflation under check, even when the country reeled under severe drought for two years in a row, and reduce the current account deficit, was made easier by low crude oil prices.
'The policy is to consolidate farming into the hands of a few and to take away the food security of the country.' 'Once food is in the hands of 15 chosen corporate houses, you will get food, but at a price that they determine.'
Kenyan authorities are questioning a British national arrested at Nairobi airport as he tried to board a Turkish Airlines soon after an upmarket mall was besieged by militants in that country's capital.
Dinesh Vazirani on how he built Saffronart into an institution.
Indian Americans speak up about the daunting challenges on the 16th anniversary of the tragedy.
Ramon Magsaysay winner Anshu Gupta, whose non-governmental organisation Goonj has been leading the relief efforts in Nepal which was ravaged by a devastating quake in April this year, speaks to Ankita Mishra.
The mismatch between PMI and core sector could also be due to the fact that while core sector is calculated year-on-year, PMI is calculated month-on-month.
Many anticipate that by the 2021 assembly elections in West Bengal, the BJP may come to power, says Mohammad Sajjad.
The soul of India resides in pluralism and tolerance. This plurality of our society has come through assimilation of ideas over centuries. Secularism and inclusion are a matter of faith for us. It is our composite culture which makes us into one nation.
'At the first sign of rain, Mumbai's infrastructure begins crumbling.' 'The monsoon is the true test of the durability and effectiveness of any system.' 'What most don't realise is that the city is dead,' mourns N Suresh.
'Karna is the greatest warrior in the Mahabharata -- in fact, Arjuna is a nobody in front of Karna.' 'But Arjuna had a better advisor in Krishna than Karna.' 'Karna failed because he listened to the wrong advice given by Salya.' 'It just shows wrong advisors can land even the mighty in trouble.'
Lewis Hamilton still has to pinch himself to believe he is a three times Formula One world champion and a surreal afternoon in Mexico will give him further cause to question reality.
'We feel there is definitely something murky in the system.' 'Will anyone believe that Nirav Modi will go to a branch and bribe a low-level officer?' 'Just look at the people with whom he had moved around.'
One year after his death, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed's legacy stands crucially poised, says Mohammad Sayeed Malik.
AMU has once again been pulled into a crossfire of crass political opportunism. In these post-truth times, that the university also had political stirrings not subscribing to the Muslim League is chosen to be forgotten, says Mohammad Sajjad.
Rediff.com brings a preview of the main matches coming up this weekend in the English Premier League.
The argument for a weaker rupee is substantial.
'I realised we are not doing scavenging because we are illiterate or poor. We are doing it because of the way society is organised.'
The year 2015 may well turn out to be a watershed in global macroeconomic adjustment.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
"I believe that I should have also been listed as an accused by the CBI," says Hazaari Lal, one of the thousand karsewaks, who pulled down the mosque on December 6 1992, a day that shook India.
Dr Arun Jamkar, former vice chancellor, Maharashtra University of Health Sciences, makes a strong case for reforming Indian medical education and believes that the National Medical Commission Bill is historic.
He was admitted to the AIIMS on June 11 with a kidney tract infection, urinary tract infection, low urine output and chest congestion.
'Wisdom demands Modi moves to restore the critical institutions of the State and dial back on the cult building around his persona,' say Sonali Ranade and Shealja Sharma.
Rafael Nadal was made to wait before his second-round Rogers Cup match due to several rain delays but did his part to put the schedule back on track with a speedy 6-2 6-3 win over Frenchman Benoit Paire on Wednesday.
Here's a collection of some of the best photos from around the world shot in the last 24 hours.
A worker fell 115 feet to his death from the roof of the Arena Amazonia in Brazil on Saturday, the fifth fatal accident during construction of Brazil's 12 World Cup stadiums.
The flawed response to the crisis has fed a us-vs-them mentality in which the banker, the expert, the coastal entrepreneur, the immigrant, the foreigner are all villains. The crisis was not that much of a problem; the response -- the over-reaction, the sovereign debt build-up and the lasting anger -- is the problem, says Mihir S Sharma.
Dr Anand Patil hopes to spread the message of embracing a healthy lifestyle.
Xi, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China, called the progress China had made under his watch "truly remarkable
Dressed in pink, her hands flying about in eloquent gestures, excitement on her face, Indrani made quite a picture. There was pin-drop silence as she made strong points about why nothing in the hearings had uncovered anything against her. She spoke about there being "Not a shred of evidence... No scientific evidence because it didn't happen!"
India's rank was further amplified by the collapse of the South American and Russian economies.
'It is time to not merely assert that Kashmir is an internal problem, but begin to act on it,' argues Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'In Rajiv Gandhi's time, out of every Re 1 spent by the government only 15 paisa reached the public.' 'At this moment, I cannot say that the entire Re 1 reaches the common man's pocket, but yes, two-thirds of that money definitely reaches the common man.' 'And the rest of the money will also reach soon.'
'Peace talks with Pakistan are like accepting a dinner invitation from cannibals and hoping to return alive,' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
News of all that's transpired on and off the football field
About 41,000 rooms are being provided for the Games and any failure to have them ready in time would be a potential blow to President Vladimir Putin's hopes that the Winter Olympics will show how far Russia has come since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
At these 'relief camps' people had nothing to sleep on except for a piece of cloth and men and women, boys and girls all cramped together. Factor in the fact that Kakching in the 2011 census had a population of 28,746 people and that about 90 per cent of that population has been affected by the floods now, and one can work the math of the crisis at hand.
But Indian information technology workers might do better without the companies that held them back, says Mihir S Sharma.
Reconciliation talks between the two warring factions in Aam Aadmi Party have collapsed following which two prominent leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan on Thursday accused Arvind Kejriwal camp of trying to force them to resign from the national executive and not heeding to any of their concerns.
