Madurai Kamaraj University in Tamil Nadu, which has been rocked by student protests over the last few days, closed down two days ago. A Ganesh Nadar visits the campus to find out what went wrong.
Sunil Sethi raises five questions to avoid the pitfalls that ended his ignominious earlier tenure as chief minister exactly a year ago
In a minor relief for residents of flood-hit Chennai, the rains have stayed away for the last few hours.
If you plan it out, instead of rushing it in the last moment, you will realise how much you have saved and the difference it makes to your personal wealth.
Oscar Pistorius was cleared on Thursday of murdering girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp but the Olympic and Paralympic track star faces a troubled night after the South African judge adjourned for the day before ruling on a charge of culpable homicide.
Daring the military-backed government, supporters of deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi have called for a "million person march" tomorrow against his ouster, even as police today arrested two top leaders of an Islamist party in a widening crackdown on protesters.
The key to every Daniel Day-Lewis performance was a big theme and a thousand details. And in the final phase of his acting career, says Sreehari Nair, America became his big theme, and the details... well, he just popped them out like waffles.
Despite the government crackdown on Web sites advertising escort services, the Internet leaves enough wiggle room for debauchery to thrive.
The media and social media are abuzz about the no-frills style of Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and Delhi's to-be-CM Arvind Kejriwal, both very unusual politicians in today's India. But India has not seen a chief minister like Nripen Chakraborty whose spartan lifestyle and frugal habits were the subject of legend.
With a rise in the clout of Muslims in western Uttar Pradesh, fearful Hindus are being radicalised.
Let Bihar be damned under its contradictions of having gone 'dry' and then having been submerged under flood, which is a recurrent phenomena? After all it is a godforsaken land, having lost its promises of overcoming its problems, says Mohammad Sajjad.
The Election Commission has a fight on its hand as candidates use ingenious methods to smuggle in money to Voters.
'My wife was asked to get out of an autorickshaw because she was married to me. My children were targeted and branded a traitor's children. In spite of the Supreme Court and the NHRC having cleared my case, the state government is yet to close it. Local politicians are behind this. Why can't they close the case, give me compensation, accepting gracefully that they have wronged me?' Dr S Nambi Narayanan, the scientist who was accused and then exonerated in the 1994 ISRO spying case, speaks to Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier about his continuing travails and his recent meeting with Narendra Modi.
'Modi has missed the bus in Kashmir.'
Five per cent growth is disappointing but only after having reached nine per cent. However, it is still not all that bad, says Andrew Michael Spence.
'Everywhere our younger computer professionals are in the forefront, defending our national interest in every forum and keeping our flag flying high.'
Much of the negative perceptions of the north-east diaspora owe their origin and existence to the perverse policies of the central government toward the region and its people. This realisation must be the beginning of an earnest endeavour to address the issue, says R N Ravi.
'The purported jitters of the ministers under Modi, the intriguing part is that the stories churned out by the rumour mill have not so far been denied. For aught I know, they may not be true. Or, if true, all that Modi intended was to subject his ministers to a process of grooming to ensure that all of them adhere to a uniform code of propriety, discernment and credibility,' says the distinguished civil servant B S Raghavan.
'In her insecurity, she destroyed the institutions of democracy.' 'She packed Parliament with her supporters with loyalty being more important than ability; she superseded judges; she corrupted the civil service.' 'She knew how to use people against each other and was quite a master of that.' 'She would do this with calculated skill and in the bargain cause enmity between brothers, split up families.'
'The fragility of this case is that taking a side could be a fallacy to do. Because you don't have all the answers. So how do you take one particular side?' Meghna Gulzar asks Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com
'Let's talk a bit about minimum and overtime wages, since that is a topic so dear to everyone's heart. After all, critics say that heartless Devyani paid poor Sangeeta neither the minimum wages nor overtime wages and since "in this country we don't do it this way," she deserves to go to jail. But the FLSA itself makes several occupations exempt from either payment of minimum wages or from overtime wages or both. Disabled people need not be paid minimum wages under FLSA. Seamen on American vessels have to be paid minimum wages but seamen on other than American vessels need not be. So how fair is the Fair Labor Standards Act,' asks Sharmista Khobragade, diplomat Devyani Khobragade's sister.
Consolidation of influential voting blocs might hurt the chances of AAP's Kanchan Choudhary Bhattacharya in Haridwar but she will not go down without a good fight. Mayank Mishra reports
An objective observer can indeed see the improvement in all the social parameters in Brazil, but for the citizen the state of infrastructure, public transport, education and health is dissatisfying. Some of that pent-up frustration has led to the current protest, says B S Prakash
Through its early days to the 1980s, Pakistan sought to expand its sphere of Islamic influence through Afghanistan to Central Asia and got Pakistani citizens recruited in the Afghan government institutions in the 1990s when the Taliban were power. Now, it is looking eastward through India to Bangladesh and Myanmar to establish an imaginary caliphate.
'Not a single person I spoke to there believes that the Kundalkulam plant is safe.'
A week after taking office, Arvind Kejriwal and his ministers have ambitious promises to keep.
India is threatening to block the World Trade Organization (WTO)'s trade facilitation agreement (TFA) reached at Bali last year unless its agricultural policies are permanently excluded from multilateral scrutiny.
The temptation to rehash Manmohanomics is not going to deliver the achche-din that Narendra Modi has promised, warns Sriram Balasubramanian.
BJP President Amit Shah -- arguably the second most powerful politician in the nation -- granted a rare television interview to the Network 18 group of news channels. Rediff.com's Rajesh Alva checks out what the BJP boss said in this word cloud assessment of the interview.
Manipur needs an integrated politico, military, socio-economic approach, says Sanjeev Nayyar.
'How come with Nehru at the helm, India missed so many buses? He had such unchallenged power that he could have taken the country in any direction he wanted. The sad conclusion is inescapable that Nehru let things drift in true Hamletian ambivalence,' says B S Raghavan.
'The path to a resolution of the ethnic conflict is likely to be complicated and controversial with the majority Sinhalese community, and will become less likely if delayed.' 'It will certainly give Rajapaksa fresh political oxygen with which to revive himself and rally the opposition.'
'We should not flatter ourselves that China is fixated on encircling India. She has greater goals, becoming the pre-eminent power in the world, and India as a major power is dealt with as part of that strategy.'
Imagine being a part of a country, but being discriminated against by the majority community and atrocities being committed against you by the state. This is the deplorable conditions that the Rohingyas of Myanmar live in where they are cut off from their livelihoods and sources of income, unable to access markets, hospitals and schools, and have little or no access to relief aid. In order to understand the situation and the genesis of the tragedy unfolding, Rediff.com's Archana Masih speaks to Ambassador Vijay Nambiar, the United Nations' Chef de Cabinet (Chief of Staff), who had served a long stint with the UN in New York on the issue.
Prince William and Princess Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, collected quite a few Mumbai hearts on a hot two days in April.
Public Money, Private Agenda -- The Use and Abuse of MPLADS by A Surya Prakash provides a comprehensive look at the Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme, which was launched 20 years ago in 1993. Excerpts from the book.
Dr Kalyani Gomathinayagam, a young Indian doctor who volunteered to spend four weeks in west Africa helping those suffering and dying of Ebola, speaks to Vaihayasi Pande Daniel/Rediff.com why she took on an assignment many would shy away from.
To avert another Uttarakhand-type catastrophe, we must change course. We should stop pandering to the Indian elite's insatiable appetite for electricity, which is driving reckless dam construction, says Praful Bidwai
A friendly working environment, special healthcare facilities, flexible work hours, work from home options, support and camaraderie among the team members keep employees highly motivated in these 10 companies.
'In her insecurity, she destroyed the institutions of democracy,' says Khushwant Singh.
