'Where is the analysis that we need to spend at least Rs 4 trillion to keep India safe?'
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has shown it is possible to form an electoral base with pro-women policies that matter, so why don't other political parties replicate it, asks Devanik Saha.
American media has taken a critical view of his accomplishments, saying his flagship 'Make in India' drive is "so far mostly hype."
This is for the first time the disturbed areas in the control of Pakistan have been mentioned by any Indian prime minister during his Independence Day speech.
The Aam Aadmi Party's Party's East Delhi candidate Atishi talks on her competition against the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate, the former cricketer -- Gautam Gambhir, and her agenda for the polls.
'Our government has created 10 million jobs when the Indian unemployment rate is at a 45-year high.'
'BJP leaders might ponder the all-consuming arrogance that grips the Modi-Shah combine a year ahead of the next general election,' says Sunil Sethi.
'It needed political courage on the part of the prime minister to make such an intervention at the present juncture when the hawkish opinion rules the roost in the Indian foreign-policy discourses in our media, and, unfortunately, the sane voices have largely fallen silent,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
India has said that Pakistan created the conditions for cancellation of the talks -- due to issuing of postage stamps glorifying terrorists and brutal killing of its three security personnel.
'Our policy seems to be to give away part of J&K, even though we are entitled to the entire state.' 'The Congress has done so, and the BJP is following the same policy.' 'No one is applying their mind to the legal position.' 'Kashmir is not a part of Pakistan under its own constitution.'
'I have no problems with the finance ministry or with state governments treating petrol pump prices as the last resort for meeting their ambitious spending targets with very limited revenue resources.' 'But let's do away with this smokescreen of free pricing of petrol and diesel and go back to administered pricing regime,' says Dr Sudhir Bisht.
Facing black money investigations in India and several other countries, global banking giant HSBC on Monday said it is also being probed in the US for hiring candidates related to government officials in Asia Pacific.
'Let us not say that Modi has not delivered on anything; he has delivered something and in parts substantially, but he has to also deliver on a large number of his electoral promises.'
'Jaish e Mohammed has been allowed to resurge through supported terror actions in J&K in a deliberate tactic by Pakistan, if only to reduce the international pressure on the Lashkar e Taiba leadership after 26/11,' points out Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Leading American daily the New York Times is bringing the curtains down on its India-specific blog, less than three years after it launched the online feature that offered news and analysis about Indian politics, culture, business, sports and lifestyle.
'The muscularity of the last three years didn't bring any dividends and if anything, Chinese attitudes only hardened,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The arrival a couple of days ago of a Chinese nuclear submarine for the first time in Karachi port, coinciding with a Chinese military delegation's visit, points to Pakistan's importance for China, says former R&AW officer Jayadeva Ranade.
The high court had on rapped the police over the manner of its probe into the disappearance of Ahmad.
'Was there an element of orchestration between Mukherjee and Mohan Bhagwat about their speeches to the effect that the former would leave out any reference to Muslims while the RSS chief will not talk about a Hindu rashtra?' asks Amulya Ganguli.
The year 2016 was officially the Earth's warmest since record-keeping began in the 1880s, the World Meteorological Organization announced on Wednesday.
The prime minister said he had kept this three-year-old programme away from politics and had tried to connect with the people without getting swayed by the (political) "heat" and "anger" that may prevail at any particular time.
'Though not religious in everyday life, his Hindu-Indian identity was an irrevocable influence on his writings,' observes Vivek Gumaste.
Two of the accused in December 16 gang rape case on Friday alleged that the investigation as well as conduct of the authorities has not been impartial due to "political pressure".
The Chinese Communist Party's all important 19th Party Congress is just months away, and President Xi Jinping finds himself confronting unlikely challenges to his pre-eminent position, says former RA&W officer and China watcher Jayadeva Ranade.
'They have no other agenda, but to perpetuate hate.' 'They have destroyed the economy and polity and they survive only on hate.' 'They think through hatred, they can mobilise the large chunk of Hindu votes.'
'A master politician who excelled in the politics of intrigue, Subash Ghisingh kept winning election after election, sending a clear message to the state and central governments that he remained the undisputed king of the Darjeeling hills.'
'If you put colour-coded internal security maps of India in May 2014 and now, the picture won't be flattering to Modi.' 'Failures on internal security are now piling up and can break Modi's momentum,' says Shekhar Gupta.
'The army has been open about its determination to keep the PML-Nawaz out of power at all costs.' 'Both the military and the higher judiciary have indicated a preference for Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik e Insaaf,' says Rana Banerji, who headed the Pakistan Desk at the Research and Analysis Wing, India's external intelligence agency.
Lalu's return to the political forefront signifies the hold RJD chief exercises over public consciousness.
'I see liberal men shocked at the flood of #MeToo on their timelines, men who rail against these terrible things, but who haven't had the slightest idea how many of their friends and family have suffered under their noses, nor how much,' says Mitali Saran.
A better system of operating central and state PSEs, and indeed all commercial activities of the government, would require eliminating the current system that oversees them.
Prasad said the probe by the CBI will determine whether Cambridge Analytica violated the Information Technology Act, 2000 and the Indian Penal Code.
A day after Arvind Kejriwal stepped down as Delhi chief minister, Aam Aadmi Party today made it clear that it would contest the Lok Sabha polls under his leadership.
'India stands to gain immensely by forging a developmental partnership with China.' 'While through sustained strategic communication there is scope to steadily expand the commonality of interests between the two countries.' 'This is also a practical way to ensure that differences do not get over-magnified and become disputes,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The argument that there is nothing wrong in barring illiterates from contesting elections is extremely flawed, when by the same yardstick many sitting MLAs and MPs would not be eligible to contest even panchayat polls, says Devanik Saha.
Meanwhile, an independent MLA in Gujarat has declared his support to the BJP.
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Government divestment reached record figures after the financial crisis, at the same time as promoters were required to bring down their stake in companies to 75 per cent or less.
Of Rs 1,034.27 crore, the ruling party spent Rs 606.64 crore, while the Congress spent Rs 149.65 crore of its Rs 225.36 crore.
'...I have not read newspapers for quite some time,' a psychologist tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf, 'and I am perfectly normal.'
Bharatiya Janata Party leader Arun Jaitley on Saturday appeared to snipe at party colleague Sushma Swaraj for opposing entry of Karnataka leader B Sriramalu, saying the "relatively marginal issues" of who is in or who is out are diverting the attention from the core issues of governance.
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