'The lockdown was for both: To flatten the curve or more correctly, delay the rapid spread of COVID outbreak, and to create healthcare infrastructure.'
Even though he doesn't say it in enough words, Minister of State for Health Dinesh Trivedi wants people to take the H1N1 pandemic in their stride and not go by the coverage in electronic media.
The best-case scenario -- to which Morgan Stanley attaches 30 per cent probability -- pegs the S&P BSE Sensex at 41,500 levels in the next 12 months.
'The priority at the moment should be to strengthen our internal security arrangements and improve coordination among the intelligence agencies, state governments and military authorities,' says Naresh Chandra, India's former ambassador to Washington.
The second and concluding part of Sheela Bhatt's eyewitness account of one of the most talked-about trials in the country, that of Ajmal Kasab, lone surviving terrorist accused in the dreaded Mumbai terror attacks of 26/11
'Generally people say the terrorists come from madrasas or slums. But that is not the case. Those who have been recently nabbed, they had very good schooling in towns of India and there are some technocrats and IT-savvy people. By and large women are generally not found in the modules, or in planting or making of bombs'
From Kutch to Itanagar, Kashmir to Kanyakumari, there is only one emotion, it seems. Fear. Of coronavirus.
"So far, conclusive evidence has not been obtained but in any terrorism case the turning points in investigations always come only after the confessional statements of the accused," a senior officer said.
Strategic thinker and former bureaucrat, K Subrhamanyam says that India is not doing enough, just yet, to respond to Mumbai attacks.
'We have gone through the entire CCTV coverage of Taj Mahal, Oberoi and CST, that count gives us the figure of 10. When Kasab was arrested in the morning of November 27 we immediately interrogated him and he told us they were 10 people. This confusion is more or less a creation of the media,' says Mumbai's Joint Commissioner of Police (crime) Rakesh Maria
Managing Editor Sheela Bhatt provides an inside view of the behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing that culminated in the trust vote in India's Parliament last week
Vijay Jolly, who is contesting against Delhi chief minister Sheela Dikshit in the assembly polls, blamed Dikshit for using extra-constitutional means to fight her battle against him.
'There is an understanding between the people of two countries that violence is not going to solve the Kashmir issue. A final understanding will take time,' says former national security adviser Brajesh Mishra.
'Why has the peace been kept?' 'Basically because there is a balance.' 'Maybe they think that balance has changed.' 'People can make mistakes. People can miscalculate.' 'If that is the cause, then I think what we have done, matching their build-up, etc, it is giving a good account of ourselves in the face-offs.'
Was Ajay Rai put up just to hobble Kejriwal in Varanasi?
'This indoctrination of uneducated youth that is going on in Pakistan is a danger to the whole world, not just to India.' Mumbai Joint Commissioner of Police Rakesh Maria, the lead investigator in the attacks case, in his first interview on the acts of terror. Exclusive to rediff.com
Kasav is no phantom in police custody -- he is for real and was captured a couple of hours after his career as serial murderer began.
The real story why the finance minister is not fighting the Lok Sabha election.
Here are some helpful tips to follow in case you are in trouble.
Sitting MP Pawan Kumar Bansal faces two dimpled beauties. Which one will the city choose?
In an exclusive interview, former National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra argues why he has changed his earlier opposition to the India-US nuclear deal.
'From one seat to a majority in the assembly in 20 years. The evolution of the BJP in Karnataka is a script in itself,' says Arun Jaitley, the party's strategist for the election.
If the rupee falls further, it would negatively impact the dollar-based returns of foreign investors, and could influence foreign flows into India.
Riding against all odds, Narendra Modi has won convincingly. In one line, the victory shows that it is a people's mandate for his personality. It's the clear vote for a person and leader called Narendra Modi.
Although Parugu does not match up to Bommarillu, it is made watchable by the good performances of Prakash Raj and Allu Arjun. A stereotyped storyline is given some good treatment particularly in the first half.
'This Chinese behaviour we have not seen for a very long time.' 'This sort of build up on the border, this pattern in Chinese behaviour, and especially the aggression and brutality with which our people were attacked on the 15th of June, this is not something we have seen before.'
'Earlier it was a stigma to discuss mental problems. But I get more patients for past life regression as in India people believe in rebirth and karma,' Dr Prakriti Poddar, who uses hypnotism to treat illnesses, tells A Ganesh Nadar.
Dr Shirin M Mazari, an Islamabad-based analyst, speaks of terrorism and violence in Pakistan and what Pervez Musharraf's presidency has done for the country.
Is this 'Yashpal Kapoor' the late Congress leader, one of Indira Gandhi's closest aides in the 1970s?
Managing Editor Sheela Bhatt stands by her story
'The political fallout of the verdict on national politics is pregnant with incredible opportunities.' 'Post-judgment politics can change the ground rules of election campaigning in the coming decades,' says Sheela Bhatt
'There is absolutely no reason for India and China to even contemplate a conflict! Yes, but we are rivals.' says National Security Adviser M K Narayanan.
Election time forces candidates, friends and family to seek divine intervention.
'The British Empire came to India too late and left too early. Without England, India would have been 20 republics and not better than the Afghanistan of today,' says Dalit activist Chandra Bhan.
Thrown out of her matrimonial home, an HIV-infected woman has knocked the doors of a Delhi court seeking custody of her 17-month-old son, allegedly snatched away from her by her in-laws, 13-days after her husband succumbed to the deadly disease.
'It is the moment where compassion and empathy must supersede our identity, politics, or our ambitions.'
'Terrorism creates suspicion among neighbours, suspicion among communities, which could be a major blow to India's otherwise widely hailed and widely recognized society'
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