By Vishnu Makhijani IANS | November 24   If war is too serious a business to be left in the generals so should former bureaucrats without adequate knowledge stay away from political analyses and national security. Two recent books are proof of this. The first is "India's Lost Frontier - The Story of the North-West Frontier of Pakistan", by Raghvendra Singh, a retired civil servant who has served as the Secretary of the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Textiles

Mumbai, November 23 (IANS) The 12 crore hungry janata of Maharashtra and more around the country may never have expected to be served a "brand new alliance government" on their breakfast table on Saturday morning.   Following the normal routine, most people were planning to scan the newspapers and catch up a bit on the morning TV news, with a lazy weekend day before them.   This morning, all newspapers carried huge headline news on how Shiv Sena President Uddhav T

By Anindya Banerjee    New Delhi, November 22 (IANS) May 24 this year was a day of jubilation at the BJP headquarters here with flowers being sprinkled, red carpet being rolled out and with 'dhols' at full blast. After all, the Modi 2.0 was back with a bang with an unprecedented mandate of 303 seats in the Lok Sabha. But if one looks state-wise, the once blooming 'Lotus' is shrinking with a steady pace across India. It all started last December when the BJP was wip

New Delhi, November 22 (IANS) Read about the lessons India must draw from China's dramatic rise in the seven years that Xi Jinping has been at the helm; learn how a simple Gandhian expression can transform your life; and finally, an authoritative guide on partying without burning a hole in your pocket. There's much to ponder over on the IANS bookshelf this weekend. Enlighten yourself! 1. Book: Pax Sinica - Implications For The Indian Dawn; Authors: Samir Saran & Akhil Deo; Pu

By Sukant Deepak    New Delhi, November 21 (IANS) Just back from touring the US with his sons, Sarod maestro Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, who performed at a synagogue, a church, besides delivering a lecture at a university there says that violence seeping in every society in the world is what disturbs him the most. "I talked about that in my lecture and stressed that the reason it was happening was the fact that we had stopped respecting every other religion except the one

New Delhi, November 19 (IANS) With people across the world observing World Toilet Day on Tuesday, Twitter users too posted comments on what all had been done on the issue of open defecation so far, whereas a few had a humorous take on the serious matter. There were quite a few memes with pictures of toilets. Union Minister Piyush Goyal posted on his Twitter handle @PiyushGoyal to remind people about the steps taken by the Railways on the issue. "A Paradigm shift in Railways: To e

New Delhi, November 18 (IANS) Amid pollution turning into a serious national issue and the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) largely staying limited to Delhi, experts here on Monday advocated airshed management to tackle pollution. These experts and pollution control boards officials were participating in a panel discussion, organised by Climate Trends, a Delhi-based climate communications initiative, to map the pathway for regional cooperation and coordination to tackle the crisi

By K. Yatish Rajawat  IANS | November 18   Since India rejected RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) with ASEAN and six other countries, most commentators have focused on reasons for exit. The government has reiterated that it was a decision in the interest of the country. Impact on farmers due to agri-imports impact is one of the dominant reason. There are more powerful forces at play shaping the structure of global trade that India needs to account for

By Vinod Mirani  IANS | November 17   Draw has been a watchword in the film industry all along. The industry revolved around this word: the opening draw, weekend draw and which star had the draw. The power to pull in the audience to start with, and the rest would be left to the merits of the film. The thing was that, a good draw over the weekend and the opening week assured a certain recovery, a buffer. Usually the term 'draw' was related to the stars. That is becau

By Sukant Deepak    New Delhi, November 16 (IANS) Papers and books find a place almost everywhere in the living room. He laptop on the table is switched on. Perhaps he wants to jump back to work immediately post our conversation. But for the two hours we spoke, he seemed to be no rush. None at all. After all, the enigmatic character of Karna from Mahabharata has been fascinating him since childhood. As he gets ready to stage eDustan-e-Karan Az Mahabharata in Delhi on No

Nikhila Natarajan    New York, November 16 (IANS) It is only the first week of the impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump and it has already been brutal for the US President. Three career diplomats who have served for decades under both Republican and Democratic presidents have provided chilling detail of the Trump administration's pressure campaigns, "irregular channels", threats and retaliation coming straight from the US President's bully pulpit. If Trump sat

By Vishal Gulati    New Delhi, November 15 (IANS) India has sought inclusion of the Asian elephant in the global list of endangered species, providing the strictest protections as they frequently come into conflict with people. A proposal for including the mainland Asian elephant or Indian elephant in Appendix 1 of the Convention of Migratory Species has been submitted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. It will be taken up at the 13th meeti

(Nov 14 is Jawaharlal Nehru's b'day)   By Vivek Shukla    New Delhi, November 14 (IANS) The 17 York Road (now Moti Lal Nehru Road) Lutyen Zone bungalow was the first official residence of Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru when he came to Delhi to head the interim government in 1946. He lived there till there till August 1, 1948 before he moved to the Robert Tor Russell designed Teen Murti house. When India got freedom on August 15, 1947, Pt. Nehru went to Red Fort to a

New Delhi, November 14 (IANS) After an amped up battle over a fee hike which saw the university students in a joust with Delhi police, JNU Executive Committee on Wednesday evening announced a major roll-back in the hostel fee and other stipulations. It also proposed a scheme for economic assistance to the EWS students. "Time to get back to classes," Education Secretary R. Subrahmanyam tweeted as he provided the information. IANS met the Higher Education Secretary for a quick reactio

New Delhi, November 12 (IANS) Indian politics in 2019 is witnessing shades of the Hindu epic Mahabharata. The King of Hastinapur: Dhritrashtra, the father of Duryodhana, who was not just physically blind but was blinded by love for his son, and his shortcomings. Uddhav Thackeray, who is known to have spewed venom against Congress, called up Sonia Gandhi on Monday, seeking support for forming government in Maharashtra. The wider belief is that it was guided by his 'putra moh' for the

BY D.C. PATHAK  IANS | November 11   With a remarkable insight into how the governance in this country ought to be upgraded, Prime Minister Modi while addressing the Probationers of Indian Civil Services attending the Foundational Course, outlined the big picture of 'the mission and delivery' that the officers manning the famed 'steel frame' of India were expected to measure up to in their long years of duty ahead. In a first time event, the officers who were in the ea

BY SHUBHA SINGH  IANS | November 11   The Sri Lankan presidential election is turning into a battle between two politically influential families; the Rajapakse and the Premadasa families. Gotabaya Rajapakse, a former defence secretary is the younger brother of former president Mahinda Rajapakse, while Sajith Premadasa, Housing Minister, is the son of former president Ranasinghe Premadasa who was assassinated by the LTTE in 1993. Other prominent candidates for the No

Naga sadhus at the Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj. Kindly note that the image has been posted only for representational purposes. Photograph: Anushree Fadnavis/Reuters   By Dr Manoj Kumar    New Delhi, November 10 (IANS) This is a first-hand synopsis of the homework done by the Sadhu Samaj on the Ram Mandir Trust. At 10.30 a.m. on November 9 in the crowded Courtroom No.1, the Supreme Court delivered a landmark and historic judgment in the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri

New Delhi, November 9 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi by far is the master of political surprise and timing and when under siege is able to manoeuvre the situation to his own advantage. Modi has often said he likes to convert challenges and problems into opportunities. While it was well known that the Supreme Court judgement on Ayodhya would come before the retirement of the Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on November 17, the timing has caught people by surprise. Most of the specu

BY MAJOR GENERAL S.B. ASTHANA IANS | November 9   President Donald Trump's announcement that Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the Islamic State(IS) commander, died during a US military operation in Syria, later confirmed by ISIS itself, was welcome news for all fighting terrorism or suffering from it in any part of the world. This was followed by the death of their spokesperson and arrest of his sister and wife by Turkey. After the decimation of IS caliphate, IS continues to exist in