Editorial

On a positive note

WHEN I HEARD Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg say “Namaste India” in Delhi earlier this month, I could feel myself beam from ear to ear. Zuckerberg was the third high-profile CEO of a US-based firm to have tried his hand at Hindi when in the country. Earlier this year, it was two other corporate to...

Cover Story

The man of many words

Not for him the flamboyance and tea-drinking ways. Piyush Pandey of O&M India prefers the Indian chai version and is set to surprise us with his Hindi poetry collection Though candid enough, Pandey chooses his words during our conversation and reveals only as much as he thinks he should. Short,...

Up-To-Date

BJP Flexes its Muscles in Haryana and Maharashtra

ElECTioN// The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) created history in Haryana by securing a clear majority on its own for the first time and finished as the singlelargest party in a hung house in Maharashtra, leaving former ally and runner up Shiv Sena high and dry. Manohar Lal Khattar, a 60-year-old RSS ...

Inflation Falls

ECoNoMy// According to data released by the government in October 2014, food inflation fell to a nearly two-and-half year low of 3.52 per cent. Wholesale inflation fell to a near five-year low in September, owing to a sharp decline in fuel and food prices, raising hopes following an equally steep fa...

Hudhud Leaves Behind a Trail of Devastation

CalaMiTy// Starting October 12, the strongest tropical cyclone of 2014 within the North Indian Ocean, and the most destructive tropical cyclone to ever hit India, Hudhud left behind a trail of devastation. At least 96 deaths have been confirmed, a majority of them from Andhra Pradesh and Nepal, wit...

kailash satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai

bag Nobel Peace Prize awardS// Indian and Pakistani relations affect international relations. Another clear picture of this view emerged when an Indo-Pak and Hindu-Muslim combination of Kailash Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai shared the Nobel Peace Prize honours for 2014 for their work on promoting ...

India’s Diesel Prices Fall

oil aNd ENErGy// The government has lifted diesel price controls and raised the cost of natural gas, giving market forces greater sway as it seeks to attract energy investment, boost competition and cut subsidy costs. The decisions marked some acceleration in reform measures by Prime Minister Narend...

Foreign Despatches

A cinematic playground

There’s more to Indian cinema than Bollywood. While we do need a regular Dhoom 3 once in a while, a greater variety of film styles and nuanced stories will find a larger international audience and benefit the Indian film industry WHEN DHOOM 3 was filming in downtown Chicago in 2012, I would walk ...

Social Agenda

Decoding Modi’s social network

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has proved that new-age real-time social media platforms are the way to reach out to the masses When the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, stepped on US soil, there was an unprecedented sense of jubilation amongst the burgeoning Indian populace, almost likening th...

Platform1

Up, up, and away

India's space and defence missions need whole-hearted attention and support, so that scientists and engineers can make India self-reliant in critical technologies INDIA’S SPACE PROGRAMMES are soaring to greater heights, literally. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is spreading its win...

Looking Back

ANOTHER HEADY INNINGS

Ajuli Tulsyan had a tête-à-tête with VVS Laxman, one of quick wit and a stickler for perfection, the embodiment of everything that is right with Indian Cricket It is not uncommon to see Indians postpone the most pressing deadlines and assignments, ignore phone calls and skip meals to nervously b...

Issue

CLEANING UP THE MESS

Typical Indian psyche about cleanliness means a fetish for squeaky-clean floors at home and ignoring adjoining streets sighing under the weight and stench of garbage. Will the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan change the way India looks and smells, 15 years from now? PRAHLAD KAKKAR // It is a campaign of immen...

Platform2

Foot in mouth?

Bilawal Bhutto's statement about J&K has upset many. In such a scenario, is India soft stance on the episode justified? IT WAS AT a political gathering of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) workers in Multan, Pakistan, in September 2014 that Bilawal Bhutto was out of line. However, his chant for: “...

Good Karma

LOVE AND FRESH AIR

The famous Maiti Movement has survived on the unconditional love a girl has for her paternal home and the latter’s unwavering affection for the daughter who is now married and has moved away Down the narrow by-lanes of Nathuwala in Dehradun lives 65-year-old retired biology lecturer Kalyan Singh ...

Reading Room

The time without taboos

India was once a land where queerness was not judged, and having different sexual attitudes wasn’t censured there iS so much to Indian Mythology that remains hidden. There is so much that no one speaks of – of probable hidden desires, of stories that somehow don’t find an audience because we ...

HitchHiker

To see the meeting of hemispheres

When in the UK next, do plan a visit to Greenwich, not just to stand stride the two hemispheres, but also to visit sites steeped in history and hop across to the charming Greenwich village What can I say about London that you don’t already know? Besides being the most visited tourist city in the ...

Broad Canvas

Ringing in the change

Gigi Scaria’s upcoming installation at the upcoming Kochi Muziris Biennale will only add another edge to the artist’s impressive line of work Meeting Gigi Scaria is an interesting experience. That is because much like his work, his personality has layers. He might be witty and jovial on the out...