THEY were sincere, intense college boys and girls -- students of a professional course. They wanted to know how they should prepare to take up jobs after their course was over. Their desire to do things well and right, was obvious in their body-language and on their sober faces. But all of them felt a sense of shock when I suggested that they would do well to ensure that they keep themselves in good physical and mental health. Since they formed a group of intense, sincere young people, none of them ..

India’s diplomatic journey in the last five years has been spectacular, to say the least. It was one ofassertion of the primacy of India’s signature on the international essay of  multi-lateral cooperation on issues of common interest. This diplomatic journey also showed how India positioned itself carefully and leveraged itsmilitary capabilities smartly to make itself an unavoidable Asian power with a global outreach.The Raisina Dialogue is a vibrant forum.- Tweet by Prime Minister ..

THE Indian Army’s proposal to the Government to institute special pension for veterans of the 1965 and 1971 wars against Pakistan will be welcomed by all. This shows how the Armed forces take care of their veterans after their retirement. The veterans of those crucial wars especially deserve to be so rewarded as they were either emergency recruits or had been given short service commission. Hence they could not avail pensionary benefits as are applicable to the regulars. If the Government accepts ..

EVEN after decks are cleared for the hanging of the culprits in the Nirbhaya case, some snags still persist and question-marks hang on the actual execution on January 22, 2020. There is a snag that the Tihar jail authorities have pointed to -- that even if the President rejects the Mercy Petition of a death-convict outright, they would need a time of at least 14 days before the date of execution, a time that the remaining days between now and January22 cannot accommodate. These are, no doubt, technical ..

THIS is one word that has often fascinated me. It has a meaning much deeper than one may understand -- so deep that once revealed, it may flummox anybody. Solace! Yes, that’s the word. Dictionary says, ‘solace’ means cheer, soothe, console, comfort. It may also mean reprieve, in a way. There is certain lacuna in each of these shades, we may say. ..

  Bengaluru: As he inaugurated five Young Scientists’ Laboratories of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the scientists not to get encumbered by the fact that the new entities were restricted to young scientists only up to the age of 35 years. “Build more labs like these and accommodate even those who cross that upper age limit, but do not impede the flow of research,” he said in effect. ... (Agencies)FINE ..

  THE long drawn political battle over Brexit has come to an end finally with the House of Commons endorsing Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s new exit plan. Thereby the way has been paved for Britain to severe its relations with the European Union (EU). This means, by the end of the month Britain will no more be the member of the European Union. The end has come after lot of political wrangling and consuming two Governments. The debate saw much political acrimony, upheaval,, social unease ..

THOSE who saw recent demonstrations against the theocratic regime ruling Iran as a good sign had their hopes setback when the funeral for the assassinated Iranian General Qassem Soleimani drew millions into the streets of Tehran, that nation’s capital. A sea of humanity turned out to demonstrate its anger with the illegal U.S. killing of the number two person in their country’s Government. Likewise, where only weeks ago, there were anti-Iranian protests in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, this weekend, ..

FINALLY the four convicts in the Nirbhaya rape and murder case will be hanged in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on January 22. The justice to the victim’s family comes after seven long years. Such a long wait for justice in a heinous crime as gang-rape and murder certainly calls for a relook at the justice delivery system in the country. There is a need to review the long-winding process of delivering justice. Nobody of course will vouch for instant justice as that would again be a travesty of the legal process ..

PUSHED to the brink of an unsavory shutdown, Air India, the country’s iconic airlines, is likely to take a fresh flight with the Central Government clearing decks for its privatisation. A Group of Ministers (GoM), headed by Union Home Minister Mr. Amit Shah, approved the Expression of Interest (EoI) as well as the share purchase agreement for Air India’s privatisation on Tuesday even as the national carrier’s financial situation became grossly untenable for sustaining operations. The modifications ..

MANY Congressional Democrats—along with party presidential hopefuls Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, and Elizabeth Warren—are warning that President Donald Trump’s targeted drone assassination strike in Iraq that killed top Iranian military leader General Qassim Soleimani will trigger Iranian retaliation, a regional war in the Middle East, or both. And experts in the region add Trump ordered the US war forces to drone-bomb Soleimani without, as usual, thinking through the consequences. That led Biden to ..

THE situation at the now-infamous Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi has continued to go from bad to worse over time, and has hit a rock-bottom below which there is only total darkness. And this has necessitated an immediate and tough action by the Government, failing which a great institution may be pushed to destruction thanks to the ungainly, uncouth, undesirable politics in which genuine students become unwilling victims and honest and loyal-to-education faculty gets crushed. Perhaps, ..

WEST Asia is on the precipice. A dirty war between the United States of America and an equally defiant Iran is on the horizon. The hostility US President Mr. Donald Trump has exhibited by killing Iran’s top military commander General Qasem Soleimani is a sureshot recipe for disaster not just for US interests and people around the Middle East and other parts but also for the allies which are always unnecessarily dragged into a conflict that is never of their making. One more testing phase is staring ..

THROUGH their judgement of the case – University of Delhi v. Union of India & Others, delivered on December 17, 2019, Justices R. Banumathi, A.S. Bopanna and Hrishikesh Roy, at the Supreme Court, have Ruled in no uncertain words, that while dwelling condonatiton of delay ultimate consideration should be to render even-handed justice to the parties, though by and large, a liberal approach is to be taken in the matter of condoning delay. This consideration would not depend upon status of the party namely ..

THERE is a reason why New Year Resolutions (NYRs) fail on such a massive scale -- those who make those resolutions make long lists of things to be done or to achieve in the year. And that is where the catch -- one person and too many NYRs, too many wishes, too many goals in just 365 days. That may be the reason why NYRs have earned a bad name for themselves, which actually need not be so. There used to be a wise, old teacher in our college. He told us a good idea about NYRs...

By Vijay phanshikarIf we want to make the new Five Young Scientists Labs just a small tip of the national iceberg of potential in learning of sciences, then we will have to create favourable ecosystem in schools and colleges. It may not take much money; it will, however, take a lot of deep and focused thinking and actual implementation of the national plan.Bengaluru, (Agencies): Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Thursday, called on scientists and innovators of the country to widen their horizons, as ..

THE story of India’s space programme is dotted by an innate desire and tremendous self-belief to fulfill it. The way Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has grown in stature over the years is a worthy study subject in ingenuity and talent management. The announcement of Chandrayaan-3 after last-minute heartbreak in the final phase of Chandrayaan-2 gives the idea of the mental sturdiness of ISRO scientists who continue to drive India’s space missions, unfazed by failures. Chandrayaan-2 was a ..

FINANCE Minister Ms. Nirmala Sitharaman’s Rs. 102 lakh crore push to infrastructure growth received an over all welcome as such a major step was necessary to revive the sentiment in the domestic market. Being the major generator of employment and being the trigger for galvanising economic activity across several sectors such a boost was long overdue. But having announced the ambitious plan for the next five years, the issue of funding it would remain a major challenge for the Government, especially ..

US President Donald Trump has been facing one after the other frame-ups set up by some ideologically opposed American bureaucrats inducted during the Democratic administrations who could not reconcile to his election in 2016. Failure of President Trump to weed out such bureaucrats before they struck is another cause for his recurring troubles. Democratic politicians took advantage of such bureaucrats to harass Trump. The current impeachment saga is the latest one in chain of palace coups attempts ..

THE running feud between Governor Mr. Jagdeep Dhankar and the West Bengal Chief Minister Ms. Mamta Banerjee and her colleagues has become rather unsavoury and lowers the dignity of the high Constitutional office of the State’s Governor. It was patently cheap politics to bar the Governor from entering the Jadavpur University campus a few days ago under the pretext that students were agitating against the Citizenship Law. Such instances of the political leadership of the State led by Ms. Banerjee sullying ..

WHEN a celebrated thespian says at the pinnacle of his glory that he has more work to do -- which he looks forward to -- then the common man solves instantly the puzzle, the mystery that surrounds his greatness. The moment the iconic Amitabh Bachchan says candidly, upon getting the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award for his lifetime achievement in cinema, that he has yet more work to do, the common people realise what is at the root of his excellence -- the craving for achieving more, rising higher, ..

JUSTICE Deepak Gupta and Justice Aniruddha Bose, at the Supreme Court, have reiterated in the judgment of the case –Jatinder Kumar v. State of Haryana, delivered on December 17, 2019, that even seeking financial assistance from the bride/her parents, at any time before, during or after marriage, is demand for dowry- a punishable offence...

THE remarks of various people about their NYRs -- New Year Resolutions -- range from systematic to cynical. Some call NYRs a fraud, while some make systematic lists of things they wish to do or undo or achieve in the coming year -- New Year. And of course, we do hear a lot of people stating rather brazenly that they hate all that stuff of NYR! Through this maze, let us extract a right approach to New Year and the Resolutions thereby. Let us create a new sense out of what we wish to achieve in the ..

  FOR three decades and more, the Indian Air Force (IAF) depended heavily on MiG 27 swing-wing fighter aircraft. All these years, the aircraft proved to be a multiple-use machine that India’s Air Warriors used with confidence and aplomb. Time has come to say goodbye to the celebrated, incredibly credible aircraft. This is certainly an emotional moment for the IAF. In fact, the MiG 27 was one aircraft that was also a tribute to the Air Force whose technicians and pilots kept it is ..

THAT humans should be so negligent about prudent use and conservation of as precious a natural resource for survival as water, is an irony. Scientists, experts in the field of ground water conservation, management and governance at global level have raised the spectre of this precious, non-renewable natural resource getting scarcer by the day if it is not taken care of immediately. According to them groundwater forms the source for 99 pc of fresh water on Earth. Apart most parts of the world warning ..

THE appeal by author-activist Ms. Arundhati Roy to people to file wrong data in their National Population Register forms, is good enough a reason for the Government to take strict action against the woman who is considered a spearhead of urban Naxalism. This is not for the first time that she has indulged in something like this. On the past several occasions, she has indulged in acts of instigation of common people against the State, which in ultimate analysis tantamounts to acting against national ..

By Dr. Bharat jhunjhunwalaLet us go back and examine why we introduced GST. It was introduced to facilitate interstate trade. But we have fallen from the frying pan into the fire. We have got rid of problems in interstate trade but landed in the problem of killing the states.THE Government of Punjab has complained that the State is unable to pay salaries to its employees because of the delay in transfer of its share of GST from the Centre. It is having to borrow monies from its Public Sector Undertakings ..

By D. C. PATHAKThe country should have risen earlier to demand accountability of all those who together constituted the criminal justice system, when the sex crimes against women registered a sharp increase over the last few yearsTHE recent cases of hapless women being caught unawares by groups of vagrants, raped and then brutally murdered -- evidently to block detection and identification of the offenders -- have justly evoked an indignant outburst from the nation.   The country should ..

 IT IS unlikely that the UK Prime Minister, Boris Johnson will keep his promise made to the Britons that he would “get Brexit done” coinciding with the X-Mas.The post-election developments nevertheless make it explicit that Boris Johnson is unable to muster courage to go ahead as it would endanger the very existence of Britain. The people of Britain must not have realised the consequences of their voting for leaving EU as this would undoubtedly imperil the future of England, Scotland, ..

 THE Muslim community in Srinagar has shown an exemplary goodwill gesture in allowing demolition of a mosque to pave way for constructing a vital road bridge over the river Jhelum. The gesture by the community has cleared the way for completing the long awaited bridge as the mosque was one of the major bottlenecks besides residential and commercial establishments. A mosque holds high religiously sentimental value and hence Government authorities have to handle such issues with caution without ..

IN ITS 19-year history, Jharkhand has never voted for a single-party Government. And, prevailing trends suggest that the State is unlikely to break the habit this time as well. Elections to the 81-member Assembly, which were held in five phases, were over on December 20. With the ruling BJP failing to keep its allies together, chances for a fractured mandate are high when the votes are scheduled to be counted on December 23. ..

THROUGH a recent judgement in the case – Taj Mahal Hotel v. United India Insurance Company Ltd. & Others, delivered on November 14, 2019, Justice Mohan M. Shantanagoudar and Justice Ajay Rastogi, at the Supreme Court, have held that in a case of theft of a vehicle given for valet parking, the hotel cannot claim exemption from liability by arguing it was due to acts of third parties beyond their control, or that they are protected by an ‘owner’s risk’ clause, prior to fulfilling its burden as required ..

I WAS working that time in the Reserve Bank of India, Kolkata. One day after office hours, as I was coming out of the bank building, I found a man selling an ayurvedic mixture outside. He was talking ceaselessly to put across his point to the small crowd gathered around. He must be selling the product by the power of his vocal cords, thought I. However, the mode of delivery of the vendor was so catchy, I could not stop myself from halting there. ..

PRIME Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s appeal to corporates to take bold investment decisions so as to push up the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth, makes a lot of sense. By this appeal, Mr. Modi has sought to extricate the country’s economy from a vicious cycle of low investment leading to lower GDP rating to still lower investment to ...! It is obvious that he is trying to encourage India Inc to make investment courageously so that the economy has some sensible infusion of funds, which in turn would ..

IN THE backdrop of Government’s claim that ever since 2014 India has climbed up several notches in the world in ease of doing business. According to a World Bank study on global ease of doing business, from 142nd position among 192 countries of the world in 2014 India now ranks 63rd and with more steps towards reforms in the pipeline the country is bound to break into top 50 nations. Top industry leaders who met Finance Minister Mrs. Nirmala Sitharaman for a pre-budget interaction recently, while ..