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Essential HuffPost
Indefinitely postponing his agitation against cow slaughter, Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) ideologue, KN Govindacharya, said that Muslims are being unfairly blamed for an issue which had become overly politicised.
Rating agency Moody's Investors Service revised its outlook on India's banking system to "stable" from "negative" on Monday. This comes after a separate report by another of its divisions warned PM Modi that he ought to keep his party members “in check or risk losing domestic and global credibility.”
Nazreen Fazal says that as a 'hijab-wearing, beef-eating, five-times-praying, Malayalam/Tamil/Hindi/English-speaking Muslim woman,' she refuses to kowtow to strictures that paint Muslims as outsiders.
Looks like only Varanasi, the Lok Sabha constituency of Narendra Modi, is fit to be the cultural centre of India.
Mathematician and logician, George Boole, may turn in his grave at this epithet, but he was — like Shah Rukh Khan with whom he shares a birthday — a sort of Baadshah. His fiefdom was Bollywood.
Main News
Mumbai underworld don Chhota Rajan may be brought to India today or tomorrow, and will likely be questioned in New Delhi, according to reports. In fact, Rajan will be quizzed by Delhi Police instead of their Mumbai counterparts, reported The Times of India.
Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan is the latest to join a growing line-up of public personalities who have recently spoken out against "growing intolerance" in India. "There is growing intolerance," the actor told India Today. "It is stupid."
The Bharatiya Janata Party suffered a significant blow at the Uttar Pradesh panchayat polls, losing dismally in Varanasi, which is Prime Minister Narendra Modi's constituency.
The killing of an Indian teenager in Nepal during police firing has triggered a bitter fight between the two countries, adding to the recent chain of events that has already soured their relationship.
The Supreme Court of India will today hear suggestions on improving the selection criteria for judges. The apex court had struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act (NJAC) last month, allowing the collegium system of appointment of judges to continue.
Off The Front Page
ICICI Bank CEO Chanda Kochhar has claimed that fewer women study MBA courses because the entrance exams are "so quantitative-oriented" (read: focussed on mathematics), and that more women will join the management sector if the focus in these courses became more "general".
A mosque in Kerala celebrates an 18th century Hindu martyr who was buried there about 290 years ago. Special prayers are offered at his grave, and his descendants are invited too, reported TOI.
An al-Qaeda recruitment video offers the "holiday of a lifetime", promising adventure-seeking youngsters that they can "eat, drink and hunt for free".
Now your Uber driver could be a retired soldier from the Indian Army. The US-based taxi-hailing operator has signed an agreement to enlist ex-servicemen as drivers, and the initiative will be called "UberFAUJI".
Google is working with the Indian government to provide internet connectivity using giant balloons. ‘Project Loon’ will use giant balloons floating 20 kilometres above the earth surface to provide internet transmission.
Opinion
The Narendra Modi government has failed its promise to switch from the social justice model to development justice, writes NV Krishnakumar in The Times of India. "The Modi government must realise that both populism and command and control are anathema to development justice. And it will not be long before voters turn against this shell game."
Peter Ronald deSouza has likened the "Bharatiya Janata Party-Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (BJP-RSS) regime" to the British colonial mode of governance: "Its methodology is the same. First, they attack the class of intellectuals, writers, filmmakers, scientists, as persons who are “anti-national” and “anti-Hindu”... attack the reputation of individuals... (then) drum up nationalist fervour to portray the protest as diminishing the nation in the eyes of the world."
Shailesh Gandhi analysed data from 2009 to 2013 to find that if all positions for judges are filled in India, the judicial system would be able to clear all cases in the country within a reasonable time. "[T]he number of sanctioned judges is adequate and if all the sanctioned judges were appointed mounting pendency would be history."
India's tax policy needs a complete reform, with changes in its legal drafting and organisational structures, according to Ajay Shah. "Legal risk associated with taxation and arbitrary actions of the tax authorities have created a climate of fear," he said in his column for The Indian Express. "Reforms must be more ambitious, and the policy work needs to be adequately resourced."
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