New Delhi: Worried over 82 tiger deaths this year in India, the highest in a decade, the environment ministry is finalising a standard operating procedure (SOP) that for the first time will give forest officials clear guidelines on investigating such deaths. But tiger conservators feel it may be too little and [...]

What is curious about the Gujarat elections is that although the outcome is not in doubt – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to win – there is an element of tension related to its success. The reason is the speculation about Narendra Modi’s future. In this personality-centric battle, [...]

Srinagar: For nearly 37 years, Jammu and Kashmir’s regional National Conference (NC) has been criticizing the central government for not implementing the terms of the 1975 Indira-Abdullah accord. All of a sudden, some elements of the NC leadership now say there was no accord. After 22 years of estrangement from mainstream [...]

New Delhi: He was a classical musician in the purest sense and was also dubbed the ‘godfather of world music’ by Beatles friend George Harrison. Ravi Shankar, who took Indian classical music to the world in the 1950s and effortlessly bound two worlds with the stirring notes of his sitar, leaves [...]

The GMR fiasco has rung danger bells to Indian ears. Maldives government took control of the Male International Airport from the Indian company GMR and shunned away the largest ever FDI, the tourism dominated island nation had ever received in its history with a bold defiance. Does this indicate weakening [...]

Swapna laid in the bed of Government hospital recuperating the burnt marks on her body. She refuses to speak with anybody.  A regular girl who thought marriage and life with a partner was a fairy tale now believes that it is no more than a gory tale. The moment Khishnaiyya [...]

We can’t put a date on when geological epochs begin or end.  But to say that Anthropocene began circa 19th/20th century would be reasonable; for some continents early and for others later. The worry is that unlike other epochs that lasted for millions of years each, Anthropocene is certain to [...]

New Delhi: A 16th century historical work tells of an Afghan army which went out of Ayodhya – which was controlled by local chiefs – on an expedition. Upon its return, two groups of people awaited to welcome it at the gate of the city – Muslim clerics to offer benediction [...]

Picture the scene. A banker, reluctant to give out a large cash loan to a desperate man, asks: “But do you have any valuable assets to offer as collateral?” The applicant points to his upper lip, saying: “Yes. My moustache.” “Don’t be ridiculous,” says the banker. But no. That’s not [...]

The Sensex stocks have outperformed the new issues on the bourse in the past two years but now there seems a revival of the public issue market after having remained mute for many previous quarters. With the improvement in investor sentiment, in wake of economic reforms by the UPA II [...]