The tiny northeast Indian state of Tripura has turned into the second largest producer of natural rubber in the country largely because several hundred former militants of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) were rehabilitated a decade ago and allotted land.
Mark Twain once said that a gold miner is a liar standing next to a hole dug up in the ground. The time has come for financial market participants to stop looking at the world through the prism of a goldbug. Gold finished in the green for 12 consecutive years providing investors a gain of more than 600 percent over the same period.
The fledgling democratic process in Pakistan has churned out a leader, who now has the rare opportunity to chart a new positive and peaceful course, not only for his own country but for the whole South Asia region, and leave a legacy that, so far, no other Pakistani leader has. Nawaz Sharif must use the proverbial 'third chance' - he was prime minister twice before but never completed his full term - to break the vicious cycle of revenge in domestic politics and the unnecessary cycle of rivalry with India in its regional politics.
As a law abiding Muslim of India, my head hung deep down in shame as I had read the news of Shafique-ur-Rehman Barq, BSP member parliament, leaving the hall while Vande Mataram, the national song, was being played. On his part, it was the stupidity of highest order
To reconsider the legacy of Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) on his 152nd birth anniversary is to confront a maze of contradictions. What, for instance, inspired a school dropout without a college degree to establish an international university? Why did a member of the land-owning 'zamindar' class feel compelled to write about the lives of oppressed peasants, and to experiment with schemes for rural development
Followers of Islam, the second largest faith in the world with an estimated 1.7 billion believers, can now be surer when an Indian firm stands the pre-requisites for observant Muslims. The Shariah index launched by the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) is a new measure in town, assuring compliance with the Islamic canonical law
Ever since the Manmohan Singh government became embroiled in scams, it has been mainly the Supreme Court that has pushed for accountability. In doing so, it has taken recourse to a new technique for ascertaining the truth - that of virtually appropriating to itself the task of inquiry by directing the official agencies, either the police or the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), to conduct the probes under the judiciary's aegis. It has been an eminently successful method
I was in Lucknow when Sarabjit Singh died in Lahore.
India, a motive force behind the founding of BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - has shown the world the importance of the development of democracy. By focusing on cooperation rather than competition, these five emerging world powers have shown that they are capable of changing the paradigm of international relations and promoting the democracy of development. The advent of the 21st century ushered in significant changes in the global dispensation.
The problem confronting India is that at a very low level of per capita income and consumption compared to even developing countries, the pollution of rivers and air is among the worst in the world. Consequently, people are confronted with severe health-related problems caused by environmental degradation.
