Special Report

The inscrutables

On May 19, at the 7 Race Course Road private dinner hosted by Manmohan Singh for visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, the dignitary told his host how much he had enjoyed Amir Khan’s ‘Three Idiots’ which had been very well received in his country.

Special Story

Divided we fall

With Delhi assembly poll bound in November this year, the state BJP's tall claims about pulling down the 15-year-old Congress regime may be just that - claims.

Typos

The Miracle that Matters

Imagine.. A ledge, high, very high, more than three miles high above the waters of the nearest sea... High above the clouds, where shards of ice fly like witches on brooms in winds that howl like banshees and where snowy glaciers still carve out morraines like they have since time began

Business

Digitisation drives players to step up their DTH play

Of the six major DTH players in the fray, Dishtv commands a comfortable lead over the others. But with Tata Sky shedding its premium tag and Airtel and Videocon offering more interactive services, the contest is getting keener. By Sanjay Kumar

Arts

Diary De Cannes

The 66th Cannes Film Festival is officially celebrating 100 years of Indian cinema. Amitabh Bachchan walked the red carpet on a rain-soaked opening day for the screening of Baz Luhrmann’s 3D adaptation of F.

Undercover

Disappearing diplomats

"There are some 25 diplomatic positions in Missions/Posts abroad currently vacant,” was the response given by Preneet Kaur, the Minister of State in the Ministry of External Affairs to the ‘Unstarred Question No. 2024’ asked in Lok Sabha on December 05, 2012.

Deaths in farms, again!

Agriculture is the bed rock of Indian. But the sector has been besieged with a number of problems that has become an ignominy and blight to our country’s progress chart. One such acute agrarian crisis is of farmer’s committing suicide.

The textual mistake!

"India's formal education system is failing and government school system is failing - government is not delivering the goods.” This concern was voiced by India’s Chief Economic Advisor, Raghuram Rajan after witnessing the apathy toward the education system of our country.

Life

Of gardens and grandeur

It is surprising, and rather sad, that how the perception built in the media actually helps or hampers the chance of a city or a country to emerge on the international tourism map. The country that has suffered the most from this propaganda war is undoubtedly Iran.

Rear Window

What after Taliban?

India is one of the first countries to sign a strategic partnership agreement with Afghanistan. Its attention on Afghanistan is based in strategic reasoning – in the main with national security issues.

Far Pavilion

Payback Time?

With global diplomacy playing its part and an army showing signs of resilience, the Assad regime in Syria seems to be regaining its composure once again, says Saurabh Kumar Shahi

History Mail

Sidney Herbert to Florence Nightingale

Crimean War was fought between Russia on the one hand and the Ottoman Empire, Great Britain, France, and Sardinia on the other. The causes of the conflict were inherent in the unsolved Eastern Question and dispute between Russia and France over the Palestinian holy land.

Book Review

Book Review: Big Data

From the Stone to Digital age, human civilization has processed information and data. This is starting to change, observes Viktor Mayer-Schonberger, Professor of Internet Governance and Regulation at the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University and Kenneth Cukier, Data Editor of the Economist and a prominent commentator, in their latest book, Big Data.

Book Review: On Hinduism

Let us assume you don’t know anything about Hinduism, and all you have is the present radicalized climate of India to go by.

Movie Review

Movie Review: The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald's magnum opus, The Great Gatsby, has historically proven to be a tough beast to tame for the big screen. There have been four attempts previously and none of them were good.

Movie Review: The Reluctant Fundamentalist

Based on a novel of the same name by Mohsin Hamid, The Reluctant Fundamentalist is everything and perhaps more than what you would expect from a Mira Nair film.