Special Report

From the barrel of a gun

The Maoists are waging a ‘do or die’ battle in the badlands of Chhattisgarh. Contrary to popular perception, their lot is getting desperate. Their children instead of taking up arms in the countryside for the cause of revolution are opting for what youngsters do these days – choose the laptop route to greater glories in life.

Special Story

Living and the dead

In death, Khalid Mujahid has a voice louder than the living. A voice, spoken in many tongues, that is threatening to shout down the Samajwadi Party government which finds itself in a bind over his custodial death.

Typos

Jungle Nights: Episode 1

Sshhsshhhhh!” Silence, as thick as the heat of the night settled in as we followed in single file. Runner soled shoes walked along silently ahead of and behind me. But I walked with my eyes peeled to the ground for my feet clad in sandals were vulnerable to the attentions of the.

Business

As sales bounce back, AC playersvie to beat the sweat

In order to grab a slice of this growing market and tap new customer segments, players are rolling out products that are energy efficient, have better technology and deliver an acceptable price-performance ratio for the target customers. By Sanjay Kumar

Arts

Does watching phoren serials instead of desi ones make you feel superior

"Angrez gaye lekin lakhon chamche chodh gaye!” lamented a colleague’s wife recently. When pressed to elaborate on this broadside, she responded with disturbing enthusiasm.

Undercover

What an expensive way to die

Successive governments in India have acted too magnanimously in allocating public land worth crores of rupees for building memorials for political leaders.

A double-edged sword for the US

US President Barack Obama has defended America’s controversial drone attacks as legal, effective and a necessary linchpin in an evolving U.S. counterterrorism policy. At the same time he has also acknowledged that the targeted strikes are no "cure-all” and has admitted to a deeply felt anguish over the deaths of civilians killed unintentionally.

Is oil bad business?

In last few decades, the OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) has had minimal manufacturing and industrial share in their GDP. Oil and gas have been contributing around 60 per cent of GDP of Gulf countries that command considerable influence on global oil markets.

Life

Cannes awards signal tectonic shift

A rising crop of fringe auteurs took centre-stage when the Steven Spielberg-led jury revealed the names of the year's award winners on Sunday: a lesbian romance directed by an Arab, a trip into a Mexican hellhole, and a scalding critique of capitalist-communist China by a state-supported film Saibal Chatterjee

Rear Window

Public diplomacy vital

In a globally competitive world characterised by the dominant neo-realist perspective, nation-states, in their interactions with one another, have always sought to maximise their interest by increasing their power and influence.

Column

Is Gavaskar Fixated or Fixed? And Can He Fix It?

Inundated by angry media reports about the "conspiracy of silence” revolving the sordid IPL scam, I was already losing faith in the divine powers of Gavaskar.

Far Pavilion

The other side of the Dragon

Most contemporary research on China and India is focused on the 1962 conflict and its aftermath, or on the strategic and foreign policy issues in Sino-Indian relations. Few are aware of the substantial late 19th and early 20th century interactions between the two nations.

History Mail

Gandhi to Jamnalal Bajaj

Jamnalal Bajaj was an industrialist, a philanthropist, as well as a freedom fighter. He was also a close associate and follower of Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhiji used to call Jamnalal his 'fifth son.'

Book Review

Book Review: Americanah

Somewhere in the middle of Chimamanda Adichie’s novel ‘Americanah’, the protagonist, Ifemelu, finds herself in a salon getting her hair done.

Book Review: War Against The Taliban

It is not always easy to review a book written by someone you partly idolize. The pressure is immense, and it is singularly difficult to figure out when your biases creep in.

Movie Review

Movie Review: Fast & Furious 6

Fast and Furious returns with another leave-your-brains-at-the-door thrill ride which is as good or as bad as it was last time depending on your judgement.

Movie Review: Ishkq In Paris

Ishkq in Paris was a comeback film for Preity Zinta, and she couldn’t have chosen a worse film than this. Girl and guy meet on a train, decide to spend the whole night doing fun stuff in Paris, the city of love, and then part the next day knowing that they would never meet again.