The government has placed special significance on India’s foreign policy and diplomatic outreach, making 2014 a year of “breakthrough diplomacy”. But 2015 promises to take foreign policy to a higher level with ‘diplomacy for development’ as the theme of India’s global engagements, according to External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj. In a signed introduction to the e-book titled “Breakthrough Diplomacy: New Vision, New Vigour” that was released on Wednesday, Sushma Swaraj […]

He is India’s most successful Test match captain but Mahendra Singh Dhoni has decided enough is enough. The 33-year-old has retired from Test match cricket, bringing down the curtain on an illustrious career in which he thrilled crowds across the world. Dhoni, who made his debut in 2005, captained India in 60 of his 90 Test matches but decided to quit on Tuesday following the draw with Australia in Melbourne […]

Paris of the East of yore — Karachi, commercial capital of Pakistan –, was primarily a Hindu controlled city prior to the 1947 Partition Holocaust. The city roads were not only swept but was washed each morning by the municipality, my parents, now deceased, used to tell me. Arts and culture flourished in the peaceful city. My late mom fondly remembered a great Hindu dancer Vishnu Jagdesh. She was a […]

The 26/11 Mumbai attacks happened as a result of one of the “most devastating near-misses in the history of spycraft” in which the US, British and Indian spy agencies failed to pull together all the strands gathered by their high-tech surveillance to thwart the assault on India’s financial capital, according to an investigative report said. A detailed report by the New York Times, ProPublica and the PBS series ‘Frontline’ titled […]

Kanpur: In a heroic act, a monkey saved another’s life who lost consciousness after being electrocuted on the rail track at Kanpur station. The monkey tried to resuscitate the unconscious one for several minutes by biting and dipping him in the water on the tracks. The monkey, reportedly, came in contact with a high voltage power cable while scampering around at the station and was shocked and fell unconscious to […]

Sunil Mantri: How did your new music video Emotion happen?   Asxem Dlean:  I was catching up with a childhood friend, Jeremy Surin after 12 years. We spoke for a long time, talking about the paths our lives had taken us on. He was living in Canada, and spent a lot of time surfing. He would surf (http://www.surfwellness.com/) with his friends and make videos of these surf expeditions. Out of […]

Ratan Tata’s name has been synonymous with leadership for many years and will continue to be for years to come. Did you know that when he joined the famous Tata Group in the 1960s he started off as a blue collar employee? Despite the fact that he didn’t have to, he chose to start from the grassroots level to understand the business and learn every aspect of the company. This […]

Leaders of opposition parties on Friday strongly criticised the Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha’s views regarding Mahatma Gandhi’s assassinator Nathuram Godse and the Centre’s silence regarding the same, urging Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take a stand on the matter. The Hindu Mahasabha has requested land from the Centre to erect a statue of Mahatma Gandhi’s assassin in the national capital. The views within the Congress party were conflicting, with some […]

Sunil Mantri: Tell us about yourself AsxemDlean: I am a simple guy – I keep my head down, speak when spoken to. No complicated equations no hang-ups. A lover of the little joys life throws me – football, swimming and most of all music. Music has been at the center of my existence for as long as I can remember. Academics were never my forte and I have always loved […]

Washington: Discarded laptop batteries still have enough life in them to power slums in India and other developing countries, a new study by IBM India has found. The research presented at a conference in San Jose, US, analysed a sample of discarded batteries and found 70 per cent had enough power to keep an LED light on for more than four hours a day for a year. According to researchers […]