Indian IT consultant stabbed to death in Sydney
A 41-year-old Indian IT professional, Prabha Arun Kumar, was stabbed to death in Sydney in Australia on March 7, just a few metres from her home. Prabha Kumar was talking …
Read MoreAuthor: India Writes Network
Why gender would have more of a role in Clinton’s 2016 Presidential campaign
When Hillary Rodham Clinton ran for the President last time, her campaign struggled to address the matter of her gender in a balanced manner. She seemed conflicted between acknowledging her …
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Arun Singh is India’s envoy to US
Amid a new bounce in India-US relations following the visit of US President Barack Obama to New Delhi in January, India has named Arun Kumar Singh, a 1979 batch Indian …
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Swaraj in Sri Lanka: Transforming ties and China factor
The ongoing two-day visit of India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is the third bilateral high-level exchange in two months, and underlines a new vitality in multifarious relations between the two neighbours.
India’s foreign minister’s visit is aimed at setting the stage for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to the island nation next week. The visit is the first by any Indian prime minister since Rajiv Gandhi’s trip in 1987. Mr Modi will be on a multi- city tour in Sri Lanka, visiting the Jaffna province as well as addressing the Sri Lankan parliament.
In the days to come, Sri Lanka shall have to do some tightrope walking to keep the investment flowing in from China, while tilting towards India. Amid the shifting geopolitics of the region, one can safely say that the new government in Colombo has begun course correction by underlining the centrality of New Delhi to Colombo’s national interests even as it pursues its economic ties with Beijing, albeit in a possibly attenuated manner.
Gloria Steinem: Writing the only thing
“Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.” — Gloria Steinem
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Truman Capote: Inner music of words
“To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the inner music that words make.” – Truman Capote
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Fifty Shades of Grey: Future is grey in India
In a country known for its much-celebrated sex manual Kama Sutra and more than one hundred colours of love, it’s hard to figure out bizarre reasoning behind the blanketing out …
Read MoreChina flags off new normal 7 per cent growth rate
China, the most powerful emerging economy known for its expectations of double-digit growth rates, has lowered its 2015 economic growth expectations to about 7%. Speaking at the opening of China’s …
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Defying ban by India, BBC airs Nirbhaya documentary
Defying the pressure from Indian government to censor the controversial documentary on the December 16 gang rape, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) aired ‘India’s Daughter’ on March 4 for a global audience, saying that the documentary had handled the issue “responsibly”. However, in a concession, the BBC said it would not telecast the documentary in India.
The documentary is based on the traumas of a young physiotherapist, Nirbhaya (a pseudonym given to the victim), who was savagely gang-raped, tortured and killed by six men on a moving bus in the capital Delhi on December 16, 2012. It has ignited a blazing controversy in India for its inclusion of the interview of Mukesh Singh, one of the rapists.
It’s a chilling interview to watch: there is not a trace of remorse as he speaks about teaching a lesson to girls who wear wrong clothes and go to discos. “A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy,” he says. “Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20% of girls are good.”
China’s defence budget set to rise by 10%
In a move that will be closely watched in the region, China has announced its intention to increase its annual defence spending by 10 per cent. National People’s Congress spokeswoman …
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