Budget tip

Obama defends surveillance of American communications

Washington: As the US whistleblower accused President Barack Obama of worsening “abusive” practices, Obama defended extensive surveillance of US communications, saying it had disrupted multiple terrorist plots and had adequate checks and balances. Reacting to Edward Snowden’s charges that expanded surveillance programmes instead of curtailing them as he promised as a candidate, he asserted that [...]

‘Suraj Pancholi coping well with jail’

Mumbai: Locked away with hardened criminals, Suraj Pancholi seems to be coping well with his condition, according to his sister who met him at the Arthur Road Jail here. Suraj’s sister Sana visited Suraj in prison Saturday. To the family’s relief the boy seemed to be in a good mental and physical health. “Sana went [...]

Indian squad unchanged for upcoming tri-series

Mumbai: The Indian selection committee has retained the same squad of the Champions Trophy for the upcoming tri-series tournament scheduled to be played in West Indies from June 28. This was announced by the BCCI on Monday. Keeping in mind India’s current unbeaten run at the Champions Trophy, the selection committee decided to retain the [...]

Some hard lessons for the BJP

As a conscious citizen watching the unfolding of the soap from Bihar, I am constrained to do some hard talk because all these worthies are playing with my life and my children’s. You may well ask how. Because what is happening is not an internal matter of a party or a Front but dividing the nation on communal lines more acutely than they did in the past. And communal venom has no anti-venom. It is deadly.

Corporal punishment in AP schools

The Public Interest Litigation filed in the Andhra Pradesh (AP) High Court on Saturday challenging the inaction of the State government in preventing ‘corporal punishment’ to children in schools calls for attention. Mohammed Shahbaz Ahmed Khan, a City resident, moved the PIL contending that as per the United Nations’ convention, the State was required to [...]

Instigated or inspired suicide?

The reel-like sequences following the real-life suicide of actress Jiah Khan has invoked a debate on abetment of suicide. What is abetment? Is there a clear definition? Does a letter left behind by the victim like in the case of Geetika Sharma against former Haryana minister Gopal Goyal Kanda amount to abetment or will it [...]

Why we love… Md Azharuddin

It needs great tenacity of character for the captain of an Indian cricket team to be slapped a lifetime ban for alleged match fixing and come back to public life, which he did when he contested and won a seat to the Parliament. The ban was lifted by the Andhra Pradesh High Court recently, and [...]

Aboriginal technology

Social networking is the order of the day. The world is a global village. As Marshall McLuhan believed the Internet has made us participants of this worldwide village. It’s surprising how forest communities and young Adivasis have started navigating in the social media to highlight problems such as displacement faced by tribal communities all over India. [...]