The first thing striking about Vinod Duggal, the pointsman for Uttarakhand relief, is that he doesn’t look his soon-to-be-69 years. In fact, Duggal manages to look nearly the same as he did 20 years back when we were introduced in th
Should the central bureau of investigation (CBI) have more officers from outside (deputation from IPS and other all India services) or should it strengthen its own cadre for its efficient functioning? The debate has been as old as the esta
The railways scam just got murkier. The central bureau of investigation (CBI), which is probing the scam, claims to have uncovered another racket at the top, allegedly involving prime accused and former railways minister Pawan Kumar Bansal`s nephe
Even after a dismal record of performance this session, 294 MLAs and 90 MLCs in Andhra Pradesh Assembly and council will get gift vouchers from the assembly today late evening after the conclusion of the monsoon session. The session did not witnes
Amid reports of a slowing economy, depreciating rupee and weakening investor sentiment that has left everyone worrying about the direction in which the Indian economy is headed comes a report by a global consultancy, giving an interesting twist to
It took 14 years, but this morning I am debt-free. I ran seven newspapers in the GCC at different times over the last 29 years and people were kind to the chair. Among them were bankers. Sweet talking, slippery, clever guys who sent me
If this is a change of heart for the World Bank, it could not have come at a better – or worse, depending on the angle from which you look at the issue– time. As hundreds are feared dead and/or are missing in Uttarakhand, the instituti
The hill states of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh have once again been hit by the nature’s fury. According to the latest report, more than 150 people have died and between 60,000 and 70,000 are still stranded in various parts of the region
If anyone wants to explain the meaning of ``it fell like a pack of cards’’ to a child, the visuals of the building crashing and falling in the swelling waters of the Ganga in Uttarakhand in the floods at the onset of monsoon woul
June 3, 2013 turned out to be very similar to July 8, 2002. How and why? On June 3, 2013, the central information commission (CIC) announced a decision that “held that AICC/INC, BJP, CPI(M), CPI, NCP and BSP are public authorities un
The Coal secretary from 2006 to 2009, HC Gupta, begins his deposition before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Thursday. TKA Nair, the prime minster’s erstwhile principal secretary and now his advisor, is expected to be probed
“I have never made a fetish of consistency. I am a votary of Truth and I must say what I feel and think at a given moment on the question, without regard to what I may have said before on it.… As my vision gets clearer, my views m
On Monday, June 17, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee finally decided to visit the house of a Barasat college student who was raped and murdered on June 6. From all accounts, the reason behind that visit to Kamduni village in Barasat, som
This is exactly what the Congress, the oldest political party in India, doesn’t need, yet can’t let go of — servile sycophancy. Union minister of state for agriculture and food processing Dr Charandas Mahant was at
Who says bouncers are only stationed at the gates of pubs and discos? The Hyderabad water board has now hired these ‘tough guys’ to keep protestors off its premises. The Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply and Sewerage Board ha
One of the first things Rahul Gandhi did after assuming charge as the Congress vice-president in January this year, we were told, was to put a bar on sycophancy. The Gandhi scion, we were told, had ticked off several senior party leaders for their
The Andhra Pradesh Police, probing the sensational special darshan ticket scam, have pinned the fraud at Rs 34.78 lakhs. After prolonged interrogation, the cops formally arrested three detained in this connection recently and produced them in a co
With the rupee languishing, investments taking a backseat and deficit levels refusing to come down significantly, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday decided to keep the interest rates unchanged. The move, the apex bank hopes, will help brin
Like many newspapers headlined the JD(U)’s split with BJP, and ergo the main opposition NDA, on Monday morning, protagonists in both parties are reacting exactly thus. Like bitter divorcees at the end of a 17-year-old marriage, raking up old
In what could act as a deterrence to arbitrary appointment of IAS/IPS/IRS officers as private secretary (PS) to ministers, the department of personnel and training (DoPT) has issued an order by which officers who have not served their “cooli
