India Behind The Lens (News Centre)

I was a born and brought-up as a catholic and knew absolutely nothing about India, Hinduism and Hindus. When I was a young Frenchman of 19, I had the privilege to hear about the Mother and Sri Aurobindo, through a friend, whose father was the last Governor of Pondichery. My friend told me that a caravan of 5 cars was about to drive from Paris to Pondichery. On a hunch, I joined this caravan.<..

The harsh truth of the American economy has forced Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz to admit that conventional wisdom about ‘trickle-down economics’ is a fraud, and that a country without a viable middle-class is teetering at the edge of a precipice. This means that every nation must tax the rich in proportion to the wealth they cream off the economic pie, empower the middle class t..

It has taken the civil society years of struggle to ensure that the plant genetic resources (PGR), which is essentially the preserve of farmers, are not passed on freely into the hands of multinational corporations/seed companies. After the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was signed in 1992, and plant varieties were for the first time accepted to be a national sovereign resource, the..

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt terms the Eurozone economic crisis 'serious' and has been quoted as saying: "In reality, we're talking about one of the greatest financial rescue operations the world has seen." He was responding to a question by Swedish Radio after it was known that Spain may be the 4th member of the 17-nation Eurozone to seek outside help. It is..

Some weeks ago, as the political ball began rolling to select a candidate for the post of President (and also Vice President a while later), the Catholic Church through The Catholic Secular Forum launched a campaign to demand that the post of President or Vice President be given to a Christian. Never has a Muslim party or organisation or individual ever demanded a position for a Muslim so bra..

The flight from Delhi to Chennai was about to take off. After a central minister, on the other side of the aisle, and I had just wished each other, he suddenly pointed to the passenger in the window seat next to mine and asked whether I knew him. He introduced him to me, went into reading his book. The gentleman was a Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer, known for high integrity. As we began discuss..

Bismarck’s pithy admonition, “Woe to the statesman whose arguments for entering a war are not as convincing at its end as they were at the beginning,” comes to mind as America retreats from the forgot-why-we-fought Afghan war, and seeks excuses for fresh conflict with Syria and Iran. But, as the growing economic crisis squeezes ordinary citizens, members of the US Congress h..

At a time when the total food stocks are likely to swell to a record 75 million tonnes by June 1, out of which nearly 25 million tonnes of the stocks will be piled up in the open for lack of storage space, the demand for allowing exports is already growing. Ministry of Commerce has already started an exercise to know how much quantity of wheat can be allowed for exports.
 
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Indian Muslims are today at a crossroad. The destruction of the Buddhist statues in Afghanistan has shown to the world in general – and to the Muslims of India in particular– that Islam still considers Buddhist and Hindu statues, temples and worshipers as Infidels, to be razed and eliminated. For the Taliban and those who support them, covertly or overtly, nothing has changed sinc..

Mr M V Tanksale - With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility ... In the last few days, the column A Clear Emergency - Every 30 Minutes ...related to the deaths of Indian farmers has generated some attention from the social media. &l..

The Congress President Sonia Gandhi has been authorized by her party to name the candidates for the offices of President and Vice President. The President is the highest constitutional office. The story of this constitutional office – how this high office fell from its high pedestal, touched a low, then recovered and then again fell into indignity – needs to be recalled in the con..

By suddenly inviting debate on the interlocutors report on Jammu and Kashmir, especially its startling suggestion to restore the State’s pre-1953 status, the Congress Party has virtually disowned the actions of its longest serving Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, thus diminishing the legitimacy and stature of the political dynasty descended from him. Some experts have added fuel to the..