Intelligent India

Shashi Tharoor’s eloquently reasoned indictment of British colonialism at the Oxford debate has won many applauds. His call for Britain to make reparations for having plundered India for 200 years, was welcomed among mix responses.
Tharoor pointed out that when the British landed in India, our share of the economy was above 24%. Then the Empire crushed our self-confidence, the criminality of which is as grave as the figures that Tharoor shared at the debate and comforted an upcoming elite India that is seeking a voice in the global arena — the fact that India slipped from 24 to 4 per cent in its share of world economy during the 200 years of colonial rule. However, the cultures, thoughts and ways of seeing of our societies were deemed inferior, thanks to this colonial project — democracy, civil society, justice and most importantly progress and development. We perpetually fell short of the high standards set by the colonizer. 
Tharoor then also goes on to tell, "It’s a bit rich to …

Yakub Memon, the only person to be sentenced to death for the 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts, will be hanged as scheduled on Thursday after he exhausted all his legal remedies and President Pranab Mukherjee too rejected his mercy plea on Wednesday. The President made the final call after consulting home minister Rajnath Singh who said there was "no rethink" on the death sentence. Singh's two- hour meeting came after government at the top level considered the mercy petition referred to it by the President who acts on the aide and advice of the Council of Ministers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Singh and top officials, including home secretary LC Goyal at the Prime Minister's residence and discussed the issue and felt that the President should be advised to reject the mercy petition.

Goa police on Tuesday claimed to have cracked the Louis Berger bribery case and established the money trail as it quizzed former PWD Minister Churchill Alemao whose name has cropped up in the scandal.

Crime Branch, probing the case, said they have managed to track the route through which the bribe money was brought to India.


Police also issued summons to former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, during whose tenure the scandal involving Louis Berger, a US consultancy firm, took place.

“We have been able to find out exactly how the money was brought to India and how much was brought,” a senior Crime Branch official said declining to divulge more detail.

Crime Branch has already arrested A Wachasunder, a senior official who headed the controversial JICA (Japan International Cooperation Agency) water project in Goa that is at the centre of the pay off case.

Earlier in the day, police quizzed Alemao in connection with the case. Tenders for the project were issued when PWD was under Alemao.

Kamat, w…

- KRITI RAI 
“A dream is not that which you see while sleeping, it is something that doesn't let you sleep.” APJ Abdul Kalam teacher, eminent scientist, prolific poet, a patriot Indian and above all a humble human being. India’s only apolitical president with nape-length grey bob, twinkling eyes and a smiling face that ruled hearts worldwide. For a person who sold newspapers on station to aeronautical engineer to project director of India’s first satellite launch vehicle to be the President of largest democracy of world, receiving Bharat Ratna the highest civilian honour the journey indeed has been rewarding and full of interesting twists and turns. The spark in him has ignited so many minds. Even at the age of 83 he used to wake up early in morning and work tirelessly. He died while delivering a lecture to students something which he enjoyed and loved the most- teaching. There has not been any president so far who even after completing his tenure was so popular. Indeed he has left a…

Gurdaspur: For nearly 11 hours, it required every available pair of hands to counter the group of terrorists who had forced their way into a police station, turning it into their shelter.

Among those who died in Gurdaspur today was senior police officer Baljeet Singh, who headed the detective branch of the local force.

As the gunshots rang out with chilling frequency, it was clear the terrorists were armed to the teeth. At about 5.30 pm, Punjab police officers at the Dinanagar station chanted victory slogans as the operation was declared over and a success - the terrorists had been killed.Till then, what had been reported was that the terrorists had fired at a bus packed with passengers, car-jacked a Maruti 800 turning it into their ride to the police station, and that seven people had been killed by then.

With the operation over, the details of what the police had confronted could be revealed.

The attackers had AK-47s; the policemen fought back with dated SLRs - Self-Loading Rifles.…

The Supreme Court on Monday sought the response of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and three others to appeals filed against their acquittal by the Karnataka High Court in a corruption case.

A bench of justices P.C. Ghose and R.K. Agrawal also issued notices to Jayalalithaa's close aide Sasikala and two of her relatives, V.N. Sudhakaran and Elavarasi, and asked them to file their replies within eight weeks.

On May 11, the Karnataka High Court had ruled that the special court’s conviction of the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader was not sustainable in law, clearing the decks for her return as the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.



The Karnataka government, while appealing against the high court order, had said its prosecuting agency had not been made a party before the High court.

In 2003, the Supreme Court had shifted the case from Tamil Nadu, Jaya’s home base, to Karnataka, to ensure that the trial could proceed fairly. Since then, Karnataka has been conducting the …

Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) secretary, Anurag Thakur, has said a series between Pakistan and India was unlikely until relations between the two countries normalised.

Thakur's statement came after Indian forces fought an extended gunbattle Monday with heavily-armed men who attacked a moving bus and stormed into a police station in a northern town bordering Pakistan, with 10 people killed in the violence, officials said.

The attackers killed four policemen and three civilians in the pre-dawn attack in Punjab's Gurdaspur district, said Harcharan Singh Bains, a state government spokesman.

The state's director-general of police, Sumedh Singh Saini, said it was difficult to say where the attackers came from or whether militancy was returning to Punjab.

But Thakur, who is also a Member of Parliament from India's ruling BJP, said the incident made a cricket series between India and Pakistan, proposed to take place at the end of this year, impossible at the momen…

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) today moved the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) special court in Mumbai seeking to obtain a non-bailable warrant against former IPL chief Lalit Modi in connection with a money laundering case. The ED had served a notice to Modi on July 3, directing him to turn up in court within two weeks in a case which is under PMLA. Official sources said the central agency has approached the Special Court seeking issuance of an NBW as Modi or his lawyer have not responded to the summons sent earlier this month. The court has adjourned hearing till August 3.

Earlier on Saturday, Lalit Modi claimed that he had not got any notice from the ED in the money laundering case. He also took a dig at the agency and asked them to serve summon through international process. ED had first issued summons to Modi through his India-based lawyer. However, his counsel returned the document to the agency, saying he was not authorized to receive it. Later the officials e-mailed …

Home Minister Rajnath Singh today reviewed the situation post Gurdaspur terror incident at a high-level meeting in New Delhi. Sources said, during the meeting, Mr Singh discussed strategy and steps required to be taken to prevent such incidents. He also appreciated Punjab Police for the successful operation.

Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, heads of intelligence agencies and senior Home Ministry officials attended the meeting. Talking to media persons after the meeting, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval termed the incident as a very serious terror attack.
According to Home Ministry, four policemen were martyred and three civilians were killed in the incident. All the three terrorists were gunned down.

The new model is the new flagship from Chinese manufacturer OnePlus, who launched its predecessor the OnePlus One last year.

The 5.5-inch OnePlus One was sold at £229 for 16GB of storage and £269 for 64GB respectively, and ran open source CyanogenMod software based on Google's Android. It featured a Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with 2.5GHz quad-core CPUs and 1080 HD display, 5MP front-facing and 13MP rear-facing cameras.

Potential buyers were required to obtain an invitation through OnePlus' website before they were able to buy it, with the first 100 handsets offered as part of a "Smash" promotion where people were invited to destroy their existing phone for a chance to buy a One for just $1. Even now, the site is the only point of purchase for the handset.

The OnePlus 2 was announced in January this year, and will also require an invitation to purchase.

What are its specs like?

In an act of uncharacteristic transparency for the smartphone market, OnePlus has confirm…

Images showing the design features of the upcoming Mi 5 flagship have recently been spotted on the web. If the leaked images are authentic, then the upcoming device from Xiaomi will be bezel-free and have an edge-to-edge display measuring five inches, a pair of speakers found at the bottom and a trio of capacitive buttons below the display. A number of rumors have already been said about the upcoming flagship. Some claim that the device is launching in August, while there are those who believe that it won't hit stores until November. The same thing is true with the Mi 5 Plus, although it is likely that this version might launch right after the upcoming Mi 5. 
The leaked images were reportedly seen on the Chinese website Mobile-Dad. From the looks of it, the new Mi version seems sleeker and free of any bezel on the sides. It also gives the impression of having black bars on the sides, which suggests that the device may have an edge-to-edge display. 
The soon-to-be-announced handset i…

Popularly called the "Missile Man" of India, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam rose from humble beginnings and earned the reputation of being the "people's President" who endeared himself to all all sections, especially the young.

A devout Muslim and son of a boatowner, Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, who assumed office as the 11th President on July 18, 2002, was seen as a figurehead who could help heal some of the scars of the communal riots which broke out in Gujarat just a few months before.

The country's first bachelor President, Kalam, whose flowing grey hair is seen as being at odds with what Indians thought a president ought to look like, was one amongst the most respected people of the country who contributed immensely both as a scientist and as a president.

Acknowledged as the driving force behind India's quest for cutting-edge defence technologies, Kalam's contributions to India's satellite programmes, guided and ballistic missiles project, nucl…

The appointment of independent directors to PSUs has come to a virtual standstill after the NDA government came to power in May 2014 — since then, 106 independent directors have resigned or completed their terms in 32 companies but their posts remain vacant.
According to information accessed from Prime Database, only BHEL appointed a new independent director during this period when it brought in Anami Narayan Roy, former Mumbai Police chief and ex-DGP of Maharashtra, last August.
The 32 PSUs, including blue chip names such as ONGC, Coal India, IOC, NTPC and SAIL, have admitted in their compliance reports submitted to the National Stock Exchange that they have failed to comply with norms specified in the equity listing agreement for independent directors on their boards.

For instance, Coal India Limited, which does not have a single independent director on its board, said in its submission that “CIL has intimated the same to Ministry of Coal and they are in the process of making appoi…

On the 16th anniversary of India's victory in the Kargil war, Bollywood superstars, Amitabh Bachchan, Hrithik Roshan, Preity Zinta and Anushka Sharma paid a tribute to the soldiers who had sacrificed their lives to defend the country. Here's what they had to say...Amitabh Bachchan ‏@SrBachchan: T 1940 - "In remembrance of those that sacrifice their lives so we can live in peace and security ..!! JAI HIND" Hrithik Roshan ‏@iHrithik: "In honor of the heroes who sacrificed their lives in the Kargil War. Proud to be your fellow countrymen. Jai hind!" #KargilVijayDiwasRaveena Tandon ‏@TandonRaveena: "Met captains,soldiers who wr not happy,they had only lost a leg an arm in battle..They were ready 2 give up their heads for their motherland."Raveena Tandon ‏@TandonRaveena: "And think of how comfortable our lives are made here by those brothers at the borders, ready to take a bullet in their chest for you and me." Preity zinta ‏@realpreityzinta:…

Sujoy Ghosh is back with a thriller - less than 14 mins ! After Kahaani, the much acclaimed director released his short film AHALYA via youtube.
As per Hindu mythology,where we do have many versions for this story, the most famous is the one from Ramayana - Ahalya was the beautiful young wife of a much older Sage Gautama Maharishi. She was seduced by Indra - King of gods who comes disguised as her husband. Version of stories are that Ahalya see's through Indra's disguise but accepts his advances never the less. Sage Gautama finds out her infidelity and curses her to become a stone. She then regains her true form only once she touched by Lord Rama's feet. If you ever thought that our epics aren't sexist, this couldn't prove you more wrong.
This is a story of a woman who is wronged by the man who marries her and used by another man who claims to be in love with her. Here both the victim and the pawn is the woman. It is also a story which raps the knuckles to any woman …

Soon after the appointment of Swati Maliwal was rejected by the Delhi’s LG as the NCW Chief, the wife of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader has trained guns on the DCW office.

“Kyu DCW office ne hamari name plates hatayi? Files le li aur office na aane ko kaha? (Why did DCW office remove my name plates, took away my files and asked me not to come to office?), Maliwal on Thursday tweeted.




The post came after the LG’s office refused to accept that they made any call to the DCW office asking to keep Swati Maliwal away from the office.

“Why did DCW office lie to me that there was a call from LG's office?”, Maliwal questioned.

The young RTI activist further stated that she has been trying to seek time to meet LG for the past three days. “Even today, I am seeking time from him to know the truth behind all this. I hope he gives me time,” she said.

Maliwal, late on the Wednesday evening claimed of receiving a call from the LG office asking her to stay away from the DCW office on Thursday.

In on…

Neeraj Ghaywan’s deftly crafted Masaan is a multi-layered portrait of a hidebound society in rapid flux.

Dripping pain and poetry in equal measure, the film presents intertwined stories of repression, rebellion and repentance set against the funeral pyres of a Varanasi cremation ghat. 

Its multiple strands add up to a cinematic tapestry that is both moving and stimulating.

Its depiction of disruptive social change – represented by the growing impingement by Facebook and YouTube – and how it plays out in the lives of four small-town individuals is subtle, naturalistic and sure-handed.

“Small town, small minds,” the film’s female protagonist, Devi Pathak (Richa Chadda), mutters to herself in one scene. 

She is wracked by a sense of guilt and loss after a furtive sexual adventure in a seedy hotel goes awry and ends in tragedy. 

It lands Devi’s father, Vidyadhar Pathak (Sanjay Mishra), into the clutches of a blackmailing cop. 

The minds of the men and women in Masaan, caught as they all are in a…

NEW DELHI: Google has done it again! Not a very long back, Google search had listed Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the ‘Top 10 criminals of the world’ list. The gigantic search engine, striking another controversy has now listed PM Modi in the ‘Most stupid Prime Minister’ in the world.
The embarrassing list also includes Prime Minister , Thailand’s Former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, and British Prime Minister David Cameron among others. However, we cannot totally blame Google for it as the search algorithm is based entirely on SEO related to the search inquiry. 
The Google had however issued an apology last time when it listed the Indian PM amongst top criminals list and fixed the situation.  It would be no surprise to see Google fixing up this blunder too at the earliest but it is certainly gaining a lot of attention of the people as they search for the awkward note on Google

The Karnataka KSEEB PUC II Supplementary results 2015 have been declared. The candidates can access their on the official website karresults.nic.in and kea.kar.nic.in.

In order to check the results, the candidates must enter their registration number along with entering the characters in a text box.

The supplementary examination for Karnataka Second Pre University Certificate Examination (PUC II) commenced on June 25 and was scheduled to be concluded by July 4. Approximately 2.4 lakh students registered for the compartment exams.

The results for PUC II examination were declared on May 18. The overall pass percentage in state has fallen from last year's results. Karnataka recorded a pass percentage of 60.54 percent, this statistic stood at 81.19 percent in 2014. This year, the board published the results along with the student's photograph, which was first of a kind.The districts with the top pass percentage were Dakshina Kannada with 93.09 percent, Udupi with 92.32 percent and Ut…

A new image from the New Horizons spacecraft’s Pluto flyby has revealed a second mountain range within a heart-shaped region on the dwarf planet’s surface.

The range lies near the southwestern margin of the heart-shaped area dubbed “Tombaugh Regio” (Tombaugh Region) by scientists. Last week NASA released its first closeup image of an area near Pluto’s equator, which contains a range of mountains rising as high as 11,000 feet.




The latest Pluto image, which was released on Tuesday, shows another range, estimated to be about one-half mile to one mile high, about the same height as the Appalachian Mountains.

“Pluto’s icy mountains have company,” explained NASA, in a statement. “NASA’s New Horizons mission has discovered a new, apparently less lofty mountain range on the lower-left edge of Pluto’s best known feature, the bright, heart-shaped region named Tombaugh Regio.”




The new range is just west of the region within Pluto’s heart called Sputnik Planum (Sputnik Plain), NASA said.


Pluto’s moon …

Curfew was clamped on Tuesday in Jamshedpur after group clashes over an alleged incident of eve teasing at Mango area last night even as Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das appealed for peace. As tension prevailed, the authorities imposed curfew with immediate effect which will remain in force till further orders in the steel city and peripheral areas, East Singhbhum district Deputy Commissioner Amitabh Kaushal and Senior Superintendent of Police Anup T Mathew told a press conference here. The officials said all schools will remain closed on Wednesday. Altogether six FIRs were lodged during the last 24 hours after the clash broke out between two groups at Mango police station area over the incident.



As many as 150 people were named accused in the FIRs and 103 people were arrested in connection with the clash, they said. In a related development, Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das tonight ordered an inquiry into the clash. Das, who appealed for peace, also directed setting up a t…