The growth story of India depends on its achievements in the S&T sector. There is a need to revolutionise the landscape of Indian science and technology and this is only possible if the scientific community is allowed to work 'professionally and scientifically' without burdening them with the baggage of the past, says Ajey Lele.

The Sangh Parivar forgets that not only is there no scriptural prohibition, venerable authorities in India held beef as both a desirable and an essential food, says Sunanda K Datta-Ray

'Muslims, like people of all other faiths, are quite comfortable with the idea of nationalism and democracy today. But are they following Islam in its spirit? That is a different question.'

If the classical language is to live in India, its teachers and fans must separate their love for the language from that for the country or their religion, feels Arundhuti Dasgupta

India's first male ballet dancer began learning the dance form at the advanced age of 19. Eleven years later, his passion for ballet continues to shine brightly.

The journey of Abhijit Avasthi, the former national creative director of Ogilvy & Mather, is as amazing as it is unbelievable. Read on!

'Never lose your optimism. Never lose your aspiration and never -- even if India becomes a prosperous consumer society -- never ever lose that shining light in your eyes,' advises Dr Peter McLaughlin, headmaster of the Doon School.

Ayurvedic expert Dr G G Gangadharan on how the ancient Indian medical practice needs to be propagated in the country of its origin

Happy New Year is watchable in parts but its three hours and plus running time makes it woefully difficult.

Modern science, has taken decades and decades to prove what has been clearly documented almost 3500 years ago in our ancient texts like the Ashtanga Hridaya, says V R Ananthoo, a strong advocate of age-old healthy eating practices and one of the coordinators of Safe Food Alliance.

What B K S Iyengar and U R Ananthamurthy embodied was a cultural self-confidence. This is why their sense of being Indian and Hindu was non-competitive, non-combative and even non-comparative with other cultures and religions, says Rajni Bakshi.

President Pranab Mukherjee on Thursday addressed the nation on the eve of the 68th Independence Day.

All those of us who care about books should welcome the appointment, as head of the Indian Council of Historical Research, of Yellapragada Sudarshan Rao. This is not because Rao has so far distinguished himself as a writer about "history and tourism management", which is the department of Kakatiya University in Warangal he headed before retiring to head an Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh-backed project to "write history from a nationalist perspective and popularise Sanskrit", two aims which naturally go together for the RSS.

'I am considering issuing a diktat - anyone who is a male in my party must keep clear of all remarks, written or verbal, on anything to do with women.' Sherna Gandhy's tongue-in-cheek piece on Didi's travails with the foot-in-mouth netas in her party!

In the second and final part of his column, Col Anil Athale says the fight between forces of Indian nationalism and Macaulayism aided and abetted by West is going to be long, hard and dirty. The outcome will decide whether India becomes a superpower or continues to wallow in the swamp of underdevelopment.

Heartbroken? Had a fight? Want to propose? Love Guru is here to help.

'After the 2002 riots when the media and other political parties started blaming Modiji, thousands of people like us -- now, it must be crores of us -- started becoming staunch supporters of Modiji. The more you blamed him the more of our support he gained.' Pramod Singh of Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh is one of Narendra Modi's biggest fans and a member of Modi's India272 Web initiative, spreading the leader's message on social media and the Internet.

As the 16th Indian parliamentary elections get underway, Vikas Lather profiles Sukumar Sen, India's first chief election commissioner.

Anwesha Bhattacharya-Arya writes an open letter to the President on the sorry state of affairs in India.

Bilawal Bhutto's political inheritance is his biggest asset as well as the biggest liability as he tries to make his mark in Pakistan politics. Challenging the Taliban militants is part of that strategy, though it matches with his political ideology. Shahzad Raza profiles the son of Benazir Bhutto and Asif Ali Zardari.

President Pranab Mukherjee talked extensively about the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls and the role of lawmakers during his address to the nation on the eve of Republic Day.

The Legend of Hercules is merely a mash up of 300, Gladiator, Troy and pretty much every other film made about ancient Greece.

Ananthasubramanian, 55, started her career in 1982 at Bank of Baroda as a specialist officer in the planning stream.

Suneel pandey, who lives on the banks of the River Ganga in Kankhal, near Haridwar, says that the disaster unfolding in Uttrakhand is shocking, but hardly surprising.

Suneel pandey, who lives on the banks of the River Ganga in Kankhal, near Haridwar, says that the disaster unfolding in Uttrakhand is shocking, but hardly surprising.

The film has its cinematic moments but is too simplistic story-wise.

Accused of his childhood friend's murder, historian Ravi Mohan Saini must travel to discover one of Krishna's treasures and stop a serial killer who believes himself to be an avatar of the Lord. We bring you excerpts from bestselling author Ashwin Sanghi's latest book, The Krishna Key.

Devesh Kapur, Director, Center for the Advanced Study of India, discusses the impact of interniational migration with Arthur J Pais

"I hate to call it the God particle," says Bihar-born Professor Vivek Sharma, one of the first people to know about the existence of the Higgs Boson, which scientists say is key to understanding the universe in an interview to George Joseph

"I hate to call it the God particle," says Bihar-born Professor Vivek Sharma, one of the first people to know about the existence of the Higgs Boson, which scientists say is key to understanding the universe in an interview to George Joseph

The digital revolution in education is coming at a most opportune time for India. Leadership in this is something India could seize, if only it had the vision, feels Rajeev Srinivasan.

Hindu Americans have said they are appalled by the recent comments made by Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum -- the darling of the conservative evangelicals -- on the eve of last month's South Carolina primary that the concept of equality did not come from Islam or "Eastern religions" but rather from the "God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

Hindu Americans have said that they are appalled by the recent comments made by Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum -- the darling of the conservative evangelicals -- on the eve of last month's South Carolina primary that the concept of equality did not come from Islam or 'eastern religions', but rather from the "God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."

With Australia relaxing its visa norms to accomodate more Indian students, the country could well be a good option to study abroad, says counsellor Suchitra Surve of Growth Centre.

The Republican challenger David Williams in the 'Bible Belt' US state of Kentucky, has accused Democratic Governor Steve Beshear, who participated in a Hindu-style groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a $180 million manufacturing plant creating more than 250 jobs in this economically depressed state, as an idol-worshipper and anti-Christian.

'Let us rescue history from the leftist high priests of history. In the process, let us also rescue history from the narrow mindset of the political right that has reduced reconstruction of history to an exercise in political victimhood.' Shashi Shekhar on the furore over the removal of an essay on the Ramayana from the syllabus of Delhi University.

Indian-American physician Siddhartha Mukherjee's acclaimed book on cancer, The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, has won the prestigious 2011 Pulitzer Prize in the general non-fiction category. According to the Pulitzer citation, the book by the New York-based cancer physician and researcher is "an elegant inquiry, at once clinical and personal, into the long history of an insidious disease that, despite treatment breakthroughs, still bedevils medical science".

Marc Zuckerberg of Facebook, Sergei Brin and Larry Page of Google, Steve Jobs of Apple and Bill Gates of Microsoft -- visionaries, missionaries or monopolists? A bit of all, I suspect, says B S Prakash.

Ustad Abdul Rab Rasul Sayyaf, Afghan president Hamid Karzai's first choice as the speaker of the new Afghan parliament, is at once the perfect bridge the latter needs to reach out extensively in the Islamic world and Pakistan, says former diplomat MK Bhadrakumar, possibly the first and last India to have met Sayyaf in his native village

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit gave India an opportunity to firmly put its concerns across the table. Though the major issues were not fully addressed, New Delhi will be glad that the Chinese are now, at least, willing to talk about them, observes Sheela Bhatt