The Budget would have been the perfect vehicle to introduce some bold initiatives.
That opportunity has been lost through this Budget, observes Shreekant Sambrani.

The government should set up agricultural co-operatives in every cluster of villages and in respective districts on a war-footing within a time limit. We should involve the services of our military personnel who retire at a young age with several years of working life still left in them and would be happy to contribute to nation-building, recommends Atul Gupta.

Sukanya Verma looks at Bollywood's cool, curious, bag moments.

Padmarajan's Thoovanathumbikal has become a part of Malayali mythology, just as its maker himself now possesses mythological status.

The glass is always full when it comes to OTT. Sukanya Verma brings you everything you can catch on streaming platforms this week.

India was fooled into believing that Communist China wanted a 'negotiated' settlement with the Tibetans; it was never the case, says Claude Arpi.

His songs were the anchor, the substratum, if you will, upon which life unfolded day after day, decade after decade -- across villages, towns, cities, and regions. Siva Sankar pays tribute to S P Balasubrahmanyam, the legendary singer who passed into the ages on Friday.

Haley warned Americans that a Biden-Harris administration would lead the country on the path of socialism, which has failed everywhere in the world.

he government is examining a plan of bank recapitalisation and considering an urban version of MNREGS.

'The fatal mistake for the USSR was the invasion of Afghanistan.' 'Quite possibly the fatal mistake for the Chinese empire is the assault on Ladakh,' observes Rajeev Srinivasan.

'A hundred days later, it is a moot point whether the lockdown has been partially or totally effective, or, as sceptics indicate, plain ineffective.' 'Did it actually deflect infections and the loss of lives, or was it merely a hasty decision rammed down the populace's throats that choked the economy and caused the searing tragedy of dispossessed migrant workers?' ask Radha Roy Biswas and Manoj Mohanka.

Sukanya Verma looks at Bollywood's various terrace moments.

'The worst affected is the electricity supply. A huge number of poles, some 6,000 to 8,000 poles have been damaged completely. That will take a lot of time for restoration.'

A 58-year-old man died after a power transformer fell on him in Raigad district. 2 people died and 3 were injured in two separate cyclone-related incidents in Pune.

With the cyclone set to make landfall on Wednesday, Maharashtra and Gujarat activated their disaster response mechanism, deploying NDRF teams and evacuating people from areas likely to be hit.

Cinema screens bring in over 60% of the Rs 19,100 crore that Indian films earned in 2019. The reception a film gets in theatres impacts the price of every other revenue stream -- TV, OTT, overseas. Vanita Kohli-Khandekar explains why the theatre business is not doomed and why OTT won't become the first window of release.

Sheela Bhatt drives from New Delhi to Agra and Firozabad to capture the stories of an India under lockdown.

'This is a long haul, god knows where it will end.' 'So it is best to conserve all the funds right now for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.'

'While the poor have little say in shaping India's intellectual or public discourse, they do have a significant role in deciding political outcomes,' points out Roshan Kishore.

Indian students, who are living and studying away from home, tell us how they are dealing with the COVID-19 crisis and what they discovered on their journey back home.

A realistic assessment will tell us that not much has changed between India and Pakistan; the relationship remains as fraught as before with little prospect of reconciliation, notes Ajai Shukla.

'You were a good man, a luminous soul. You gave me more than I could ever thank you for.' Rajeev Srinivasan remembers a beloved uncle who passed into the ages recently.

Forget Munnar and Manali, these places in India are worth your time.

Neither the CAA nor the proposed NRC are important enough to stake the well-being of so many or stake economic growth. Getting growth back on track is more important, notes Mahesh Vyas.

'Despite many advising me otherwise saying "nothing will come of it", I refused to be cynical and dialled the number that had been staring at me from billboards aross the state,' reports Keya Sarkar.

Pati Patni Aur Woh cannot decide whether it wants to be the climax of a Priyadarshan comedy or give the cad a dose of his own medicine brand of cheeky payback, writes Sukanya Verma.

'The phone rang on the night of January 15.' 'The voice of an Indian family friend in Venezuela came on.' 'That morning, there had been an accident on the highway'. 'My father had died on the spot.' Radha Roy Biswas reveals her heart-warming and heart-breaking relation with a country drowning in economic chaos.

You'll come out laughing till your sides hurt, promises Sukanya Verma.

Heavy rains lashing Mumbai since Sunday have thrown rail, air and road traffic out of gear, with several trains and flights being cancelled. With IMD forecast of heavy rains for Tuesday, the authorities declared a holiday in the city and adjoining regions, asking people to avoid stepping out of their houses.

Although this may not be music to Raghuram Rajan and Viral Acharya's ears, the real reason in my estimation for their quitting is expatriate over-sensitivity, intolerance or arrogance, argues B S Raghavan, the distinguished civil servant.

Rediff reader Thomas GK who recently travelled to Gavi, an eco-forest in Kerala with his family shares his experience.

The spectacular Milky Way over the picturesque Bavarian mountain, Herzogstand, the remarkable Horsehead Nebula and the Flame Nebula, a vast cloud of gas and dust where new stars are being born; the Royal Observatory's Insight Investment Astronomy Photographer of the Year 2019 has once more received thousands of outstanding images. The competition, which is run by the Royal Observatory Greenwich, sponsored by Insight Investment and in association with BBC Sky at Night Magazine, is now in its eleventh year and has broken the record number of entries once more, receiving over 4,600 entries from enthusiastic amateurs and professional photographers, taken from 90 countries across the globe. The winners will be announced on September 12, and an exhibition of the winning images from the past years of the contest will be on show at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich from September 13.

Why did such a 'socially conscientious' people adapt to cash-for-votes and the like, as fish to water? N Sathiya Moorthy offers an explanation.

'The Congress may not be able to dump the family entirely, but it could move to a new operating model in which the family takes a 'chairmanship' role while day-to-day affairs are handled by a new CEO.'

How has Raj Thackeray, who is as much a businessman as politician, been able to pull it off, when most Opposition politicians live in fear of IT and ED and CBI, asks Krishna Prasad after attending a Raj rally in Nashik.

'I didn't want to be the bottom-most in the food chain of a commercial film.' 'I'd rather do something experimental and learn and hope that this translates into somebody noticing me.'

In the heat and dust of a Baramati rally with Supriya Sule.

A summary of Saturday's matches in the English Premier League.

Modi: Journey of a Common Man is blatant propaganda, feels Utkarsh Mishra.

Hardik has a few days to challenge the judgement in the SC.