The Republican presidential candidate urged the African-American community, which had steadfastly backed Clinton in the primaries, to join his campaign for a "better future".

Pullela Gopichand salutes P V Sindhu on her superb showing that saw her return with a silver medal from the Rio Olympics.

The woman whose lone fight against the establishment all these long years has only the state machinery to keep her safe from the public whose cause she championed all this while.

Star Trek is middle-aged and a bit tired but it's definitely here to stay, feels Shuma Raha.

An interview with Amit Mitra, the finance minister of West Bengal.

If the radical Islamic movement had been largely peaceful, Headley would have probably found another way to ensure real life excitement.' 'But I really do believe that his relationship with radical Islam is real. Very real.' 'It was a match for his desires.'

'The worst case scenario is for China to behave like a bull in China shop, and brazenly and wantonly indulge in further encroachments, create obstacles to free navigation and convert SCS into an Air Defence Identification Zone.'

'We have 200 million families. Parents have the responsibility to make their children righteous -- where there is righteousness in the heart, there is beauty in the character.' 'Only three people can give a good citizen before s/he turns 17. Father, mother, the spiritual environment and the primary school teacher.' President A P J Kalam on India becoming a developed country by 2020-2022, the heroes he admired; how 90 per cent of India's space programme is intended for the people and the individual's potential to become unique.

'As the night wore on, we could hear insects, see fireflies and slowly, the stars took over the naked sky.' 'For those of us who spend the largest part of our lives in a cement jungle and wake up to machine sounds, this was music.'

Subsequent data revisions revealed that growth had not slowed that sharply.

A cow that speaks, a question on patriarchy and the story of a 17th-century poet - Sanskrit filmmakers are finding new ways to revive the 'dying' language.

China has taken a position of non-acceptance and non-participation on the jurisdiction by the International Court of Arbitration in a case the Philippines has brought against China's claims to nearly all of the South China Sea, Abraham Denmark, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defence for East Asia, told lawmakers at a Congressional hearing.

'I have always considered Salman, Shah Rukh (Khan) and Amitji (Amitabh Bachchan) to be bigger stars (than me). Kiran likes the look in the poster because when I hold her lovingly now, she says my body has become very hard. It was soft like a pillow before.' Aamir Khan gets candid at the poster launch of Dangal.

'In these days of a communication revolution, was it necessary for him to go to every country?' 'Mahatma Gandhi had no internet or a twitter account, but the whole world recognised him as the greatest leader of the twentieth century,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.

'You want a steady, confident, self-assured and highly skilful hand at the till. 'It is a pity that the BJP has decided to deprive itself of such a hand at this politically sensitive time.' 'It is like sacking your surgeon in the middle of your brain surgery,' says S Muralidharan.

Much as we'd like it to, all hasn't changed. In our country, the revolution must be polite and careful not to offend. Still, Raja Sen assures, there is hope.

Princess Shivranjani of Jodhpur is breathing new life into dead forts and quietly changing the house of Marwar.

You can, however, stick to certain principles to avoid confrontations.

'India is no longer the India of the '70s and the '80s.' 'It's a large country with the fastest growing economy.' 'In working with India, you just can't go and humiliate the nation publicly.' USIBC President Mukesh Aghi tells Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com about how he advises American companies to do business with India, what he thinks of Modi's government and the way forward for the India-US relationship.

Reduce frill expenses, monetise your assets and invest in professional development to negotiate the choppy phase.

'People will realise sooner or later that there are no jobs, inflation is unchecked and loads of corruption charges are coming from various states which the government is totally brazen about.'

Sukanya Verma shares her exciting filmi week with us.

Sherine Xavier, a Sri Lankan Tamil filmmaker from Canada, is happy. After months of struggle with the Indian censor board, she has finally obtained approval to screen her film Muttrupullia?, which deals with the post-war situation in Sri Lanka's Tamil areas.

An MP's is a full-time job, so is the BCCI president's. How can Anurag Thakur do justice to both, asks Sudhir Bisht.

Ashwani Kumar, in a lecture at the prestigious Trinity College, Dublin, said the recent incident of "oppressive enforcement" of the colonial law of sedition against students protesting in university campuses has raised several questions about the future of India's liberal democracy.

Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg spoke about success, surviving loss and failure to the graduating class of 2016 at UC Berkeley.

'Oommen Chandy may well prove to be the Teflon chief minister whose reputation cannot be tarnished,' predicts Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.

'It is at the root of all the reservation tussles, and the sharpening polarisation that we witness today, be it on Jat politics or the problems faced by Indians from the north-east in many places,' says Ambassador Kishan S Rana.

'This is going to be an opportunity to hear from the prime minister of the new India and the progress made in the last two years of the growing cooperation between the US and India in several areas, including areas that would have seemed implausible a few years ago.' US Congressman Ed Royce, who led the campaign to have Prime Minister Modi address a joint session of Congress, speaks to Aziz Haniffa/Rediff.com in an exclusive interview.

Even as the BJP dithers over what it needs to do, the Congress has stolen a lead by projecting its chief ministerial candidate -- Priyanka Vadra nee Gandhi, says Nazarwala, the man who called the 2012 UP assembly elections right.

Before you take the leap, get your financial house in order

As West Bengal, Kerala, Assam, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry prepare for new administrations, one is reminded of the disparity that runs through the veins of the Indian states, notes Mihir S Sharma.

The whole game is about 'who wants who' more desperately?

In Mumbai to launch a business venture, Portuguese football legend Luis Figo, winner of the Ballon d'Or in 2000 and the FIFA World Player of 2001, discusses Barcelona, Real Madrid...

'These trends put at risk not only minorities or the media or some other out-of-favour group, they can and do concern everyone,' warns T N Ninan.

Creative and confident, these emerging fashion designers are the future of Indian fashion.

'... A youth movement which could really transform our politics in a way that the existing elites don't understand.' 'The more you suppress free expression, the more people will value it.' 'The State can't suppress a young society like India where there are so many interesting new ideas emerging,' says Sunil Khilnani, whose latest book Incarnations looks at Indian history through 50 lives.

It's time we remembered the fundamental: water cycle and life cycle are one.

'The government must keep bad news out of the newspapers. If you have news about a fight everyday, it is not a climate where investment takes place.'

'The blood that runs in the veins of our family can never be anti-national.' 'They called Kanhaiya a traitor for questioning the Indian Army. Do they know that our cousin was killed by militants in Manipur while serving with the CRPF?' Archana Masih/Rediff.com travelled to the land of Lal Salam, Lal Sitara and comrades to find out what moulded India's most talked about student leader, Kanhaiya Kunar.