When Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman talked of the need to “go back to basics” and use Zero Budget Natural Farming to double farmers’ income in her Budget speech, she was referring to Vidharba’s Subhash Palekar. A Padma Shri awardee, Palekar says he perfected the practice during the 1990s at his farm. Parthasarathi Biswas reports.
Gurpreet Singh Palheri, the simple boy from a small Punjab village who wrote his way to Bollywood, is used to life not sticking to script. But no turn has been as bewildering for his village and family as the fuss over Gurdaspur MP Sunny Deol appointing him as his ‘representative’.
Defending champions US will take on European champions Netherlands in today’s Women’s World Cup final. “The US are favourites, we are the underdog – and we are fine with that,” Dutch coach Sarina Wiegman said. Meanwhile, Sweden beat England 2-1 to for third place on Saturday night.
The truth is that Prime Minister Narendra Modi (not the BJP) won this election because he was seen as a real leader. The truth is that the Congress party did not offer Indian voters anything other than an entitled prince and princess who hoped to win only by exalting the ‘charisma’ of a Dynasty that has ruled too long, writes columnist Tavleen Singh.
Telangana is set to raze Secretariat and build new Assembly, for Rs 500 crore. The 10 blocks of the Secretariat, spread over 2.5 acres will be replaced by “vaastu-compliant” buildings. KCR has not visited the Secretariat now in four-and-a-half years because he feels the CM’s chambers had “negative vibes” and brought bad luck to whoever occupied the post.
In the 40 years and 42 productions since 1979, many artistes, including Tom Alter, Kenny Desai and Akash Khurana, have been associated with the group that came to be known as Motley. Actor-director couple Ratna Pathak Shah and Naseeruddin Shah, the formidable force behind Motley, talk about the journey so far.
Head of climate prediction at IMD, D Sivananda Pai urged citizens too to play a more proactive role as extreme weather events increase. “For example, we have to make sure that we do not do anything that would choke drainage,” he said. “The government agencies, no doubt, have a more proactive role to play but citizens must also pitch in.” he added.
After an alleged case of hit-and-run outside Hotel Le Meridien in Delhi last year, police managed to recover only a portion of the SUV’s bumper from the spot. Somya Lakhani reports on how the cops tracked the driver among 22,000 black Cretas with the help of 10 CCTVs this year.