By Debaprio D. Choudhury It was her parents’ love for sitar exponent Pandit Ravi Shankar that introduced Paola Carraro to Indian art and music far away in Brazil. Carraro, who started learning sitar from Ravi Shankar’s disciple Alberto Marsicano, said that India is the ‘biggest inspiration in her life’ and Indian culture continues to fascinate […]
By Chinmaya Dehuri Puri Prepared by 600-700 cooks and partaken by up to 50,000 pilgrims daily generating a business of Rs 8-12 lakhs, the mouth-watering “Mahaprasad” (food first offered to the deity) of the Jagannath Temple has retained its appeal among tens of millions of devotees for ages. The Mahaprasad cooked on the premises of […]
By: Charu Bahri New Delhi: In January, the government asked for public opinion on tougher new laws to curb smoking: To raise the minimum smoking age to 21 from 18, and to ban the sale of single cigarettes, which account for 70 percent of nationwide cigarette sales. People responded enthusiastically; 45,000 emails and 100,000 […]
Nayantara Sahgal, India’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s niece, who is known for not holding back any punches, says India is facing the gravest danger to democracy under the current BJP dispensation. “Our country is facing the destruction of the very idea of India as a great, multi-religious, multi-cultural civilization. We are facing the gravest […]
Drawing parallels between the cold blooded killings of bloggers in Bangladesh and the murder of M.M. Kalburgi, a writer and rationalist from Karnataka, Bangladeshi writer Taslima Nasrin said the incident showed the growing intolerance of religious fanatics in both India and Bangladesh. “Is there no freedom of expression in India? It is supposed to be […]
The rollout of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has reached a major milestone, with the NSW Government announcing the future operator for Home Care Service NSW. Home Care has a 70 per cent market share in NSW, helping older people and people with disability to live independently in their own homes as well […]
Chetan Bhagat has played the role of a dancer, banker, script writer and motivational speaker, but donning the hat of a politician isn’t on his wish list. With eight books and five films in his kitty since he burst into the literary scene in 2004, he now believes that he has a pill to solve […]
Vale Bart Cummings, a giant of Australian Racing. Born in South Australia, Bart dominated racing in Victoria and passed away peacefully in Sydney this morning. Bart’s record in Victoria is unlikely to be matched with a remarkable 12 Melbourne Cups. He also had success in NSW, winning four Golden Slippers amongst his 268 Group One […]
In a move aimed at enhancing the quality of urban life, the government on Thursday unveiled a list of 98 cities in the country for the Smart City Mission. The central government proposes to give financial support to the extent of Rs.48,000 crore to these cities over the next five years, Urban Development Minister M. […]
Environment Minister Mark Speakman has invited community organisations and councils to apply for a share of the NSW Government’s $5.3 million Restoration and Rehabilitation Grants Program. Mr Speakman said the Environmental Trust Grants Program aimed to help community organisations, local councils and other groups run projects that would prevent or reduce environmental degradation at […]