Compared to what is happening in Sri Lanka and Pakistan, or indeed in a wider region not noted for democratic engagement, the elections in India are both to be saluted and celebrated.
Yoga guru Pattabhi Jois dies at 93
Thousands of devotees of ashtanga yoga will perform their primary series with a heavy heart after learning of the death at 93 of the Indian yoga guru Krishna Pattabhi Jois.
In praise of ... Amjad Ali Khan
In 1997, at a concert to celebrate India's half-century of freedom from British rule, Amjad Ali Khan began with a small joke.
The election-investors link
The global economic crisis has not led to political chaos in India. The world’s largest democracy has delivered an unexpectedly clear victory to the ruling Congress-led alliance. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gets a second term and a freer hand for reform. Investors get stability.
India's cellular essence
VERLA, INDIA — For America in the 1950s, it was the car and the open interstate.
'Volcanoes in India wiped out Dinos'
For the last thirty years scientists have believed a giant meteorite that struck Chicxulub in Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula was responsible for the mass extinction of species, including T Rex and its cousins.
Milan Vohra M&B's first Indian writer
The British-based firm held a writing competition in India in the hope of discovering new literary talent to appeal to the country's expanding middle class.
Poor Kamran Khan's 'fairytale rise'
Not many in cricket-crazy India had heard of Kamran Khan when Shane Warne tossed the ball to the 18-year-old fast bowler during the final moments of an Indian Premier League match in Cape Town last week.
In search of India
Saturday 18 April The theme of the London book fair this year is Indian writing. Vikram Seth, Amartya Sen, William Dalrymple and other writers in frequent circulation in this country are going to be joined by writers - K Satchidanandan, Javed Akhtar - distinguished or popular on their own terrain but less known here, for five days of discussions and celebrations.
India's history for sale!
Monday, March 30 Just when the furore over the auction of the last possessions of Mahatma Gandhi died, with Vijay Mallya, flamboyant owner of Kingfisher Breweries and Airlines, buying out the American owner, a new piece of history is up for private grabs – this time on the other side of the Atlantic – and it promises to kick up a new storm.
Fashion’s new role in India
New Delhi, March 25 – “IT’S just something I threw together,” Himanshu Verma, an arts organiser, said at one of the mobbed events marking Wills India Fashion Week here. “It’s called a taxi sari,” he added, referring to the aggressively garish outfit of polka-dotted organza and polyester brocade he wore. That pronoun is no typo, by the way: Mr. Verma is a man.
India's Art Appreciation Grows
NEW DELHI, Tuesday, March 24 -- At an intimate gathering of artists, students and fans this week, an American fine arts photographer named Waswo X. Waswo spoke about his unusual experiment in hand-painted digital photography and his work with traditional Indian painters.
4-Wheel Dreams for Millions in India
New Delhi March 23, 2009 — Six years after the idea was hatched, India’s much-hyped Tata Nano was introduced on Monday.
'Slumdog' kids turn models
NEW DELHI March 20 - The child stars of 'Slumdog Millionaire' relived their Oscar night fairytale at one of India's premier fashion events, walking the ramp in glitzy designer outfits far removed from their own humble origins.
IPL to turn to England or SA
Monday 23 March 2009 England's cricketers watched with envious eyes last year as the world's finest travelled the length and breadth of India raking in the dollars during the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League. Less than a year on Kevin Pietersen, Andrew Flintoff and friends could be on home turf as the competition seeks pastures new because of security concerns arising from a clash of dates with the general election.
Rural India, an expanding market
Dhorka, March 20 With her face wrapped in a pink veil, Suman Yadav squatted on the mud floor of her village home washing clothes, next to her family's gleaming new possession -- a silver-gray, $10,000 car called Swift. She said they bought it on an auspicious January harvest-festival day and drove it straight to the village temple for a blessing before bringing it home.
Kylie does Bollywood
14 March 2009 Kylie's done it. So has Will Smith. Sylvester Stone too. Bankable stars from the west have found lucrative work in these hard times in the largest film factory in the world - Bollywood.
In praise of ... Holi
Wednesday 11 March 2009 Across vast swaths of north India, there will be people staying indoors this morning. Those are the poor souls who want a quiet life and clean clothes. Everyone else will be out on the streets, smearing each other with bright paint and spraying coloured water.
Bollywood, Hollywood tightening ties
Saturday, March 7, NEW DELHI -- The surprise success in the United States of the movie 'Slumdog Millionaire' -- shot in India with Indian actors and musicians and based on an Indian novel -- has put the spotlight on the Indian film industry's ambitions of going global.
Star of 'Smile Pinki', India's other Oscar, back home
Rampur Dhabahi, India (Reuters Life!) - She's not as famous as the child actors of 'Slumdog Millionaire', but Pinki Sonkar is a legend in the village that once ostracised her, thanks to cleft-lip surgery and another Oscar-winning film.
India Maintains Sense of Optimism and Growth
NEW DELHI — While most of the world grapples with a crippling financial crisis and a recession, optimism reigns in much of India as its economy continues to grow.
Scoring Big in Hollywood
A.R. Rahman took Bollywood into the heart of Hollywood's Citadel, the Academy Awards, and emerged triumphant. His vibrant scores have moved India for nearly two decades and now seem destined to move the world.
India celebrates a Hollywood Victory
NEW DELHI Its depictions of filth and brutality fueled angry blogging and stray street protests. It drew unusually intense scrutiny, for everything from how much its child actors were paid to what the composer A. R. Rahman would wear to the Oscars. But on Monday, as India woke up to news of the spectacular wins by “Slumdog Millionaire” at the Academy Awards, this movie-mad country went “Jai Ho.”
India celebrates the Oscar victory
India finally laid claim to Slumdog Millionaire – after weeks of controversy the country basked in the glory of the film's eight Oscars, the most of any movie this year, including the top prize of best motion picture.
‘Global warming will be worse’
Professor Chris Field, the author of a landmark report on climate change, claimed future temperatures 'will be beyond anything' previously predicted.
Of monarch and Mumbaikars
In 2003, Prince Charles visited the teeming lanes of Dharavi in Mumbai and, according to remarks he made this week, he was impressed at the intuitive 'grammar of design' in Asia's largest slum. From my own experiences in the slum last year, making programmes for BBC Radio 4, I'd say many of the slum's residents would agree with him – but only up to a point.
Dharavi a model, says Prince Charles
The Mumbai shanty town featured in the film Slumdog Millionaire offers a better model than does western architecture for ways to house a booming urban population in the developing world, Prince Charles said yesterday.
Sinking US economy may force visa holders to head home
For the two out-of-work engineers in California, it's a race against time. They've lost their Silicon Valley jobs and need to quickly find others at a time when companies everywhere are tightening their belts.
An Indian drinking problem
As the who, whys and hows are fiercely debated in Indian coffee shops and homes regarding the pub raid in fledgling IT town Mangalore, where 40 thugs broke in and attacked female drinkers, an unexpected debate rages in the Asian community this side of the pond.
Boeing eyes jump in India defence deals
NEW DELHI - U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing Co (BA.N) is looking to bid for defense projects worth up to $31 billion over the next 10 years in India, as strategic ties between the two countries deepen.
India to unveil £7 laptop
guardian.co.uk, Monday 2 February 2009
The credit crunch computer is set to arrive tomorrow in India when officials unveil the 500 rupee (£7.25) laptop. In an attempt to bridge the 'digital divide' in the country between rich and poor, the government will show off the prototype, low-cost laptop as the centrepiece of an ambitious e-learning programme to link 18,000 colleges and 400 universities across the country.
Leaving behind the memories…
Ramaswamy Venkataraman belonged to the political elite of the old India, who earned respect and credibility by opposing British rule and going to jail for it — in his case, for more than two years. After independence in 1947, with Venkataraman prominent among them as a minister and coauthor of the Constitution, the revolutionary old guard set about creating its collective vision of a left-of-centre, democratic India.
Late Prez helped draft constitution
Late Ramaswamy Venkataraman, 98, a lawyer who became India's eighth president and helped write the nation's constitution, died of multi-organ failure Jan. 27 at a hospital in New Delhi.
Holbrooke named envoy to Subcontinent
Richard Holbrooke, a former United Nations ambassador, was chosen Thursday for the post of special envoy to Pakistan and India.
India film smoking ban is lifted
The High Court in Delhi has overturned a government ban on showing smoking scenes in films.
‘Slumdog’ sparks wave of pride
Audiences across the sub-continent are keenly awaiting the movie, directed by Danny Boyle, about a Mumbai slum boy who strikes it rich by winning India's version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? which is released there on January 23.
Vayalar Ravi, who assumed office as Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs on January 30, 2006, was born in 1937 in Vayalar village of Kerala's Alappuzha district... 
The star exhibit in the National Portrait Gallery's current show, 'The Indian Portrait', depicts the 17th-century Emperor...