Pallab Bhattacharya

With Indian parliamentary election having entered the final lap of voting before vote-count is taken up in about a fortnight (on May 23), coalition-building efforts have begun afresh amidst indications of majority being elusive for any particular party or pre-poll alliance of parties.

The Easter Sunday terror attacks in Sri Lanka—for which the Islamic State terror outfit claimed responsibility—have brought to the fore three main disturbing developments that have serious security implications for the entire South Asian region: first, the IS poses an ever-greater threat to the region; second, its relatively new modus operandi is the adoption of the franchise model by helping local outfits to carry out spectacular attacks; and third, radicalisation.

Acclaimed Indian director Shyam Benegal plans to begin the shooting of his much-awaited feature film on the life and works of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Filming for the Bangladesh-India co-production is expected to begin in November this year and be completed by February next.

Polling in 70 percent of the total of 543 seats in India’s parliamentary election is over. After polling began on April 11, voters have chosen their representatives for 373 constituencies in four phases.

It is not just the summer heat that is rising in Delhi with each passing day. The political temperature, too, is shooting up with the battle lines drawn for the seven parliamentary seats which will go to the polls on May 12.

The month-long feverish speculations about Congress Party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra contesting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Varanasi parliamentary constituency has come to an anti-climactic end. Had it come about,

The last seven months have seen two watershed events in the political history of the Maldives, the strategically-located Indian Ocean archipelago that has since long been a theatre of intense rivalry between Asian giants India and China for influence.

India’s Supreme Court yesterday held an extraordinary hearing after a former employee of the apex court accused Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi of sexual harassment and persecution.

If West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee nurtures larger ambitions to play a much bigger role at the national level after the ongoing parliamentary elections that by most accounts will produce a hung verdict,

Out of power for five years, the Congress Party's manifesto for the coming parliamentary elections in India has done enough to bring out once again its traditional Left-of-the-Centre ideological moorings and project a more inclusive and welfare-oriented organisation after its brief flirtation with a slight tilt to the Right for several months last year.

Rahul Gandhi's decision to contest from a second parliamentary constituency—Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala besides his traditional constituency of Amethi in Uttar Pradesh in the north—in the coming national elections is an emphatic statement of his long-term strategy to rebuild his party and bring it back to power.

When it is election time, nothing pays more than populism. All parties love to woo the poorest of the poor segment of society to strengthen their welfare politics credentials.

The drawing up of a “Voluntary Code of Ethics” by social media giants like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and ShareChat and their intermediaries for the coming parliamentary elections in India is a landmark decision in more ways than one.

Ever since India entered the unpredictable terrains of coalition politics in early 1990s, winning parliamentary elections and forming governments have been all about the right alliance partners.

When former foreign minister of Bangladesh (under the previous Sheikh Hasina government) AH Mahmood Ali spoke at a meeting of

Three separate announc-ements in quick succession by bachelor Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee on March 10 and 11

India's civil aviation regulator has further tightened the rules relating to operations of Boeing 737 Max aircraft on Monday a day after a fatal crash of one such plane of the Ethiopian Airlines killing all 157 people on board.

India's National Green Tribunal (NGT) yesterday ordered automobile major Volkswagen to pay Rs 500 crore as fine for “intentionally programming diesel engines with cheat devices” that caused environmental damage.

The US has announced its plans to scrap the generalised system of preferences (GSP) benefits for India within two months that allows the Asian country to export up to $5.6 billion worth of products to America duty-free.

True to expectations, the Pulwama terror attack which left 40 Indian paramilitary personnel dead and the Indian Air Force's assault on