Described by English writer-editor Ian Jack as the Jane Austen of India, award-winning novelist and screenplay writer Ruth Prawar Jhabvala was renowned for her evocative novels of the rainbow societies of 19-20th century India - two of which became successful films.

For nearly 37 years, Jammu and Kashmir's regional National Conference (NC) has been criticizing the central government for not implementing the terms of the 1975 Indira-Abdullah accord. All of a sudden, some elements of the NC leadership now say there was no accord.

Is it time for India to rethink the death penalty and join the majority of the countries that have abolished it? Rights activists say executions serve no purpose and it is the state's duty to treat mercy petitions, including of parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, with compassion and commute the sentences.

In the midst of the grim bleakness that seems to suffuse every facet of our national existence today, a tiny ray of sunshine seems to have emanated from South Block. The stoic ministry of defence issued a statement Friday morning that the defence minister and three service chiefs would honour the memory of Indian soldiers who had fallen on the battlefield during the 1962 Sino-Indian clash.