Bhavya Bharathi

  Embassy Row — otherwise known as Massachusetts Avenue — in Washington, D.C., is decorated with flags of every nation, flying in front of impressive embassy buildings. In front of the embassies, there are often statues of national heroes. Winston Churchill graces the grounds of the British Embassy. Outside the Indian Embassy, Mahatma Gandhi looks as though he's in full stride, clad in loincloth and sandals. And now, there's a Hindu goddess. Saraswati just arrived. She stands in a garden in front of Indonesia's embassy, glowing white and gold, with her four arms upraised. Indonesian Ambassador Dino Patti Djalal says the goal was to stand out from the other embassies. "I think this is exactly what we wanted to do with Massachusetts Avenue," he says, "add something that would jazz it up." Saraswati is the goddess of learning and wisdom, Djalal says. At her feet are three children studying. It was crafted by three Balinese sc...

When the 136th edition of the Jagannath Rath Yatra starts next week in Ahmedabad, the police of Gujarat will have the comfort of an extra pair of eyes manning the security of pilgrims — from the skies. The police will for the first time deploy two unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), which they bought in May, for the yatra. The 'eye in the sky' project will give the state police a bird's eye view in terms of surveillance, according to DIG (modernisation) Rajiv Ranjan Bhagat. The UAVs are indigenous (they have nothing to do with the US drones ), produced by a start-up called ideaForge Technology , in collaboration with the Union government-run Defence Research and Development Organisaton. Home-Made Product IideaForge is promoted by three former IIT students Ankit Mehta, Rahul Singh and Ashish Bhat . They have aptly named their product NETRA. NETRA is small and light. It can be launched from a small, clear area and made to fly over a desired area at 300 ...

Bhopal, July 8: Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) swayamsevaks were the first to report at the calamity - stricken areas of Uttarakhand to participate in relief and rescue operations to shift the stranded pilgrims to safer places. This information was disclosed to media persons by Akhil Bharatiya Sah-Prachar Pramukh of RSS J Nandkumar at Vishwa Samvad Kendra here. Interacting informally with a select group of journalists Nandkumar briefed them about the stupendous work done by RSS swayamsevaks for the relief and rescue of thousands of pilgrims stranded in the natural disaster that devastated the famous Kedarnath shrine in Uttarakhand a fortnight ago. Stating that swayamsevaks had reached the affected areas within 24 hours at the affected places. Since the rescue work was to be done with helicopters, the first and foremost job was to prepare make-shift helipads. And these helipads were made by RSS men, Nandkumar said. He also added that the ...

 NEW DELHI: The UPA government on Monday admitted before the Supreme Court that the NDA regime, in five years, constructed nearly half the total length of national highways laid during the last 32 years. In an interesting affidavit filed before the apex court, the Centre said the length of national highways in the country was 29,023 km in 1980, which expanded to 76,818 km by the end of 2012. This means 47,795 km of national highways was added by successive governments in 32 years.  However, the affidavit revealed that during 1997-2002 (ninth five-year plan), when the NDA was in power, 23,814 km of national highways was added to the existing NH network, or nearly 50% of the total length of national highways constructed in three decades. This remains the largest construction of national highways during any five-year period since independence. In fact, during the nearly 10-year rule of the UPA government, the total length of national highways laid was much less - nearly 16,000...