A pencil-thin alley leads to the main entrance of Mother House, the 4-storeyed grey building with brown-shuttered windows. 54A AJC, Bose Road in central Kolkata — the worldwide headquarters of the Missionaries of Charity, the order founded by Mother Teresa — radiates peace and a palpable sense of energy. On Sunday, September 3, St Peter’s Square in Vatican City will Read More

On August 31, wrapping up his three-day visit to the United States, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar flew from Washington to Philadelphia to visit Boeing’s rotorcraft facility, where India’s Chinook helicopters will be built, starting next year. Business Standard visited the Philadelphia unit ahead of that visit. Parrikar was taken to a former locomotive manufacturing plant, which Boeing has transformed into Read More

‘For a country to be secular, it is not enough that its Constitution and government are secular. It is equally necessary that its society and individual citizens are secular,’ Dr Madhav Godbole writes in his just released book, Secularism — India at a crossroads. Dr Godbole served as a bureaucrat for 33 years before resigning as Union home secretary after Read More

Gene Wilder was the king of the pause. A gifted comedic actor can do many things with a pause, and Wilder — who had a sensational knack for stretching a halt — did them all. The standard Gene Wilder gag is one where he reacts to a straightforward line or event, but, thanks to the commanding pause before this reaction, Read More

Lionel Messi’s triumphant Argentina comeback has been tempered by a hint he may not be fit to play in Tuesday’s World Cup qualifier in Venezuela. Messi, who had gone back on his decision to quit the team following their Copa America final defeat in June, scored the only goal in a 1-0 home win over Uruguay on Thursday that sent Read More

After reaching a life-time high, India’s foreign exchange reserves marginally declined by $392.6 million to $366.77 billion in the week to August 26 on account of fall in foreign currency assets, RBI said. Last week, the reserves had increased by a healthy $1.346 billion to touch a record high of $367.169 billion. FCAs, a major component of the overall reserves, Read More

The use of video technology for the first time in an international spared a France player an early red card in their friendly against Italy on Thursday and cut down on arguing over decisions, the match referee said. The game in Bari, that France won 3-1, featured the use of video technology to help the officials on the pitch, although Read More

During the 2005 deluge, rickshaw drivers in Mumbai charged five times the fare to take people home. It was their moment to ‘seize the opportunity’. There was a time when sharing a rickshaw or taking the bus made economic sense. It’s unfair to generalise, but the poor attitude of rickshaw and taxi drivers is a major reason why Ola and Uber Read More

The Skoda Superb is a battle hardened old war-horse in the D2 sedan segment, which is currently under lot of pressure from entry-level luxury cars by the German trio and the general preference for big SUVs like the Toyota Fortuner. Here is a complete review of the Czech behemoth to see whether the latest car can still win the hearts Read More

According to data released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, Indore, Jabalpur, and Raipur are among India’s most accident-prone cities. The map, above, shows us the number of road accidents per one lakh people, represented by the size of the circle and its severity (deaths per 100 road accidents). The severity of the accident is represented by the Read More