Those criticising Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for inviting Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani of Pakistan to the cricket World Cup semi-final in Mohali are missing the wood for the trees. Consider a counter-factual. India and Sri Lanka reach the final of the tournament.

This time ‘cricket diplomacy’ will bring about some long-term and positive changes between the two countries as for the first time an elected representative from Pakistan is visiting India to watch a cricket match.

With careful diplomatic scripting, India and Pakistan began talking again this week...Then, unexpectedly, a cricket match intervened, and almost overnight, the scope and possibilities of the dialogue have changed. The national teams of India and Pakistan have both advanced to the semifinal round of the cricket World Cup tournament, now in progress.

Cricket diplomacy is the opposite of the notorious “gunboat diplomacy,” in which forces are deployed and coercion is used against the opponent. In the context of Pakistan-India relations, the history of diplomatic episodes in the name of cricket is not new.

A 46-member team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) reached Tokyo on Monday morning to help Japaneses authorities in relief and rehabilitation works in tsunami affected areas. The team, on their way to the earthquake and tsunami affected areas...

President Dr Ram Baran Yadav today inaugurated a three-day Conference on ‘Buddhism: Traditional Practices and Pluralistic Innovations’. Scholars and Buddhist monks from Nepal, India, Thailand, South Korea, Myanmar, Japan, Sri Lanka and Bhutan are participating in the conference.

What is Gov 2.0? Gov 2.0 is all about a new culture of open governance, greater citizen involvement through the judicious use of web 2.0...The world has started moving towards Gov 2.0 without even being conscious about it. What has made Gov 2.0 possible is the widespread availability of Internet connected desktops and hand held devices. At present India has 80 million Internet connections, and over 50 million people use social media.

What is Gov 2.0? Gov 2.0 is all about a new culture of open governance, greater citizen involvement through the judicious use of web 2.0. Gov 2.0 is about interactive democracy against representative democracy, it is about open administration that involves citizens participation against closed administration and it is about spirit of voluntarily sharing information against closely guarding it.