A More Divided World: Can Diplomacy Still Find Common Ground?
International politics is becoming increasingly complicated as countries face geopolitical competition, economic uncertainty, security concerns and disagreements over trade and technology. Major powers are pursuing their own strategic interests while…
Jerry Pinto’s tribute to R. Parthasarathy and how this poet’s influential voice receded from literary memory
Rajagopal Parthasarathy, who passed away on March 7, in Saratoga Springs, New York, seems to have faded from the poetic consciousness of my generation. While his contemporaries, Adil Jussawalla and Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, for instance, or even A.K. Ramanujan, seem to have kept pace with us, Partha, as his friends called him, was flattened early...
Review of Sandip Roy’s Chapal Rani, the Last Queen of Bengal
In Chapal Rani, the Last Queen of Bengal, biographer Sandip Roy explores the life and times of Chapal Bhaduri, the last great female impersonator of Bengali jatra. He opens with a rigorous introduction that establishes a clear interpretative frame. This is then gradually neutralised by a first-person voice presented as Chapal’s own, though clearly mediated and shaped by an archivist’s...
Life in the Himalaya | Review of Anuradha Roy’s “Called by the Hills”
In Julian Barnes’ 2011 novel, The Sense of an Ending, the protagonist asks, “This was another of our fears: that Life wouldn’t turn out to be like Literature. Look at our parents — were they the stuff of Literature?” While working on a memoir, a writer may wonder if she must exaggerate her life, romanticise it,...
Political poker: On the Puducherry Assembly election, the political players
Puducherry and political confusion go together. This has been reinforced in the manner in which the major political players have gone through the seat sharing process. Though Puducherry’s first NDA government, led by the AINRC and the BJP, has been able to complete its five-year term, the allies have struggled to reach an electoral understanding....
Cowardly bully: On Donald Trump and the Iran war
Donald Trump’s decision to postpone attacks on Iran’s power plants, 36 hours after issuing a 48-hour ultimatum to Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, is the clearest sign yet that the war is not going according to his plan. Over the past week, Mr. Trump has declared victory, claiming that U.S. and Israeli strikes...
Letters to The Editor
The sudden ‘pause’ in the West Asia conflict offers a much-needed, though uncertain, reprieve amid the prolonged U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran (Front page, March 24). The aimless military aggression has also inflicted widespread devastation in the Gulf region. There has also been a frequent shifting of goalposts by the United States. With the unilateral announcement...
India must aim to become a global aviation hub
India stands on the cusp of an aviation revolution. As the world’s third-largest domestic aviation market and projected to become the third largest globally by 2030, the potential for growth is immense. Yet much of the value generated by Indian passenger traffic bypasses the national economy, flowing instead into the sophisticated ecosystems of Dubai (DXB),...
A national water vision for Viksit Bharat
India is already approaching the threshold of water stress. The paradox is stark: a country endowed with major river systems is confronting intensifying scarcity, conflict, and ecological stress. The explanation lies not in the lack of water but in how it is governed. Water in India refuses to obey political boundaries. Rivers traverse States; groundwater...
Hazy signals from Iran war
If the objectives of starting the Iran war had been clear there would not have been a problem in deciphering the messages coming out of the US. After joining hands with Israel and bombing nuclear facilities in Iran on February 28, Washington shifted its sights to regime change once Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was assassinated and...
Editorial. Plane truths
The Centre is justified in protecting passenger interests, by mandating that airlines make available at least 60 per cent of flight seats ‘free’ — that is, with no add-ons to the ticket price. The additional charges for such premium seats — which are typically towards the front of the aircraft or alongside windows and the...
Is the private credit boom going bust?
A defining feature of financial markets is that the most important information is often held by those least likely to reveal it. The system’s inner workings are invisible to outside observers — which makes it all the more striking when leading Wall Street executives start sounding the alarm. In October, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon...
Technology as terror
Humans need to be assured of a predictable and secure future to remain productive in every way. Technological innovations so far have by and large promised these. But now, the arrival of Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is forcing us to look at tomorrow’s world through a different lens. What we see there is a society...
India’s economy resilient despite West Asia headwinds
India’s economy continues to grow rapidly, with GDP expected to rise by 7.6 per cent in FY 2026, and exports likely to stay steady at 6 per cent. Looking ahead, growth is expected to remain above 7 per cent in FY 2027, even as global growth is projected to fall below 3 per cent. Despite...
Streamline physical security to enable data center growth in the era of AI
AI is the new space race for data centers, and consistency at speed is the rocket fuel that colocation and hyperscale providers need to reach orbit. Everything you already know about physical security still applies but it won’t matter unless you have the right plan and partnerships in place to scale without sacrificing quality. Growth...
A static electricity mystery comes to the surface
DENVER — Static electricity is a touchy subject. Touch or rub two materials together, and they can exchange electric charge. But the details behind the phenomenon of static electricity are poorly understood. Now, scientists have identified a hidden factor at play. A thin veneer of carbon-rich molecules alters how identical materials exchange charge, scientists report in...
The Whooping Crane Recovery Shows What We Stand to Lose
I probably wouldn’t have made the drive to Wheeler National Wildlife Refuge in North Alabama back in January if I hadn’t gotten an email bearing this subject line: “Whooping Cranes.” The message came from Nicole Mashburn, a board member of the Wheeler Wildlife Refuge Association and the friend of a friend. Out of abject necessity,...
European stocks tumble 2% as Iran war intensifies; miners lead losses
LONDON — European stocks slumped on Thursday as the Iran war escalated further following attacks on Iranian and Qatari energy infrastructure. The pan-European Stoxx 600 was down more than 2% as of 10:25 a.m. in London (6:25 a.m. ET), with all major bourses in negative territory and all sectors except for oil and gas trading...
Shyam Saran on India’s BRICS Leadership Role
India is the first major democracy to legislate AI governance. That is something to be proud of. But the bill’s exemption clauses for government AI systems — covering 41% of all high-risk applications — risk making a landmark law into a hollow symbol. We need to fix this now, in committee, before it becomes law....
Does India’s AI Bill Go Far Enough? Three Voices, One Question
India is the first major democracy to legislate AI governance. That is something to be proud of. But the bill’s exemption clauses for government AI systems — covering 41% of all high-risk applications — risk making a landmark law into a hollow symbol. We need to fix this now, in committee, before it becomes law....
Review: “The Republic of Debt” Is the Most Honest Account of India’s Fiscal History
India is the first major democracy to legislate AI governance. That is something to be proud of. But the bill’s exemption clauses for government AI systems — covering 41% of all high-risk applications — risk making a landmark law into a hollow symbol. We need to fix this now, in committee, before it becomes law....
The Western Ghats Biodiversity Crisis Is a Policy Failure We Can Still Reverse — If We Act Now
India is the first major democracy to legislate AI governance. That is something to be proud of. But the bill’s exemption clauses for government AI systems — covering 41% of all high-risk applications — risk making a landmark law into a hollow symbol. We need to fix this now, in committee, before it becomes law....
Voices & Opinion
A More Divided World: Can Diplomacy Still Find Common Ground?
International politics is becoming increasingly complicated as countries face geopolitical competition, economic uncertainty, security concerns and disagreements over trade and technology. Major powers are pursuing their own strategic interests while…
India’s Changing Global Role: Why Strategic Independence Matters More Than Ever
India’s growing influence in global affairs raises an important question: how should the country balance relationships with major powers while protecting its own strategic interests? India increasingly works with the…
India’s research retraction surge sparks call for reform
In the expansion of India’s scientific footprint lies an uncomfortable truth: the country now ranks third globally for life science research papers retracted from the record, according to a comprehensive…
Indian Science and Technology landscape: a leap for a better future
India produces a large quantity of scientific research, ranking 4th globally in terms of total research publications in 2020 according to Elsevier SciVal and having the 9th largest number of…
