What TN case tells us about the need to ease Centre-state friction

Several developments have taken place over the last two weeks concerning Centre-state relations. One, Tamil Nadu sued the Union govt in the Supreme Court for withholding over Rs 2,000 crore under the Samagra Shiksha Scheme....

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Waqf Act amendments: Progress for the community or just optics?

The recent Union Cabinet decision to amend the Waqf Act, 1995 and repeal the outdated Waqf Act, 1923 has generated both interest and some manufactured outrage. While a few fringe voices attempt to build a...

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Memo to Musk

You got plenty to worry about Musk has left the DOGE building. It’s hard to say who’s happier – Musk himself, or his baiters – but odds are, Vivek Ramaswamy marked the day with a...

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Harvard’s activities must alarm the Indian philanthropists

The Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute at Harvard University is in the eye of the storm over the organization of the Pakistan Conference under its aegis, in which Pro-Pakistan speakers were invited, obviously...

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Getting judged

Sometimes grown-ups do things for one reason, but later say it was for another. That’s kind of what’s happening with Donald Trump and his taxes on goods from other countries — called tariffs. When Trump...

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Oldest materials and beauty of the environment

At the Bespoke Art Gallery at Ahmedabad, it is the English Methodist hymn that hums in our senses as we glimpse the world’s oldest materials, pen and paper and clay that extol the beauty of...

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What you post…

A long time ago, a guy named Ravi Srinivasan had only 16 followers on Twitter (called X now). He posted something against a politician’s son. The police noticed and even arrested him, which was surprising....

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What’s Up with Trump and Putin?

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has a lot to say about world leaders. He often speaks very strongly about them — sometimes even insults them. But when it comes to Russia’s leader, Vladimir Putin, Trump...

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Unfinished business: Why the world is quietly slipping back on gender equality

“When sleeping women wake, mountains move.” But what happens when the world tries to rock them back to sleep? In early 2024, UN Secretary-General António Guterres made a chilling statement: “Patriarchy is far from vanquished;...

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Cruelty on two legs

Death of 16 racehorses in Jabalpur and Hyderabad shows the appalling state of animal care in India The horse is a marvel of nature. Powerful yet graceful, man’s companion in war and peace for 5,500...

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Live life fully. Seize the day

By Homayun Taba An interrupter can suddenly change the course of one’s life. This happened when prince Siddhartha stepped out of the protected palace environment and encountered the reality of old age, sickness and death....

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Yes means yes

Teenagers having consensual sex is basic human design. This must be decriminalised by GOI There are countless ways in which adults fail to understand teenagers and let them down. But when a systemic orthodoxy is...

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A cake for failure: When falling short deserved a celebration

Just a few days back, amidst the usual noise of exam results and students topping the charts, a quiet story from Karnataka made me pause. Not because it was about a boy who came first....

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Buddha’s body can’t be on sale. These sacred relics must be repatriated

The auctioneer Sotheby’s announced that it had “postponed” the sale of Buddha’s relics that were to go on sale in Hong Kong on the 7th of May, in response to being served a legal notice...

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Governance gaps in IndusInd Bank

The full-year performance of IndusInd Bank (IIB) for FY25 was adversely impacted due to accounting discrepancies detected during the fiscal. It absorbed the carryover losses accumulated due to accounting lapses in (i) the derivative portfolio...

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From nadir to zenith – a story that must be told

Fresh from the memories of Op Sindoor one was overwhelmed by the screaming headlines and got swept over by the avalanche of the ‘breaking news (es)’ that claimed to tell the story by the ‘second’....

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Doing gupshup

Why foreign pipples cutting jokes about how we are telling like that only? No doubt one foreigner putting up in Amsterdam itself, having a desi missus who has learnt him about how we are doing...

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Who’ll stop Bibi?

Gaza is a 21st century human tragedy. Those who can, won’t end the war. Those who wage the war, will provide aid  Palestinians in Gaza are protesting against Hamas. Israelis in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem...

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Persona non manga

Held in terror by Don Alphonso and Salim Langda Pray heed the plight of the Person Who Doesn’t Like Mangos. Other minorities know naught of our marginalisation, discrimination, the looks ranging from sheer pity to...

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Golden rule

Times change but world’s trust in gold as a store of value doesn’t. Good reasons for that There’s a legend – not undisputed – that Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt. Hence, the word...

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Rise of AGI: Danger of humanity entering the first stage of Kübler-Ross model for terminal diseases

Elizabeth Kübler-Ross and her colleagues proposed that when a person faces an inevitable tragedy, the psychological phases he goes through are typically denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance (in that order). When I look at...

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A surprising arrest

Why the arrest of Professor Khan is worrying Today, the Supreme Court—the highest court in India—is looking at a case where a professor named Ali Khan Mahmudabad was arrested. He teaches at a college called...

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Strategic myopia: Why India stumbles as China plans

It is worth reflecting on whether India, as a nation, operates with an integrated strategic mindset. Not in the superficial sense often invoked in political speeches or media panels but in the substantive understanding of...

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Making our case

That there was a BJP-Congress spat over choosing MPs for all-party delegations was par for the political course. GOI’s idea itself is a clever one. India’s global profile has changed vastly since the days of...

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The overlooked miracle of life

By- Jug Suraiya All of us, even those who profess atheism, at one point or another have hoped for a miracle, an act of Divine Providence that could make our most heartfelt wishes magically come...

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How can society & governance bring together ‘preachers & teachers’ to train & educate us to treat ‘work & duties’ as worship to ‘know thyself’

Vivekananda as a young man heard Ramakrishna say: compassion for living beings! Fool! Who are you, an insignificant creature, to show compassion! No, no, not compassion, but service to all beings, looking upon them as God Himself! These...

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Meet Shakespeare-ji: Poems, ping pong, and those moist eyes

Of late, a dear friend of mine seems to have caught what I can only describe as a serious case of poetic flu. No, he isn’t unwell or anything, but he has spontaneously been rhyming...

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Erdogan’s Pakistan tilt is clear but India has to be smart and strategic

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s “brotherly” support to Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif after the heinous terrorist attack in Pahalgam, followed by official statements condemning India’s retaliatory strikes and bringing up the Kashmir issue, were not...

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Leaves little

In razing trees, what future are govts & people building? In the many heat islands we are ensconced these days, even air-conditioning is no leveller. Because in neighbourhoods with fewer trees, life is infinitely more...

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Trump wants everything made in America – but that’s not so simple

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has been telling big companies like Apple and Tesla that he wants them to make everything only in America. For example, he told Apple’s boss, Tim Cook, that making iPhones...

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Territorial ambitions of China in South China Sea & the future of rule-based Indo-Pacific

At the third India-France-Australia trilateral focal points meeting in Delhi on 19th June 2024, the three countries have vowed to work jointly towards a free, open, inclusive, and rules-based Indo-Pacific amid China’s growing muscle-flexing in...

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Counsel = Con Sale

Fake Lawyers Are Fooling the Courts – That’s a Big Problem Imagine someone pretending to be a lawyer and tricking the Supreme Court of India – the highest court in the country! That actually happened....

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Gulf Spring? Not Yet

Some rich countries in the Gulf, like Saudi Arabia and the UAE, are trying to change how their countries work. These places used to make most of their money from oil, but they know that...

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Kashmir Calling

Three Ways to Help Kashmir Become Peaceful Again After a big military operation called Operation Sindoor, things in Kashmir are starting to calm down. But we need to be careful. Kashmir has had problems with...

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Rate of girth

Space for customised sizing expands for women Anne McClain finally took a walk up there. She couldn’t go on the 2019 NASA mission because there weren’t enough medium-size spacesuits; she’d requested a size change after...

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Senior citizen: Scourge of airlines?

Very recently when I boarded a non-stop flight to the land of liberty, I was surprised by extra suffusive welcome being accorded by the flight attendants to a senior citizen like me, which even by...

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India demonstrates its diplomatic & military prowess through Operation Sindoor

In a significant counter-terror operation named ‘Sindoor,’ India targeted key terror hubs in Pakistan and PoK in retaliation to the Pahalgam attack. The strikes, executed by the Army, Navy, and Air Force, focussed on Bahawalpur...

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Back problems

The human back is made up of several vertebrae separated by intervertebral discs (IVDs). These vertebrae form a column through which the spinal cord passes. The spinal cord, an extension of the brain, governs many...

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Operation Sindoor has drawn a red line Pakistan can no longer ignore

India’s strategic response to the Pahalgam terror attack has culminated not only in the precision of Operation Sindoor but now in a ceasefire: announced not through diplomatic communiqués, but via the unmistakably modern theatre of...

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Cheaper than a car, deadlier than a plane

Don’t judge a drone’s lethality by its price  Military drones aren’t new. America used Pioneer RQ-2As in the ’91 Gulf War. As one of them came in to survey Failaka Island, five Iraqi soldiers made...

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Stand Down, ’Pindi

Pak generals should know that a far better-resourced India will respond to every escalation  The generals in Rawalpindi GHQ are leading Pakistan down a dangerous path of escalation. After Operation Sindoor successfully targeted multiple terrorist...

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An image for ages

Perhaps there could not have been a more powerful image than this. Two young soldiers, Colonel Sofiya Qureshi and Wing Commander Vyomika Singh, sitting on either side of foreign secretary Vikran Misri, announcing to the...

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No good options for Pak to hit abck

The significance of Operation Sindoor in terms of damage to terror infra in PoJK and Pakistan cannot be understated. The targeted terror bases — which were carefully selected based on high quality intelligence — have...

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How to get what you want

By Swami Chinmayananda A question that often arises is: Are desires fulfilled by power of the mind concentrating in a particular direction, or by the deity or evil spirit worshipped by the individual? The Lord...

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Two women officers and the idea of India

It’s an image for the ages. At the first govt briefing about the precision strikes against Pakistan-based terror hubs, Indians got to see a powerful snapshot of the way of life that Operation Sindoor was...

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Ignore the noise

India’s government should stay calm and thoughtful, even if there’s loud and angry talk coming from Pakistan or Indian news channels. Recently, Pakistan tried to get the United Nations to say something about tensions with...

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Drone up

A message from Ukraine war for India’s strategic & defence purchase plans In a world’s first, Ukraine has said that it has taken down a Russian fighter jet, an Su-30, with a naval drone, once...

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Musknagar

SpaceX’s city in Texas has a message for urban regeneration in India: involve big business Musk company SpaceX’s rocket-launch site in Texas is now incorporated as a new city. Locals who’re not workers at SpaceX...

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Trump’s divide & prosper mantra, and how India can strategise

The assault on the global trading regime by US President Donald Trump, especially through the reciprocal tariffs announced on April 2, provides a fertile ground for examining negotiating strategies. It is common knowledge within the...

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Zelenskyy’s Art Of The Deal: How the Ukrainian president took a page out of Trump’s book and got a win-win minerals agreement

In Bob Woodward’s 2024 book War that covers the wars in Ukraine and Gaza apart from the race for the 2024 US presidential polls, the veteran journalist reveals a key trait of Trump that anchors...

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Some leave, some stay

In life, I’ve come to accept… perhaps a little reluctantly that I can’t hold back anything. Or anyone. Maa left. Baba too. And though their absence is real and often sharply felt, they never quite...

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Living mindfully in times of chaos

By Minoru Harada We are living in an age of ceaseless turbulence. In such times, the mind easily spirals into anxiety and impulsive reactions. Trying to achieve emotional stability while facing rough seas of society...

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Ramdev’s world

He likely likes controversies ’coz it’s good for business Delhi HC said of Ramdev that he “is not in anyone’s control” and that “he lives in his own world”. The judge was earlier aghast at...

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Good news for live-in couples: Mumbai court supports their rights

Recently, a Mumbai magistrate made an important decision that will help people in live-in relationships. The court ruled that a woman in a live-in relationship has the right to ask for monthly financial support, just...

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Ibn ul-Waqt, Sahib-ul-Waqt – Mastering the present moment

Do not occupy the present with the preoccupations of the past and the future, said Sufi master Hazrat Abu Abd al-Sulami (947-1034), also called Shaykh (spiritual guide) of the Awliya (saints). To worry about the...

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