The world is drawing a line on social media for kids. India should too

Have you ever wondered why we set age limits for obtaining a driving licence, consuming alcohol, or even getting married? The answer lies not in arbitrary tradition but in science — more specifically, in the...

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Smog trap to blue skies, the pollution playbook Delhi-NCR desperately needs

We have mastered predictable panic. Every winter, Delhi’s air turns toxic on schedule. Schools close, offices empty and construction freezes. The timing and meteorology are understood, yet like clockwork, we respond as though ambushed: with...

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India-EU FTA: Fine print may be sobering

Most of the commentary on the India-EU free trade agreement (FTA) has highlighted the likely boost to India’s exports of labour-intensive products and certain services to the large EU market and welcomed it. There is...

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DRAM Beaters

Why AI can push up the cost of your next smartphone If we could make only one Budget wish this year, it would be that govt remains mindful of the global memory crisis. Not the...

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Missing Mumtaz in Mombasa!

Foreign cruise during Mid’s time was part of training and we were happy when it was announced that our cruise was to the continent of Africa and we would be visiting the ports of Mombasa,...

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Court on the Right Track

A court in Basti district, Uttar Pradesh, made an important decision. It told the Railways to pay ₹9.1 lakh to a 17-year-old girl. Why? Because her train was late, and she missed an important entrance...

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Just keep going: A father’s lesson across two democracies

In both India and the United States, the idea of opportunity is deeply tied to family—parents working hard so their children can move forward with stability and hope. Across cultures, the quiet values are the...

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Beyond numbers: How Budget 2026-27 can power India’s agri-food transformation?

Budget 2026-27 arrives at a moment when Indian agriculture is being rewired, node by node, across the agri-food value chain. This phase goes well beyond MSP tinkering or marginal hikes in scheme allocations; it is...

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Be On The Job

India and the European Union (EU) have just agreed on a big trade deal. Many people are excited and wondering: When will we get cheaper European wine, chocolate, and cars? The truth is, it may...

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Xi-opolitics

Something big has happened in China’s military, and it matters to countries like India China’s top leader, Xi Jinping, has removed two very powerful generals from their jobs. One of them, Zhang Youxia, was one...

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Messaging the Temple

There has been a suggestion in Uttarakhand to stop non-Hindus from entering two very important Hindu temples: Kedarnath and Badrinath. This idea came from the committee that manages these temples. But this is a bad...

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Wake Up, Bankers

A 78‑year‑old man was tricked in a cyber scam called a “digital arrest scam”. He lost ₹23 crore—a huge amount of money. The police managed to track and freeze ₹12 crore, but the rest is...

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Is gig work really good for workers? Data shows we need a more nuanced debate

On New Year’s Eve, more than 200,000 gig workers took to the streets across India to protest “10-minute delivery” promises, which the union labour ministry recently decried as responsible for unsafe and injurious driving practices....

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The door of my heart and the Phoenix

I live far, far away, in a different world—inside my heart. I call it my room—it is snuggled among the snowy mountains. How bewitching it is to watch these peaks have a romantic rendezvous with...

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Uncertainty of death and certainty of the divine

By Stuti Malhotra A recent accidental drowning of an engineer in Noida shook many people: a young man, full of promise and plans, lost his life suddenly and unexpectedly. Such news arrests our routine thinking....

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Huang or Musk, who’s got a better idea of the future?

At a big meeting in Davos, Huang told people like plumbers, electricians, and construction workers not to worry — their jobs are safe. The reason is that even if we had all the AI in...

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Vivekananda: Guru that Subhas would have accepted

By Anshul Chaturvedi “A relative of mine, who was a newcomer to the town, was living next door and I had to visit him. Glancing over his books, i came across the works of Swami...

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Strategic Thinking to Better Manage Risks

The financial sector landscape is becoming increasingly complex amid interoperable technology, buoyant growth, intensifying competition, demographic shifts, changing customer expectations, interconnectedness and interdependencies, rising risks, changing laws and regulations, geopolitical implications, and many other tectonic...

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Builders, Bill-ders

‘Development’ and ‘redevelopment’: two much The old familiar city is disappearing before our eyes. Blame the two swag words, so-called ‘development’ and ‘redevelopment’. In the first, sarkari agencies are rewriting Mortimer Wheeler’s Still Digging. In...

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Death by Admin

India has sadly seen many accidents that happen because authorities do not do their jobs properly. Still, one recent tragedy in Noida shocked many people, because it was so easy to prevent. A 27-year-old man...

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Life like a Flute

A flute can produce music that touches the deepest corners of the heart. Yet the flute itself does nothing. Music arises only when breath flows through it with care and awareness. Simply blowing air into...

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Has Andhra Pradesh slipped from constitutional governance to a ‘Red-Book rule’?

A series of recent police actions in Andhra Pradesh has stirred an unusually sharp debate. What began as isolated arrests linked to Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s birthday celebrations has grown into a wider discussion...

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Got Me Some Rage Bait

2025’s word of the year will do great in 2026 too Kamala was curious about the phrase that had been chosen as Oxford University Press’s word of 2025. “I can’t understand these new-fangled terms!” she...

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Invoking Ram is not religious but a moral imperative

Acharya Lokesh When i think of Ram, i do not see a distant deity sitting on a throne in heaven. I see a human being who chose the harder path when the easier one was...

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Nostalgia Lies

The new year began with longing for recent past. That’s not a good way to figure out how to negotiate the present   The new year is so young, and already the young are dissing...

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At the Guru Padmasambhava Conference in Odisha’s Golden Triangle

Last month, during my visit to Bodhgaya, I happened to see a banner announcing the 2nd Padmasambhava Conference at Odisha, being held from January 11–16, 2026. Excited to attend a conference dedicated to my sat-guru,...

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Balancing scale and context in India’s classrooms

Resolving the tensions between designing for millions and responding to the needs of individual classrooms can be difficult. Here are lessons that can help. Both of us started our journeys in education at the grassroots...

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Bringing the moon to Mumbai and other lunar and loo-ny thoughts

 Illustration by Chad Crowe (USA) 8am Election mornings in Mumbai have a familiar rhythm: mild domestic combat and misplaced civic pride. After a brief argument with my daughter on why her school is open while other...

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A leader’s true strength lies in active listening

Farida Khanam In Iran, ongoing protests are not merely isolated incidents of unrest; they reflect a profound and growing desire among its population – especially youth and women – for greater participation and consideration in...

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Electricity, labour, seeds: Why farmers are back on the streets

As farmers return to the streets on January 16, with bigger mobilisations planned for February 12 and February 16, it’s clear this is no routine agitation. It is a warning that rural India is running...

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India’s mission mode schemes: Built to scale, but are they built to last?

Mission-mode programmes are celebrated for delivering immediate, tangible outputs at scale. But lasting social change depends on whether institutions, capacities, and accountability survive beyond the mission. Mission-mode programmes are government initiatives designed to achieve specific, high-priority...

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Information Omission

India needs to be more open and honest with its people. For that, the Central Information Commission (CIC) and other groups that handle public information have to cooperate Recently, someone asked Indian Railways to explain...

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Soft(ware) Power

Phones to cars, software is the key product differentiator now. India should focus on taking the lead in this space Today, software is more important than ever. It runs our phones, cars, and even home...

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When courts pause, trees must not fall: Rethinking the Asharodi–Jhajhra road

The widening of the Asharodi–Jhajhra road near Dehradun has brought into sharp focus a larger and more pressing question confronting Uttarakhand today: how should development proceed in an ecologically fragile Himalayan foothill region? On January...

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Sudip Roy’s singular watercolour and rustic bronzes at Habitat Centre Delhi

Sudip Roy’s Hooghly watercolour and sculptures  The Habitat Centre welcomesthe New Year with a monumental Hooghly watercolour titled Moon River, as part of TOI’s Art of India sale, along with  6 bronze sculptures that whisper...

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Emerging issues from the growth story of Haryana

Haryana completes 60 years of its formation from the erstwhile Punjab on November 1, 2025. It was the first state to achieve 100 per cent electrification and road connectivity in the early 1970s under the...

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Be a good listener

Life often teaches its most important lessons quietly. Recently, I found myself corrected not by another person but by my own reflection. The mind is quick to justify, to explain, to respond. Yet life gently...

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It’s the Bread

People often protest when life gets too hard – when they can’t afford basic things like food. This has happened in many countries: Iran, Nepal, Tunisia, old Russia, and even France a long time ago...

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Big food decides what you eat

When The Lancet released its global three-part series on ‘Ultra-Processed Foods and Human Health’ in Nov, the reaction from the world’s largest food corporations was immediate, coordinated and revealing. International Food and Beverage Alliance (IFBA),...

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Monk who inspired youth to wake up

By Narayani Ganesh Vivekananda was only thirty years old when he delivered his rousing, inspirational speech at the World Parliament of Religions in Chicago, in 1893. He presented Indian wisdom to the world in a...

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Still Grokked

Elon Musk owns a social media site called X and an AI chatbot called Grok. Grok can answer questions, crack jokes, and talk about cricket, movies, and politics. Many people in India love using it...

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Winter brain: How cold weather affects exam performance and what students can do About It

As the winter chill sets in across India, so does exam season, a combination that most students dread. While the cold brings comfort to many, it also silently affects how the brain functions, how we...

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Pakistani nuclear programme: A product of theft, deceit, and proliferation

Pakistan’s nuclear programme, from its inception in the 1970s, was fundamentally shaped by theft, deception, and systematic proliferation, involving not only individual scientists but also the country’s political leadership, military establishment, and intelligence agencies.  At...

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When Your Religion Is Liberalism

It tells you what is good, normal, worthwhile in life When we look at the world rationally, the world looks rationally back, Hegel said. Following this precept enables Alexandre Lefebvre, professor of politics and philosophy,...

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The heart has eyes that perceive the real

“Beyond the stage of intellect there is another stage. In this another eye is opened,” said Persian Sufi master and philosopher Hazrat Abu Hamid al-Ghazali (1058–1111). What the great mystic referred to is the eye...

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Unplug EV Subsidy

Electric cars are good for the environment, but the government should think carefully before giving public money to help rich people buy them. Last year, India bought about 1.8 lakh electric cars, which sounds like...

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Greenbacks, Not Gunboats

Trump may get Greenland without firing a shot, if he really sweetens the deal for Greenlanders Is Greenland next? That’s the big geopolitical question, fanned daily by Trump & Co. He pulled out the national...

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Buy-buy Pakistan

Both US and China could turn our neighbouring state into real estate  Donald Trump’s Chief of Staff greets her boss.  CoS: Boss, I’ve got good news and gooder news.  Trump: Gee, that’s great. What’s the good news?  CoS: The good...

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10 mantras for happiness at work

Happiness at work? Are you kidding?  Replied, one of my friends, when I asked the question: Are you happy at your work?  In the modern professional landscape, the quest for workplace happiness has undergone a...

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Bullet Points

Aspiring to build India’s own Shinkansens? That needs governance to speed up first  Why does any country want to follow in Japan’s bullet train tracks? Because speedier movement of people and goods means higher productivity....

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Venezuela, minerals, and lessons for India: The return of old-style imperialism

As the world saw the shocking image of President Nicolás Maduro handcuffed, forced to march in humiliating fashion with nothing but a water bottle in hand, it became painfully clear: Donald Trump’s assurances that he...

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In love with Skip

One button that promises to save us from snake oils My favourite word these days is not love or joy or those other euphemisms for sloshing about in the milk of human kindness. It is...

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When oil dictates war: Why Venezuela exposes the true cost of energy dependence

The early hours of January 3, 2026, marked not just another military intervention, but a stark reminder of a uncomfortable truth: as long as the world runs on oil, military might will shadow energy security....

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Singapore’s secret sauce: Shared crabs for social cohesion

The one enduring memory of my first trip to Singapore is of a splendid meal in one of Singapore’s many food courts. It involved chili crab, of course — this was before I became, tragically,...

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Dance in the storm. Don’t wait for rain to be over

SUMIT PAUL A New Year begins with a gush of resolutions. Aren’t New Year’s resolutions like dewdrops on grass, destined to fizzle out on the very first week of a new year? They sure are....

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Kneecap chronicles: The consistency of ‘half encounter’

In recent times, observant citizens have begun to notice a fascinating pattern in certain police operations, quietly earning its place in the folklore of urban governance. There exists a rare and astonishing branch of marksmanship,...

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Word embeddings in NLP

We will discuss word embeddings this week. Word embeddings represent a fundamental shift in natural language processing (NLP), transforming words into dense vector representations that capture semantic and syntactic meaning. Moving beyond sparse, context-agnostic methods...

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Don’t rely on NY resolutions for rejuvenation

By Radhanath Swami Have you ever wondered why we are so fascinated by new things? As children we waited eagerly for new toys. As we grew older, the desire shifted to new bicycles, gadgets, homes,...

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The US National Security Strategy 2025: We are the same, differently!

The White House has published the National Security Strategy (NSS) document of the USA under the signatures of President, Mr. Donald Trump outlining the country’s priority areas in order to safeguard the ‘core national interests’....

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