US-Israel strikes tip Middle East into a new crisis

The US and Israel finally decided to cross a Rubicon that had been looming over the Middle Eastern strategic landscape for some time. Their coordinated strikes on Iranian targets were not merely tactical operations; they...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/WHIDOd4

Lutyens: Don’t judge an architect by his politics but his buildings

One of the serious cultural shortcomings with us argumentative Indians is that we are often quick to dismiss an issue without considering its full scope. The current debate on Indianising Indian history lies at the...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/jEHvg2T

Did Iran really have a Golden Past?

Regardless of how some people of the Iranian diaspora in the West envision a lost golden period for Iran, the country has always been porous, just like every other nation on the earth. When you...

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Holi – A festival that celebrates good food

Holi, the radiant festival of colors, is as much a celebration of flavor as it is of joy. Welcoming the arrival of spring and symbolizing renewal, Holi transforms homes across India into kitchens fragrant with...

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Elementary, Investigators

Good investigations are built on proof — not guesses. Recently, a special judge named Jitender Singh strongly criticised the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) over its case about Delhi’s excise policy. The judge said the...

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From wells to wastelands: Water bankruptcy and the logic of extraction

The world is not facing a temporary water shortage. It is entering water bankruptcy. Nearly half of humanity now experiences severe water scarcity for at least part of each year. Reservoirs shrink. Crops fail. Aquifers...

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Knock, Knock…Who’s Fluent?

Teenagers are naturally attracted to foreign cultures, and thus languages. Encourage this  Policy is all very well, but what about pleasure? It gets little mention in politically charged shouting matches about the Centre’s three-language policy,...

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Where we goofed up in spirituality

Last evening, I overheard a couple of seemingly learned men immersed in an avid discussion as I took my daily stroll by the poolside. Their topic, quite to my mind’s delight, was the soul. But...

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OBEYdience Is Overrated

Do elders give good advice? Sometimes. Young’uns need to filter it through their own context When Sam Altman told an auditorium full of IITians that “listening to old people is the biggest mistake young people...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/Q9uB37t

Tree People

Depending on where we live, we are either coniferous or deciduous, except in reverse As winter yields to warm spring, which will become the furnace of summer, I look at the trees that front my...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/SWq8y4V

Don’t run with the first task you come across

One of the most subtle productivity errors does not look like an error at all. It looks like initiative. It feels like momentum. It even feels disciplined.  It is this: starting the day with the first...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/hZ9NjKo

Punchatantra

I gently wiped a tear as I looked at my phone with grief and concern. Kamala paused mid-stride, worried that I had got some bad news about an ailing relative or that Trump had raised...

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Dark Age Returns

Taliban’s new penal code re-imposes total gender apartheid on Afghan women To the international community’s utter indifference, Taliban have created a horror chamber for Afghan women. In the latest – after barring women from school...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/80sUnMP

Lingaraj & Mukteshwar Temple – Where stone speaks of liberation

I visited Bhubaneswar for the first time, though I had visited Puri and Konark 30 years back. When I arrived at Bhubaneswar railway station, I attempted to book an auto. None of the drivers were...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/QtnoaVs

#66: Never smoked? Why lung cancer still deserves your attention

Lung cancer has always been thought of as a smoker’s disease. That is still largely true, but the story is changing in an important way. A growing share of lung cancer is now being diagnosed...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/j3LpnMr

India’s sovereign AI vision and its strategic relevance for the Global South

The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the defining technology of the 21st century has reshaped global power equations. Control over data, computing, and algorithms is rapidly becoming as consequential as control over energy or...

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Viral robodog video shows why Indian universities need less spin, more substance

The recent episode involving a private university at the AI Impact Summit has been painful to watch. First, a word for the students and faculty. There are good students and committed teachers in every institution....

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/haOSQXj

Junk This Idea

Guj bid to change marriage registration rules violates adults’ rights  Gujarat govt’s dubious, to say the least, proposal to amend marriage registration rules says a married couple must provide a declaration that “parents were informed”...

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Epstein Pals & ‘Epsteining’

Andrew’s arrest says something good about UK. But no one, anywhere, is investigating the real story Royals are a big deal for the Brit establishment. Therefore UK cops arresting Andrew – an ex-prince is still...

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Summits & realities

There’ll be no global cooperation in AI. But Indian entrepreneurs can pick their niches Around this time six years ago, world was waking up to dangers of a brand-new virus. Was Covid a manmade pandemic?...

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The offshore incorporation paradox

Why Indian startups still incorporate abroad — even as some return home India’s startup story has entered a new phase. The earlier narrative was simple: Indian founders-built companies at home and incorporated abroad. The new...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/B9ZkXp7

Grammar Of Justice

Courts must heed SC’s message. Payment to victim in lieu of sentencing inverts justice SC on Tuesday read high courts and trial courts a lesson on sentencing for the nth time – reducing sentences in...

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Get Halfway There

Countries today want to be strong in AI (artificial intelligence), just like they want to be strong in defence. But the truth is, only a few countries can fully control their AI systems because they...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/ieBbhJl

Empower, Be Chipper

To be AI player, big investments are a must in both electricity & GPUs. India has to make a choice Advanced AI chips, called GPUs, are quite expensive. Just one of these can cost over...

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Monetary policy prompts growth through credit flows

Monetary policy has been relentlessly focused on ways to increase the flow of credit to the productive sectors of the economy. Against the backdrop of a resilient economy and low inflation, keeping the repo rate...

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Shifting sands: The new geopolitical landscape in mid-February 2026

In 2026, global geopolitics is shaped less by single events and more by the complex mix of power rivalries, energy issues, shifting alliances, and new security challenges. This week shows a world that is unstable...

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No Storm In A Cup

Food research is addictive, but also disorienting. Often common sense is a better guide  Now, another toast to coffee by a study of 130,000 people that suggests that two to three cups a day can...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/1L9RPZ4

Shaivism and its influence outside India

Shaivism as a sect, worships various forms of Shiva and has its origins in India. The Rigvedic Rudra or the Siva-lingas reported from the sites of Saraswati-Sindhu Civilization were not confined to India. Over time,...

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For Bangladesh, this is a moment of both peril and possibility

The 2026 general election in Bangladesh — the first electoral exercise after the 2024 student-led uprising that brought an abrupt end to Sheikh Hasina’s long and increasingly authoritarian tenure—marks a decisive inflection point in the...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/BnzPT7c

What We Lose When We Give Up Reading…

…The very foundations of modern society There’s a 15-year-old YouTube video, showing a toddler scrolling and clicking on an iPad. She tries those moves on magazines, and gives up, perhaps concluding that a magazine is...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/qK0tvNz

Why political left or right are exclusionary

Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev We are witnessing a resurgence of right-wing movements worldwide. Many believe this is a natural consequence of left wing having overplayed its hand in previous decades. The result? An oscillation from one...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/PVcxywm

This might be artful

Ireland has decided to help artists by giving some of them money every month, even if they are not selling lots of art. This money is called a “basic income.” It helps artists spend more...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/0lZzuTC

Global opportunity or legalised exploitation? Why India and the US must fix skilled migration together

Two decades of reporting, regulatory reviews, and worker advocacy reveal how employer-tied work visas and layered staffing arrangements have left many skilled migrants legally authorised to work abroad, yet economically insecure—raising shared questions of accountability...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/ofLqnTj

People or Policymakers

People in Bangladesh are voting today, and they actually have to vote twice. First, they will choose their new parliament. Second, they will vote in a referendum on a long list of changes the government...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/LGzKMcx

Clockwork orange

The recent Budget has added a new colour to India’s already colourful economy This year’s Annual Financial Statement – known to its chums as the Budget, with a capital B to show how important it...

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Explained – How language shapes power, identity, and social hierarchies

The politics of language is a multifaceted and vital area of study within sociolinguistics, political knowledge, nonfictional inquiries and historical writing. It explores how language functions as a device of authority, identity, and social fraternity,...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/xVwhKJ1

Don’t Fool Yourself

Why Indians won’t suddenly start having more babies, even if important leaders say so Every few years, some well‑known people in India say that families should have lots of children—sometimes four, five, or even ten!...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/xQhLokP

Free Thinking

Deal with Trump signals fundamental shift in India’s trade philosophy from ‘won’t buy’ to ‘will sell’ America matters, for it’s where the most money is. This year, Americans will buy clothes worth $370bn – more...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/q4nY2N9

Harvest heroes: Unsung stars of desi plates

Local ingredients like mahua, nolen gur, roselle, and pandan leaves represent a powerful resurgence in Indian cuisine, bridging ancient traditions with cutting-edge innovation. These hyperlocal treasures—harvested from forests, palms, and backyards—carry stories of sustainability and...

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What trade deal critics are getting wrong

The announcement of an India-US trade agreement has led some to ask what happened to Indian strategic autonomy. This criticism, however, misses two points. First, Indian govts have often made foreign policy trade-offs when there’s...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/tr0AIY7

Arresting Thought

SC tells cops to think before acting – good advice  Supreme Court has once again read police the arrest act. Ask, it said in as many words, why arrest before making the arrest: “The police...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/OUEjvTb

Love is all about drowning in the ocean

“The intellectual is always showing off; The lover is always losing his self. The intellectual runs away, afraid of the water; Love is all about drowning in the ocean,” said Mevlana Jalal al-Din Rumi, the...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/Va37z45

Jam session

As elsewhere in India, Goa discovers that the path to traffic-hell is paved with good highways  In Goa I’m stuck in what seems to be an unending traffic jam. The jam is not caused by...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/lFw9mK1

UGC must ensure equity does not become exclusion

As the debate on the now-stayed UGC rules regarding caste discrimination in educational institutions rages on, one must consider the root of the problem. It’s demand for ‘equity’ in place of ‘equality’. The two are...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/7p94el6

India as the new centre of gravity: How the EU trade deal prompted the US to act

The global order is being reshaped by overlapping shocks such as trade wars, supply-chain fragmentation, energy insecurity, and strategic rivalry among major powers. In this churn, India has moved from the periphery of rule-making to...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/vDjfbZu

Hanuman empowers us with right knowledge

By Swami Chidrupananda Why search for role models and superheroes when we have Hanumanji, who embodies all energies and higher qualities, guiding us to live most efficiently and contribute brilliantly to society? Hanuman is dear...

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Eight verses for training the mind

By The XIV Dalai Lama In seeking a meaningful life rooted in love and wisdom, few guides are more helpful than the training of the mind. Among the most revered in Tibetan tradition is the...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/zohw7KO

Golden handshake

Gold prices have dropped a little in the last few days, so you might feel like you’ve lost money. That feeling is normal — when something you own becomes cheaper, you feel less rich. But...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/xSF7rKW

Union Budget: A surplus of sarees and the art of giving halwa

A couple of hours before the presentation of the Union Budget, Indian newsrooms, especially television studios, assume a sense of (self) importance akin to the mission control room of a rocket launching station. Both are...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/urtcpxH

Message to markets: Bet on growth + stability

Manufacturing push, infra development and fiscal consolidation marked FM’s strategic blueprint to sustain high growth. For capital markets participants, Budget offered opportunities and incentives that reflect govt’s intent to balance growth with stability.    ...

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True wealth emerges when head, heart, hand unite

By Ram Krishna Sinha Wealth creation is an art. Developing the art requires a mindset of seeing opportunities for growth, along with some essential habits such as patience and discipline. Wealth grows from consistent effort...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/doPTNuG

Recovery happens in spurts. So does aging

Healing begins with the recognition of an injury, then the rush of blood to the site of injury. This is followed by a complex healing cascade in which the damaged tissue is removed and new...

from Times of India Voices https://ift.tt/fALMHt8