By T N Ashok The gift wrapped Melody chocolate seemed to sing a new jingle : Jab Melody hain, tho Meloni hain” to soft power India’s diplomatic thrust into a country where a saint was crucified and a great new religion was born that swept the world with millions...
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In an important policy decision, the V. D. Satheesan Government has decided to scrap the K-Rail (SilverLine) semi-high-speed railway project from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod. Addressing a press conference after the Cabinet meeting, Chief Minister Satheesan said all the land acquired for the project would be...
By Tirthankar Mitra Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo has been declared to be an international public health emergency by World Health Organisation (WHO). It is much more than a timely medical alert. It is a call to seal “viral frontiers”. The epidemic in fragile states are no longer local...
By Dave McKee NEW YORK: In what can only be described as an acceleration and expansion of the bellicose and dangerous far-right populist movement around the globe, the U.S. government of Donald Trump is reportedly seeking to build an international coalition to oppose the anti-fascist left. Washington says U.S....
By Ben Chacko LONDON: Former Welsh Labour leader Mark Drakeford is the latest figure to call for an orderly removal of Keir Starmer. The defenestration of the Prime Minister is now Westminster Labour’s default position as well as meeting the desires and expectations of most people. Drakeford’s measured intervention...
By Nitya Chakraborty This is the season of high level summits. On May 14 and 15, U.S President Donald Trump visited Beijing and had ‘ fantastic’ talks, according to the U.S. President, Chinese media also went overboard explaining the great possibilities of China-US cooperation in political and economic spheres...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak History has again put the Congress in the politically very sensitive and emotionally complicated terrain. After the election result in Tamil Nadu, the Congress decided to support the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) led by Vijay. As chief minister of the state, Vijay on May 18,...
By K Raveendran Supreme Court’s endorsement of lawful euthanasia for rabid, incurably ill and demonstrably dangerous stray dogs marks a decisive shift in India’s long-running debate over public safety, animal welfare and the limits of sentiment in civic governance. The ruling does not license indiscriminate killing, nor does it...
By Tirthankar Mitra KOLKATA: Time was when Trinamool Congress stood on firm organisational foundations all over West Bengal with each and everyone of its leaders and activists looking up to party supremo Mamata Banerjee for helming them to electoral triumph. But the days when none dared to question Banerjee’s...
By Anjan Roy KOLKATA: Now that a “double-engine sarkar” is in the driving seat in Bengal, strong expectations have been roused about a revival of a long-hibernating economy of the state. The background is that once, almost beyond the living memory of the newer generations, Bengal was in the...
By Purbasha Panda, Rongeet Poddar On April 13, 2026, a demonstration led by garment factory workers in the Gautam Buddha Nagar district of Noida turned into a violent protest leading to fraught public order in several areas of the city. There were reported incidents of stone pelting, clashes between...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Despite several orders and recommendations of the Supreme Court and the Parliamentary Standing Committee, the Union Government did not structurally reform the National Testing Agency (NTA), and also did not take appropriate actions that helped the education mafia of the country to strengthen its grip...
By T N Ashok India’s stock markets have seen panic before. They have survived wars, sanctions, pandemics, banking collapses and political earthquakes. But the latest selloff triggered by the Iran-linked oil shock has exposed something far deeper and more structural inside Asia’s third-largest economy: India’s extraordinary vulnerability to imported...
By Asad Mirza The United States and Iran appear locked between diplomacy and military escalation as tensions over the Strait of Hormuz intensify. While President Donald Trump has temporarily postponed military action following pressure from Gulf allies, Tehran is simultaneously advancing new proposals on nuclear talks and unveiling a...
By Ashok Nilakantan Ayers NEW YORK: For years, Pakistan’s political class has lived inside a hall of mirrors — where conspiracy theories become national doctrine, where whispers from Rawalpindi travel faster than court judgments, and where the line between reality and manufactured narrative has almost entirely collapsed. Into that...
By Satyaki Chakraborty In a significant development in the sphere of India-China economic cooperation, China has offered its assistance to India in dealing its energy security challenge in the context of the present US war in Iran and crisis in oil shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. IN a...
By Dr Arun Mitra It is deeply painful to witness the defeat of Left and Democratic Front (LDF), the only government led by the communists in the state of Kerala. Even more distressing is the growing marginalisation of the voice that has consistently spoken for the downtrodden — the...
By Indrani Chakraborty Peru, a nation of Latin America will be holding Presidential face off polls on June 7 after the first round of polls held in April this year failed to give majority to any of the contesting candidates. Peruvian election authority announced finally that Keiko Fujimori with...