By T N Ashok The optics of French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to India for a 4th official in quick time are unmistakable. When he landed in Mumbai a warm embrace from PM Modi welcomed him reestablishing the bonhomie enjoyed between them. Narendra Modi, and Emanuel Macron, had a...
By Tirthankar Mitra A lifelong crusader at home and abroad for the rights of the economically challenged and unrepresented Jesse Jackson is no more. His was a voice respected in US whose citizen he was and far beyond the contours of American borders. For the issues he championed were...
By Raju Kumar BHOPAL: An economic survey is often regarded as a mirror of a state’s socio-economic condition. It does not merely present figures on growth rates, investment, and production; it also reflects the state’s vision and the direction in which it seeks to move its future. Alongside agriculture,...
By C.J. Atkins NEW YORK: Ninety years ago, the people of Spain delivered a forceful rebuke to right-wing extremism and opened one of the most dramatic chapters in working-class history. The election victory on Feb. 16, 1936, of the Popular Front (Frente Popular)—an alliance of socialists, communists, republicans, and...
By David Horsley and Jeanne Rathbone LONDON:“By the death of Saklatvala, the Indian people have lost their greatest and most sincere champion, the Communist Party, one of its most devoted and self sacrificing leaders, and his family a kindly, gentle, loving husband and father.” These were the words of...
By Nitya Chakraborty Just twenty days after the February 12 national elections in Bangladesh, another South Asian country Nepal is going to the polls on March 5 just six months after the Gen Z movement in the country ousted the K P S Oli government in September 2025. The...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak When the world seems to be on the rapid development trajectory, there has been a shocking lack of progress in Human Capital development across the world. Despite rising incomes and reductions in poverty, two-thirds of low- and middle-income countries have experienced a decline in health,...
By Asad Mirza Israel unabatedly continues its expansionist policy in the West Bank. The US, United Nations and several Arab states have criticised Israel as it expands powers in the occupied West Bank by allowing Jewish Israelis to buy West Bank land directly, and extending greater Israeli control over...
By Anjan Roy World Economic Forum’s Davos dalliance of world leaders, both political and corporate, has become a widely recognised event. However, an even more critical and certainly highly prestigious pow-wow happened last week. This is the Munich Security Conference (MSC) in the eponymous German city held on February13...
By Raju Kumar Agatti, one of Lakshadweep’s smallest inhabited islands, has recently found itself at the centre of a serious policy debate. Gazette notifications issued by the Lakshadweep Administration in January 2026 propose the acquisition of land for three separate purposes: 1,01,020 square metres for tourism and other public...
By Ben Chacko LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer shows no capacity to respond to the ongoing fallout over Peter Mandelson’s appointment to Washington — which has engulfed the whole Labour Together faction key to his own rise to power. Nor to the demand, put more forcefully than before...
By Nantoo Banerjee There is little to be excited about the defence ministry’s latest clearance for the acquisition of 114 Rafale fighter jets from France at a huge cost of Rs.3.25 lakh crore (nearly $40 billion), branded as ‘mother of all defence deals’. It is a matter of major...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak With the Supreme Court scheduling the petitions challenging its 2018 Judgment allowing women to enter into the Sabarimala temple in Kerala for hearing before a nine-judge constitution bench from April 7 to 22, it is most likely to impact elections not only in Kerala but...
By R. Suryamurthy Trade agreements are rarely about trade alone. They are instruments of power, redistribution, and risk transfer, disguised in the neutral language of tariffs and market access. The interim trade framework announced this year between the United States and India is a case in point. Framed publicly...
By Kalyani Shankar Demands to award the Bharat Ratna to Hindu thinker Vinayak Damodar Savarkar have revived an ongoing political debate between the Congress-led Opposition and the BJP, highlighting the deep divisions over his ideas, beliefs, and role in India’s independence movement. The issue first gained major political traction...
By Asad Mirza The much-anticipated election results from Bangladesh are out. The BNP has secured 209 seats, while the Jamaat-e-Islami won 68, as the Election Commission disclosed the unofficial election results for 297 constituencies. But the scale of the win surprised some observers, given expectations of a tighter race...
By T N Ashok On a quiet Sunday afternoon in Mallappally of Pathanamthitta district in Kerala, the tiny white coffin of 10-month-old Aalin Sherin Abraham was lowered into the earth to the sound of muffled sobs and whispered prayers. Hundreds gathered — neighbours, strangers, officials — not merely to...
By Tirthankar Mitra Things are not going well for Pakistan’s former prime minister and front ranking Opposition leader Imran Khan and democratic process of this country. Imprisonment of the former prime minister not dominating the political debate in a country which espouses democracy; this is an aberration. The deeper...