IPA Special
Muhammad Yunus, Microcredit, And The Limits Of Debt-Led Development
By Aritra Banerjee For much of the world, microcredit remains one of the most celebrated innovations in late-20th-century development thinking. Small loans to the poor—particularly to rural women—were presented as a way to bypass weak states, defeat informal moneylenders, and unlock entrepreneurship at the grassroots. Few individuals became as...
Dhurandhar: Bollywood Blockbuster Rewrites India’s Terror Wars
By T N Ashok On a humid evening in Mumbai, the applause began before the final scene had ended. The screen was still soaked in gunfire, bodies still falling, when the clapping rose—hesitant at first, then thunderous. For many in the audience, Dhurandhar was not simply a film. It...
Trump-Backed Kushner-Witkoff Project Sunrise: Charity Or Business?
By Asad Mirza The proverbial ‘cat’ is indeed ‘out of the bag’, after a hiatus of more than two years, following the Hamas attack on Israel in 2023. The details of the alleged ‘Project Sunrise’ was shared by the Wall Street Journal, over the weekend. The proposal is to...
SC’s Dismissal In Samuel Kamalesan: Secularism Vs. Military Discipline?
By Shruti Bedi On November 25, the Supreme Court dismissed the Special Leave Petition in Samuel Kamalesan v. Union of India (2025). It declined to interfere with a decision of the Delhi High Court which had upheld the dismissal of a Christian army officer for refusing to enter the...
Assam violence targets BJP leader’s home
Violence erupted in Assam’s West Karbi Anglong district on Monday after protests linked to demands for evictions escalated into arson and stone-pelting, with demonstrators setting fire to the ancestral home of Karbi Anglong Autonomous Council Chief Executive Member and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Tuliram Ronghang in Dongkamukam. Police said...
Trump Has Become A Threat To Free Trade
By Nantoo Banerjee US President Donald Trump may have problems with Russia, Venezuela and a host of other states and has every right to decide on the US trade and diplomatic policies to deal with those countries. But he has no right to thrust upon other free nations his...
Bangladesh Govt Interim Chief Dr Muhammad Yunus Under Fire From BNP
By Ashis Biswas Doubts have arisen in Bangladesh as to whether the general elections scheduled on Feb 12 2026 can be held, after yet another major outbreak of mob violence during the last 48 hours. There have been several deaths as frenzied armed gangs of religious extremists publicly butchered...
Setback In Maharashtra Local Body Election Has Lessons For INDIA Bloc
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Setbacks to the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA), which is the political alliance of INDIA bloc in Maharashtra, in the local body elections in the state have clearly served a stern warning to the opposition that they must exert more unitedly if they want to perform...
Year 2026 May Witness Further Global Disruptions And Dominance Of Trump
By Kalyani Shankar As the Year 2025 comes to a close, we stand on the brink of 2026, anticipating what lies ahead. What does the crystal ball say? The ball reveals the potential for emerging events and political shifts that could shape our world in 2026. Notable forecasts, including...
H-1B Visa Holders Stranded In India As US Backtracks On Assurances
By T N Ashok Hundreds of Indian professionals working in the United States on H-1B visas are stranded in India after returning home for what they believed would be routine visa renewals — a process that has now spiralled into months-long uncertainty, financial distress, and professional limbo. Many of...
Political Parties In Kerala Are Concerned At Sir Exclusion Of 25 Lakh Voters
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Political parties in the State have voiced grave concern over the fact that more than 25 lakh voters are ‘untraceable’ in the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) undertaken by the Election Commission of India (ECI). The parties, with the exception of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),...
New Uttar Pradesh BJP President Pankaj Choudhry Is Disliked By Yogi Adityanath
By Pradeep Kapoor LUCKNOW: Is BJP high command trying to corner powerful chief minister Yogi Adityanath through recently appointed State President Union Minister Pankaj Choudhry.? The appointment of Pankaj Choudhry surprised several BJP leaders and political commentators as he and chief minister Yogi Adityanath belong to same district Gorakhpur....
Latest Bangladesh Developments Have Dangerous Consequences For India
By Nitya Chakraborty The political developments in Bangladesh including violence against any one opposing the fundamentalists are having dangerous consequences for India involving the security and geopolitical stability in the sub continent. According to this writer who has been following the churnings in the newly liberated nation since 1971,...
CJI’s Bench Hits The Nail On A Problem That The Courts Were Always Shy To Discuss
By K Raveendran A pointed observation from the apex court has opened an uncomfortable but necessary conversation about judicial integrity, a subject that has long been discussed in hushed tones but rarely confronted head-on within the system itself. A bench of the Supreme Court of India headed by Chief...
Rise In Agricultural Activities Brought Unemployment Down In Rural Areas
By Dr. Gyan Pathak With rise in agricultural activities during the reaping of Kharif and sowing of Rabi crops, the unemployment rate in the rural areas of India has witnessed a considerable fall to 3.9 per cent in November 2025 as against 4.4 per cent in October on current...
Big Relief To Kerala CM P Vijayan As High Court Stays Proceedings On ED Notice
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Yet another attempt to discredit the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government in Kerala has failed with the High Court staying, for three months, proceedings on the show-cause notice the Enforcement Directorate (ED) had issued to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, former finance minister Thomas Isaac, and...
Steel Producing Giants Like China, Japan, India Are Competing To Import Raw Materials
By Kunal Bose Japan is a shining example of remaining a powerful entity in the global steel industry in terms of capacity and production volume but more by way of technology prowess. This is in spite of it remaining perennially wholly dependent on imports of principal steelmaking ingredients. The...
Thailand, Cambodia Resuming Border War Again Has A Bad Omen For The Region
By Tirthankar Mitra A ceasefire imposed rather than agreed upon rarely lasts long. The renewed fighting between Thailand and Cambodia is a case in point. A truce brokered earlier this year marked a lull in hostilities. It was pushed on the two neighbouring countries by US President Donald Trump...
