By Tirthankar Mitra Nepal has decided to hike the permit fees to climb Mount Everest. It will certainly boost Nepal’s revenues. Yet it raises the question about the ethics of commercialisation of scaling one of the world’s most revered natural wonders. Issues pertaining to sustainability and overcrowding come up...
By Nitya Chakraborty Narendra Modi government is due to present its second budget in the third term of the Modi regime on February 1 in an environment of domestic downturn in GDP growth along with global uncertainty in trade due to U.S. President Donald Trump’s disruptive trade and tariff...
By K Raveendran The Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has brought down the market crashing, but it has done even more damaging things to the United States. Apart from challenging Silicon Valley’s technology dominance, the Chinese have exposed the limits of Trump’s tariffs, challenging Washington’s ability to restrain China’s technological...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Is it not a joke to expect a Member of Parliament to read, understand, give a considered view with qualitative comment on 655-pages-long final draft report on an important legislative amendment bill, such as the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, 2024, within a few hours, which was...
By Sushil Kutty Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav woke up Wednesday to a great possibility. A stampede at the Mahakumbh! Similar to the one in 2013, when the ‘Kumbh’ 12 years ago, had been similarly met with a stampede and 36 ‘shradalus’ were stomped to death, their last breath...
By Arun Srivastava Winning Delhi assembly election is certainly crucial for AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, but a triumph for Narendra Modi is more vital, virtually of the nature of do and die, than a win for Kejriwal. By winning the election, Kejriwal would become the chief minister of Delhi...
By Ben Chacko LONDON: History may have been made this week when, for the first time, a Chinese technological development had the effect of wiping at least a trillion dollars off corporate values on the US stock market. Artificial intelligence firm DeepSeek caused the crash by showing that it...
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Nothing seems to be going right for the Bharatiya Janata Party in Kerala. The party is set to suffer a twin setback with an open revolt in Palakkad municipality under its control, and the threat by its ally, the Bharat Dharma Jana Sen (BDJS) to...
By Girish Linganna As India awaits the presentation of the Union Budget 2025-26, the defence sector is poised at a crucial juncture. Building on the foundation laid in the previous year, the 2025-26 budget needs to navigate the complexities of evolving security challenges while sustaining the momentum towards self-reliance...
By Nitya Chakraborty The U.S. President Donald Trump has intensified his attacks against the left wing regimes of Latin America as a part of the MAGA programme to weaken the Left in the region and bolster the far right forces which have been emboldened as a result of the...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Delhi election campaign entered the final week before it will end on February 3 for the polling scheduled for February 5. In the beginning of the election campaign BJP seemed to be aggressive and dominating over the AAP’s political narrative, but as the election campaign...
By Aritra Banerjee As the Indo-Pacific emerges as the fulcrum of global geopolitical competition, naval exercises have become vital instruments for projecting power, fostering cooperation, and safeguarding maritime security. Within this dynamic landscape, the Indian Navy stands out as a model of strategic foresight and operational excellence, eclipsing the...
By Sushil Kutty Uttarakhand the other day announced the Uniform Civil Code and the impact was felt in an OIC country, with media outlets there flaying India for targeting its minorities, especially the Muslims, by resetting its “patchwork of different religious personal laws” into a common civil code. So,...
By Satyaki Chakraborty Germany is witnessing heated campaign by the political parties contesting the national elections scheduled for February 23. The poll excitement has reached a high pitch as the far right AFD held a rally on Saturday with participation of Trump acolyte Elon Musk who is spearheading the...
By Nantoo Banerjee India’s net economic growth minus inflation during the current financial year may be well below the projections made by the government, the Reserve Bank and external agencies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. The net economic growth...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Despite financial constraints due to slowdown of the Indian economy in the current financial year 2024-25, Union Budget 2025-26 has to give special attention to education, health, and women’s welfare for two reasons –first, because these are essential elements for India’s long-term growth aspirations, such...
By Arun Srivastava Trajectory of the right wing growth across the globe could not be accomplished unless it turns India into a heaven for these forces in South East Asia. Right from the days of Hitler many attempts were made to push India into the dirty dungeon of rightist...
By Sushil Kutty United States President Donald J. Trump is in that stage of his life where he must be asking himself, “If not me, who? If not now, when?” And Trump has a powerful platform to get things he wants done, make good the promises he made, which...