Opinion
Appeal
The legacy of IPA, founded by Nikhil Chakravartty, the doyen of journalism in India, to keep the flag of independent media flying high, is facing the threat of extinction due to the effect of the Covid pandemic. Only an emergency funding can avert such an eventuality. We appeal to all those who believe in the freedom of expression to contribute to this noble cause.Poverty Alleviation And Climate Change Programme Are Intricately Linked
By Krishna Jha The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2025, brought out recently by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) and the United Nations Development Programme, is basically a caution against the looming danger, and not just a statistical update. It is a caution to the world’s...
Wuhan Lapse Was Not A Mistake — It Was A Governance Choice By Beijing!
By Aritra Banerjee The COVID-19 pandemic is often discussed as a tragedy of biology. In truth, it was a tragedy of governance. What unfolded in Wuhan in the winter of 2019–20 was not merely an administrative lapse or a momentary failure of judgment. It was the predictable outcome of...
Venezuela War Is About Oil Trump Admits, Imposes Blockade On Tankers
By C.J. Atkins NEW YORK: Oil, oil, oil, oil, oil—the word appeared five times in President Donald Trump’s Truth Social post on Tuesday announcing the U.S. military was imposing a “TOTAL AND COMPLETE BLOCKADE” of sanctioned oil tankers going into and out of Venezuela. The White House occupant’s inability...
Energy Markets Recalibrate As Geopolitics Reshapes Supply Calculus
By K Raveendran Oil prices slipping below $60 a barrel for the first time since February 2021 and a sharp easing in European gas prices mark more than a cyclical downturn in commodities. They signal a rapid repricing of geopolitical risk at a moment when diplomacy, rather than escalation,...
Political Heat Rises In West Bengal After Publication Of Draft Electoral Roll
By Dr. Gyan Pathak With the publication of Draft Electoral Rolls on December 16, 2025, political heat has considerably risen in West Bengal which is going to poll three months from now in March-April 2026. Over 58 lakh names have been deleted from the existing voter list during the...
Redefining Aravali, The Oldest Hills Chain Is A Matter Of Concern
By Jag Mohan Thaken The coming generations will hardly believe that there was a chain of the oldest mountains, namely the Aravali hills, on Indian earth and they will read only in the books that the hills spread over 800 km from Gujarat to Delhi, through Rajasthan and Haryana,...
Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Again? Iraq Lies Recycled For Venezuela War
By Rob Warzyniak NEW YORK: On December 6, President Trump’s “War” Secretary Pete Hegseth took the stage at the Reagan Defense Forum to outline the latest iteration of U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. should not be “distracted by democracy building, interventionism, undefined wars, regime change, climate change, woke moralizing,...
As Nepal Readies For National Elections On March 5, 2026, Where Is Gen Z’s Party?
By Nitya Chakraborty Is Bangladesh’s pre-election scenario is being repeated in Nepal which was the seat of a two day revolt by Gen Z of the country against the ruling K S Oli government in the second week of September this year? Major indications are leading to that, the...
What Makes PM Narendra Modi To Dismantle The Demand Driven MGNREGA
By Dr. Gyan Pathak The Union Government of India is set to introduce Viksit Bharat – Guarantee For Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Bill (VB-G RAM G) in the Lok Sabha, which will mark the end of the current Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, 2005 under which...
Maharashtra Urban Polls Set The Stage For A High-Stake 2026 Battle
By T N Ashok The announcement of Maharashtra’s urban local body election schedule has done more than set the clock ticking for civic polls—it has forced an uneasy ruling alliance to rediscover the value of unity. With voting for all 29 municipal corporations, including the powerful Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation...
From Chhaava To Durandhar – Story Telling Was The Key To Success In 2025
By Ashok Nilakantan Ayers With just days left before the curtain falls on 2025, Bollywood finds itself in an unusually buoyant position. After years of uneven recoveries and post-pandemic recalibration, the Hindi film industry finally rediscovered its box-office muscle this year—powered by star-driven spectacles, rooted storytelling, and a growing...
Why Dickens’s Scrooge Still Walks Among US At Christmas, 182 Years On?
By Keith Flett LONDON: Charles Dickens’s Christmas Carol was published on December 19 1843. Eleven days later the Chartist Northern Star had this response, which was headed “a Christmas Carol”:“According to annual and praise-worthy custom the unfortunate inmates both of the workhouse and prison throughout the metropolis, will, upon...
‘SHANTI’ Act Alone May Not Fully Protect Nuclear Plants Against Liabilities
By Nantoo Banerjee It is difficult to explain why the government took nearly 17 years to decide on launching a bill in Parliament to allow private participation in India’s nuclear power generation programme. The proposed Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India (SHANTI) Bill to amend...
Left Loses Power In Chile As Far Right Antonio Kast Wins Presidential Polls
By Nitya Chakraborty The Latin American Left got a major shock on Sunday December 14 as the far right candidate Jose Antonio Kast won the run off Presidential elections by defeating the ruling Left coalition candidate Jeannette Jara by a margin of 16 per cent of the polled votes....
Jimmy Lai: From Refugee Entrepreneur To Beijing’s Most Defiant Critic
By Ashok Nilakantan Ayers NEW YORK: When Jimmy Lai walked into Hong Kong’s High Court on Monday morning, smiling faintly and waving to family members, the moment carried the weight of more than a single verdict. It marked the end of an era — not just for a 78-year-old...
Task Cut Out For LDF In Kerala After Local Bodies Polls Setback
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There is no denying that the Left Democratic Front (LDF) has suffered a setback in the local bodies elections. The Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) is certainly on a comeback trail with an excellent victory. As for the BJP, but for the win in Thiruvananthapuram...
Hollywood Legend Rob Reiner’s Tragic Death Is A Big Loss For World Cinema
By T N Ashok NEW YORK: Rob Reiner 78, and his wife Michele Singer Reiner 68, died in a tragic homicide at their doorstep in Brentwood in Hollywood home in Los Angeles, after sustaining multiple stab wounds from an unknown assailant. Investigations are on to apprehend the culprit. Reiner...
America’s Democratic Socialists Are On A Winning Spree At All Levels
By Branko Marcetic NEW YORK: Zohran Mamdani’s mayoral win in New York forced many political observers to think, for the first time, of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) as a serious and potentially formidable force in American political life. For the more than one hundred DSA members who assembled...
