By Ashok Nilakantan Ayers SILICON VALLEY / SAN FRANSISCO / CALIFORNIA: The numbers are staggering. Microsoft has spent over $20 billion building data centres stuffed with the most powerful computer chips ever made. Meta is burning through billions more, weaving artificial intelligence into Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook. Google and...
By Rahil Nora Chopra The Congress high command seems to have finally woken up to the dire need for resolving the tricky leadership crisis lingering on in Karnataka, with AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday saying that both Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM DK Shivakumar would be summoned...
By Anjan Roy International Monetary Fund’s latest country level consultations with India reveal a flattering picture of the state of the economy. The executive directors have submitted their consultation report to the government, along with their recommendations for the government and its economic managers. Two observations stand out from...
By Dr. B K Kango Since the advent of 19th century and spread of education and awareness, the injustice done in the name of the caste has come into focus. Many reformers like Periyar, Mahatma Phule and Dr. Ambedkar and others have focused this issue of caste injustice and...
By T N Ashok In the unassuming coastal sands of Kerala and Tamil Nadu lie minerals with an outsized claim on the future. Rare earth elements—seventeen chemically similar metals with unpronounceable names like neodymium, dysprosium, and praseodymium—are the sinews of modern civilization. They power the motors in electric vehicles,...
By Kurt Hackbarth NEW YORK: A youth march in Mexico city with the notable absence of youth. A march against violence that ended with deliberately provoked violence. A nonpartisan march with one of its key proponents in the pay of the nation’s conservative party. A march inspired by imagery...
By Nitya Chakraborty 2025 has been a golden year for the Chinese President Xi Jinping in global diplomacy. In the last ten months since taking over the U.S. presidency by Donald Trump on January 20 this year for the second non-consecutive term, Chinese supremo Xi Jinping is on the...
By R. Suryamurthy India’s decision to establish a domestic rare-earth magnet industry may seem like a technical footnote in a week crowded with political and economic headlines. In reality, it marks one of the country’s most important strategic turns in years. The Union Cabinet’s approval of a ₹7,280-crore scheme...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Stubble burning by farmers of Punjab and Haryana has been chiefly blamed for years for deterioration of air quality in the Nation Capital Territory Delhi by the Government of Delhi while keeping a blind eye on other major factors and veiling its own failure. The...
By Nilotpal Basu Four Labour Codes have been notified by the Government of India immediately after NDA’s major electoral victory in the Bihar Assembly elections, and the accompanying euphoria. The Codes on wages, industrial relations, occupational safety and social security override in the name of ‘simplification of 29 Labour...
By Subrata Majumder Japan’s new Prime Minister and the first female Prime Minister Sanao Takaichi is unlikely to be moved by the historic gender inequality. She is not a staunch supporter for gender equality because of her social conservation and opposition to key reforms. She has long opposed legislation...
By T N Ashok When Dharmendra breathed his last on November 24, 2025, at the age of 89, something intangible yet profound died with him. It wasn’t just the loss of one man, however legendary. It was the final, irreversible closing of a chapter in Hindi cinema that can...
By Krishna Jha The sinister episodes of how a masjid was turned into a temple is still fresh in the memory of people. The forced placing of the idols of Ram under the high dome of the main hall prohibited any Namaz, a practice that was continuing since ages....
By Jag Mohan Thaken CHANDIGARH: To oppose the implementation of New Labour Codes, made effective since 21st November, A Nationwide Massive protest was organised jointly on 26th November, 2026 by the Trade Unions and Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM), a major union of farmers, in more than 500 districts, as...
By Andrew Murray LONDON: Hitler, it seems, is back centre stage amid the rapidly progressing collapse of bourgeois centrist politics in Europe and USA. Those who follow US politics will have noticed that the country’s numerous and powerful right-wing is riven on the Nazi question. The feud began when...
By K Raveendran A quieter phase has set in around discussions on a potential trade agreement between India and the United States, yet the subdued optics conceal a period of more intense negotiation. Officials on both sides describe a process that has deliberately stepped away from public signalling, opting...
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Exercise for base revision of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Consumer Price Indes (CPI), and Index of Industrial Production (IIP) series is underway which will change the base year 2011-12 to 2022-23. National Accounts Division of the Union Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) of...
By R. Suryamurthy The latest quarterly numbers for India’s unincorporated non-agricultural sector look, at first glance, like a modest win for an economy navigating global shocks: digital adoption is rising sharply, establishments have inched up, and employment remains steady. Nearly 39% of enterprises now use the internet in some...