What links these cases — Pakistan, Britain, India, the Netherlands — is not geography or faith, but backlash. ‘Honour’ is used as a pretext to kill not because women are obedient, but because they are not. It is activated when women seek education, choose partners, leave abusive homes, testify in public, or simply insist on being treated as full human beings.
How do our regulators allow a university to function with almost every leadership position, academic and administrative, occupied by a member of the promoter family? How does patent filing become a game, as alleged in this case, or how does a paper authored under the university on banging vessels to kill the coronavirus get written? The incident brought to sharp light how India has slipped into an education system run on high fees by private institutions with questionable credentials.
Under the BNP, particularly during Khaleda Zia’s rule, four major anti-India terrorist camps were being run in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Notably, these terrorist training camps had Al Qaeda and Pakistan ISI/military instructors. As a young officer, Pervez Musharraf (later president of Pakistan) also served as an instructor in these terrorist training camps. To assume that the radical elements of the BNP will not be in league with the JeI will be the height of naviete.
India needs to evolve a comprehensive and integrated strategy for the defence of the LAC, one that brings together military preparedness, diplomatic engagement, infrastructure development, technological surveillance, economic resilience, and informed public communication. Such a strategy cannot remain confined to closed institutional silos; while operational specifics must remain confidential, the broad contours of national intent and preparedness should be placed in the public domain. Transparency at the strategic level strengthens public confidence, builds national consensus, and signals clarity of purpose to adversaries.
Balochistan remains a Pakistani faultline and it must be understood that it is a ‘political problem' even though the Pakistani state has been trying to deal with it all through as 'security problem'. The clear dissatisfaction of the people during accession to Pakistan is yet to be resolved. Forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings are now the trademark policy impulses of the oppressive Pakistani regime.
The recruitment of Nepali Gorkhas into the Indian Army being stopped after 77 years post-Independence is not only going to be a major loss to the Indian Army but also a serious and avoidable blow to cordial India-Nepal relations.
While there are uncertainties with regard to the possibilities and prospects of generating green hydrogen in a cost-effective manner it is surprising that green hydrogen is being hailed as the ultimate solution to overcome the emission issue and prevent climate disaster.
Many of us spend hours on social media doom scrolling, which then ceases to be just a source of recreation; it becomes an alternative world where algorithms and trends decode and shape individuals.
Peace and progress go hand in hand. To stabilize the economy, Pakistan needs a conducive political environment to focus on investment, education and health care. Whatever the economic challenges, the solutions would have to come from within. External funds, loans, debts are only temporary solutions
The very idea of Pakistan was based on the Two-Nation Theory which emphasized Muslims’ different way of life from that of the Hindus in the subcontinent. However, the mere religious identity of a nation without reconciling Pakistan’s diverse ethnic, linguistic, and cultural groups was not enough to hold it together.
Bangladesh is home to people of different religions and cultures, both in the hills and plains. The extreme polarization of thought and ideology between opposing ideological groups is impacting Bangladesh's social fabric.
The BJP is not really taking on the immense political challenge of explaining and then persuading the people to go with the right-wing turns in policies it seeks to implement; it is sneaking it in, and in that it is being met with defeat after defeat.
When the world descended on Afghanistan in 2001, Afghans believed it was about them, about a better life for them. It never was. It never is, writes senior reporter Kathy Gannon, who has covered Afghanistan since the 1980s. Looking back at the second Taliban takeover in 2021 she looks at why the ironically named ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ of 2001 failed and how the aspirations of Afghans have been ignored.
Sri Lanka’s current HDI score stands at 0.78 and is the highest in South Asia.
A message from the Kolkata case is to rebuild our healthcare workplaces with the intent of making them safe and gender inclusive.
The exams for IITs, IIMs, Civil Services, in particular, are strong pointers on how traditional pedagogy and mindset of our educational institutions towards learning is found severely inadequate and deficient, and call for a paradigm shift towards critical thinking and building wider perspectives.
Many of the oligarchic business syndicates that formed around the deposed Sheikh Hasina are now on the run. But their vast industrial establishments remain. It is essential to sustain these industries. Millions of people are working in these establishments that are playing a critical role in the production sector of the country. These industries cannot be shut down because of the crimes of their leaders.
After the Nirbhaya case in India, the laws were tightened against sexual violence. We also have stringent laws against child abuse. Yet the laws have not stopped reported sexual crimes from growing as the NCRB data shows.
Indian students comprise a significant percentage of the global international student community in not just Canada, but the US, UK and Australia. Some of the changes introduced by Western governments will create challenges in the short run, but they may be good in the long term.
