Only a peaceful, Gandhian ‘feet on the ground’ movement can save our 1950 compact. The values embedded in that 1950 compact: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity, Justice, Secularism, can be defended only by that. Each one of us must decide and work for rescuing the republic and the Idea of India. Keep in mind that everyone who lives in this land owns this country. It’s not owned by any one denomination, religion, caste, creed, region, colour, eating and dressing habits and traditions. It’s owned by everyone.
This is why citrus should not be treated as a narrow commodity issue. It reveals a larger problem in India’s agricultural development model. India wants to move from being a large producer to becoming a reliable supplier in high-value agricultural trade. But that transition cannot happen through production alone. It requires farm-to-port systems designed around perishability.
A particularly noteworthy initiative has been the implementation of the Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyan (NMBA), the national de-addiction campaign. In Jammu and Kashmir, this national mission has gained remarkable traction. The recently conducted 100-day intensive campaign under NMBA has created widespread awareness and engagement across all districts. It has mobilized stakeholders from all sections of society, including educational institutions, law enforcement agencies, civil society groups, and community leaders.
At the end of the day, this is a political battle that shows the BJP to be an unstoppable steamroller, now controlling power across the North, the West and the East. The Opposition parties, which have been unable to come together with a cogent way to stand up and fight the political fight for the long haul, will have to once again think of the road ahead. It is clear that the BJP of today will stop at nothing in doing the deals it needs to take power
In this backdrop, opening up India fully to Chinese, including inviting the Chinese delegations, is akin to arranging visits of KFC owners to poultry farms! The hubris that this was to familiarize two big political parties and two economic powers with each other must have amused Beijing endlessly. Finally, insecurity is palpable in India’s handling of China and the US. About time we get over this.
History is not a tool to divide society and perpetuate the injustices of the past. It is there to show us what wrongs have happened in the past which should not happen again. We need to march towards a just society where all live the life of dignity and respect, a society where all of us enjoy equal citizenship rights.
Public opposition towards the reforms escalated after a web link to a gay dating site was found in one of the lessons in the grade six English language module. This website was subsequently blocked by the regulator for internet users in Sri Lanka. The lesson was intended to teach ten-year-old kids how to make online friends.
Producing satellites for any purpose is an expensive endeavor. Failure to launch them has a profound impact not just on the client entities’ bottom lines but even the quality of science and services they may be seeking to pursue. Fifteen out of the sixteen satellites on the failed mission were from foreign entities, which constitute a lucrative market for ISRO. If they begin to nurse misgivings about ISRO’s reliability it can seriously dent not only the agency’s revenue but, more important, its reputation
Internationalisation also plays a crucial role in addressing the long-standing issue of brain drain. For decades, large numbers of Indian students have pursued higher education abroad, particularly in North America, Europe, and Australia. While this has strengthened India’s global presence, it has also resulted in substantial outflow of talent and financial resources. Many students who leave choose not to return, contributing their skills to other economies.
The Dharavi Redevelopment Project has the potential to serve as a model for inclusive urban planning. However, this outcome depends on whether economic growth, social equity, and environmental sustainability are treated as equal priorities. Without adequate safeguards, the project risks becoming another instance where redevelopment favors corporate interests over human needs.
While in operational terms, India’s democracy was downgraded by several international bodies in recent years to ‘partly free’, its perceptible decline is perhaps most evident in the distrust generated by the bureaucratic fiat of a selective voter revision. As the exercise has struck off names without a clear audit or requisite time for discussion for explaining and correcting such deletions, the tag of the world’s largest democracy appears troubled by these developments.
Economic benefits also arise because of the jobs created in the childcare industry. Investing in childcare offers a clear pathway to unlock short and long-term economic gains, while enabling women and children to realise their full potential. If every young child in the pre-primary age group had access to childcare, millions of mothers could enter paid work between 2023 and 2030. In India alone, this could mean 6.2 million mothers joining the workforce.
For a president who prides himself on deal-making, the logic is straightforward. Clean-energy and circular-economy partnerships create domestic jobs, anchor supply chains at home, attract private capital rather than public subsidy, and reduce exposure to geopolitical shocks that oil markets have never been able to eliminate.
These myth-based narratives reveal a deeper psychological impulse: the desire to anchor Sinhalese Buddhist identity within a framework of global uniqueness and divine purpose. While Sri Lanka’s diplomatic relations with Israel have fluctuated since independence, Sinhalese Buddhist nationalist sentiment continues to exhibit a strong emotional affinity toward Israel.
India’s youth are growing up in an ecosystem defined by continuous stimulation and accelerated consumption of information. Attention is fragmented, patience for complexity is declining, and long-form engagement—essential for policy, administration, and strategic thinking—is increasingly marginal. This is not a cultural lament. It is a structural shift with direct consequences for how future administrators, policymakers, and institutional leaders are formed.
By engaging Jordan, Ethiopia and Oman, India demonstrated its capacity to operate across geopolitical divides while remaining anchored in Global South solidarity. These visits were not isolated diplomatic events but part of a sustained effort to reshape international engagement through inclusivity, responsibility, and shared growth. As global uncertainties persist, India’s outreach to West Asia and Africa strengthens its claim to leadership rooted in partnership and a collective vision for a more equitable world order.
The security situation deteriorated further in 2025. A terrorist attack on a Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts checkpost resulted in two fatalities and one injury, heightening tensions. Protests later resumed in Sost, disrupting trade between Pakistan and China via the Khunjerab Pass. The year culminated in two high-profile attacks on October 5, when unidentified gunmen ambushed Maulana Qazi Nisar Ahmed, Ameer of the Ahl-e-Sunnat wal Jamaat in Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan, near the police headquarters in Gilgit, injuring him and several others. On the same day, Malik Inayat-ur-Rehman, the Chief Court Judge of Gilgit-Baltistan, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt near the City Hospital.
In 2020, Nepal officially adopted a new map that shows Indian territories of Kalapani, Limpiyadhura, and Lipulekh as part of Nepal. Nepalese currency is being printed by a Chinese firm, a nearly USD 17 million contract to China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation (CBPMC), utilizing advanced Chinese technology and lower costs, with the new bank notes featuring Nepal's new map that includes above-mentioned Indian territories.
‘Bande Mataram’, ‘Allah-o-Akbar’ and ‘Hindu-Mussalman ki Jai’ were the three national slogans proposed by Mahatma Gandhi in consultation with Shaukat Ali in 1920 during the Non-Cooperation Movement, and, much later on August 29, 1947, two weeks after the country’s independence and partition, ‘Bande Mataram’ was sung at his prayer meeting in Kolkata in the presence of both Hindus and Muslims.
