Wangchuk was arrested - he has since been released - obviously to allow allotment of land to corporates without engaging with the locals. Under the circumstances, how much trust of the Ladakhis the government can regain, remains questionable.
As owners of the republic—not merely beneficiaries of electoral inducements timed for political gain—electorates must act as empowered, assertive and demanding citizens, carefully examining party positions on substantive issues. They must insist on time-bound job creation strategies and measurable improvements in key sectors such as education and healthcare, rather than settling for vague manifesto assurances.
What has gradually been lost is not faith, but the culture of debate that once accompanied it. Public debate – śāstrārtha - was once central to intellectual life. Ideas were examined, challenged, and defended through reasoned argument. Today much of that space has been replaced by shouting matches, where volume often substitutes for thought - unfortunately even within our legislatures. Questioning, once considered an essential part of the search for truth, is now too easily mistaken for disrespect.
Dias promoted civil–military cooperation on an unprecedented scale, facilitating the large-scale settlement of Sinhalese populations in the dry zone as a bulwark against Tamil separatism. In some respects, this approach resembled the Jewish settlement policies in the British Mandate of Palestine, which may have influenced Dias’s thinking.
Theatreisation of military, while conceptually appealing, is not a one-size-fits-all solution. India’s strategic geography — with two contiguous adversaries, interlinked land-sea challenges, hybrid threats, and extraordinarily diverse terrain — does not lend itself to neat theatre divisions.
AI is proving to be more than just a digital tool; it is becoming a fiscal multiplier. By tightening compliance, improving revenue forecasts, preventing leakages, and guiding expenditure, AI is reshaping India’s fiscal landscape. Recent tax reforms under the GST regime adjusting slabs to reduce rates on essentials while taxing luxury goods higher were made possible through AI-driven fiscal analytics.
India’s underwater defence remains a top priority. The Navy currently operates 19 submarines—16 conventional and three nuclear-powered (including two ballistic missile submarines and one leased nuclear attack submarine). China, by contrast, possesses 60–70 submarines, including 12 nuclear-powered platforms, and aims to grow to 80 submarines within the decade
When companies see they can get away with violation of labour laws or erode the dignity of workers or do worse with regard to their workforce, more violations of the kind will follow. The only antidote is to put down illegality with an iron hand, to impose exemplary costs on businesses that have little regard for people and to send the message that violations will be met with firm and swift action.
This controversial project of the mid-1980s, inspired by Israeli models, ultimately failed to achieve its intended outcomes. Nevertheless, Israeli involvement left a lasting imprint on the Mahaweli Development Project and agricultural settlements in Sri Lanka. The continuing association between the military and the Mahaweli Development Project may, in part, be attributed to practices introduced by Israeli advisers during the 1980s.
India’s economic self-reliance is not about shutting the doors to the world. It is about standing firm during crises, reducing vulnerabilities, and becoming globally competitive. The philosophy of Atmanirbhar Bharat represents a pragmatic approach: be self-reliant in areas where dependence is dangerous, and globally integrated in sectors where India can lead.
The Indian software and IT services giants have for long been accused of running body shops, a business fashioned out of what essentially is labour arbitrage turned into a fine art. The sector has consistently denied this, arguing that they have moved up the value chain and that they compete on quality, not price.
When I think back to Wagah, what stays with me is not the barbed wire, but the wind -- the same wind moving across the border without asking permission. I think of rivers that carry stories of children whose laughter sounds the same in Lahore, Delhi, Dhaka, and Kathmandu.
On the face of it, the misplaced hysteria surrounding the visit made by Sri Lankan journalists to Israel is fuelled by shadowy factors intending to promote a one-sided narrative in which the State of Israel stands as the perennial villain. The beguiling picture planted in Sri Lankan society is portrayed through the moral binaries: good vs evil, victim vs oppressor, and Palestine Vs Israel.
India has moved from being a buyer to a designer of world-class artillery. ATAGS exemplifies that shift. To convert design success into strategic mass production, India needs synchronized demand signals, targeted metallurgy R&D, modular manufacturing lines, automation, and rapid validation corridors — all underpinned by ACCCS-style digital integration. With these measures, ATAGS can transition from a technological showcase into the backbone of an Indian artillery corps
Western feminism often sees the family as an oppressive or repressive structure. But in South Asian or African societies, the family is the main place of social security. Therefore, feminism here does not want to break up the family, but to build a new family and create a partnership between men and women.
However, in Sri Lanka, discussions about Gaza rarely consider this perspective. Instead, they consistently reflect an anti-Israeli sentiment. If we examine the situation closely, it becomes clear that the pro-Palestinian narrative, along with its discourse, works to weaken the relationship between Israel and Sri Lanka
In its 2023 Mutual Evaluation Report on India, FATF recommended that India should broaden access to its National Risk Assessment and consider releasing a public version. Considering that the cross-border risks from DeFi are real and affect every citizen, an updated assessment of the DeFi sector would help flesh out a strategy in collaboration with the industry participants. It is time to prevent DeFi from becoming a weapon of mass destruction
The Bengaluru Antenna™, coined by me to define this strategic engagement, is both a metaphor and a practical roadmap. By leveraging Bengaluru’s deep-tech ecosystem and the UAE’s AI ambition, it transforms opportunity into action. The Bengaluru Tech Summit 2025 provides the perfect platform to bring this vision to life
Mass uprisings have become a fine-tuned instrument for destabilizing governments – and are likely to occur more frequently. Some hail them as an expression of “people’s power” and a revolutionary force for change. But sustained instability is not healthy for any nation. The only real safeguard is good governance: policies that promote social equity, protect livelihoods, and are seen as fair and transparent. If governments ignore the warning signs, they take a calculated risk – one that could end in their overthrow.
