While Iran’s ties with the West, especially US, may have hit rock bottom, Pakistan despite the public posturing will not be able to go ahead with the project at the cost of annoying the US.
Assam Elections: Of Identity Politics, Development Spectacles and Voter Disillusionment
There is also a subtle but perceptible fatigue with the continued reliance on polarisation as a political tool. Identity-based mobilisation, while effective in the short term, risks diminishing returns when overused. If these undercurrents - internal dissent, governance gaps, and narrative fatigue - begin to converge, they may not immediately overturn electoral outcomes, but they could signal the early stages of a more substantive political challenge to the BJP
AI171 Crash Probe: India Owes the truth to the 260 who Died and Their Families
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be cognizant of the fact that the crash occurred in Ahmedabad, in his home state. People will come to their own conclusions as to whether they saw Modi standing up to American pressure or give in. India has not forgotten the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, that Warren Anderson and Union Carbide Chemicals went scot-free, that India settled for a meagre $470 million compensation – 25 years later – for the families of the thousands who died and the millions who were adversely affected.
Whither Commitment to Truth? How AI, Media, and Visuals Shape Our Sense of Threat
The social media takes advantage of the reward systems in the brain, especially the dopamine circuits within the basal ganglia and the prefrontal cortex. Using signals of micro-engagement, including the duration of time a user hovers over a video or the number of times a user rewatches a clip, algorithms develop a feedback loop that over time redirects the feed of a user to more intense or provocative content.
To Mediate - or not to Mediate: Not Necessary for India to be at Head of Table at Peace Talks
To step into the role of mediator in a conflict of this nature would inevitably test that balance. It would invite scrutiny, of intent, of tilt, of perceived bias. Even the most well-intentioned effort could be interpreted through the prism of existing relationships. In such a situation, neutrality is not merely a matter of policy; it becomes a matter of perception, and perceptions are notoriously difficult to manage.
More on Perspective
Manipur: Where voters are more concerned about existential threats than electoral preferences
At the heart of the violence lies majority triumphalism combined with a systematic denial of knowledge acquisition, specifically histories, for the minority community in Manipur.
India's election: Is the Congress setting the agenda with a sharp ideological positioning?
Do note that the BJP because of its sloganeering and expectation-setting has to cross its previous mark of 303 to be seen as victorious; the INDIA alliance has to pull the BJP below 272 to claim victory. Barring the possibility, extremely remote at this time, of the Congress and/or the INDIA alliance faring very poorly at these polls, what we have is a party that will shape the direction of policy in India in the days ahead.
India's election: What the manifestos missed out
Despite learning a bitter lesson from Covid-19, our governments, whether at the state or national level, have failed to recognise the importance of ensuring trouble-free access to public health.
The unheard public voice: What democracy needs is a strong middle layer
The rich build gated communities for themselves, in which they pay for their own private services of security, and 24X7 power and water supply. They lose sight of the needs of people living outside their walls.
Neglecting the demands of Ladakhis can have bearing on India's national security
Mixing politics with national security in sensitive border regions like Manipur and Ladakh can cost us dearly. China is a rogue state with aggressive designs and well well-advanced in hybrid and conventional conflict with an expanding arsenal of nuclear weapons.
India's rising inequality: Government should work toward a workable wealth tax
One of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations calls for a reduction in inequality. On that count, India must exert more by making the income tax net wider and ensuring a lower indirect tax burden
Gandhi to Modi: The debasement of India’s political discourse
Contrast this exchange against the utterly crass and debased rhetoric, both during the election season and otherwise, that India’s political and cultural leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, employ.
Unveiling the complexities of Naxalism: Socio-economic disparities, violence, and resistance in contemporary India
The narratives elucidate how historical marginalisation, compounded by contemporary socio-economic inequities, lays fertile ground for the propagation of Naxalite ideology, which promises liberation from caste-based oppression and economic deprivation.
War drums in the Middle East are bad news for the economy
The war clouds just keep getting thicker and darker. And the warmongers have so far outshouted those pleading for peace. The leaders have failed to bring any sanity, let alone ceasefire or peace talks. All this does not bode well for the Indian economy, which has already been struggling with the challenges of inflation, stagnant private investment, high youth unemployment and widening inequality.
Electoral bonds scandal in India speaks of a compromised private sector
This is the inner rottenness of India’s growth story, a self-imposed colonisation of a nation that has lost its standing, never mind the growing GDP.
If Trump returns, will India-US economic ties take a hit?
The significance of American investment is that it plays an important role in transforming India’s industrialization and paving the path to challenge China to become the next-generation supply chain hub.
Is India's democracy in peril?
Why then is Modi sullying the glory of his third term by going to the polls with Arvind Kejriwal possibly barred from campaigning?
Can the people of India prevent the 'schism' of the nation's soul?
The national mood was well summed up by a cartoon that showed all others in the race locked up, with just the incumbent in the field, and then the question, half in jest: ‘Who is winning?’.
Is India at all serious about fighting pollution?
But how does one counter the Swiss-based air-quality monitoring group IQAir which reports that India was the third most polluted country in the world after Bangladesh and Pakistan in 2023 and Delhi was the “most polluted” capital in the world?
