The smartphone that freed a generation is now being used against it. The platforms that carried the protest are now carrying the smears. The digital spaces where young Nepalis found their political voice are today flooded with manipulated images, fake audio, and AI-generated lies targeting the very candidates their movement made possible. The weapon and the wound are the same object.
Politicians, who were silent, complicit, or even instigative during last September’s tragedy, are trying to rebrand themselves on social media to be palatable to “Gen Z” - Nepal’s youth population that was instrumental in overthrowing the last government, leading to comparisons with Bangladesh’s ‘Monsoon Revolution’ of 2024 and Sri Lanka’s Aragayala of 2022.
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.
Despite multiple Supreme Court and High Court rulings condemning noise polluters for disregarding public inconvenience, sound pollution continues unabated. The Supreme Court’s judgments on loudspeaker usage were intended to protect citizens from becoming a ‘forced audience’ to noise; yet enforcement remains a challenge.
India is the world’s largest producer of milk, has the highest population of cattle, is among the top two or three producers of fruits and vegetables, and has one of the longest coastlines. How well does that translate into export of milk products, cheeses, confectionary, meat, poultry, fisheries, fruit juices, nutraceuticals, organic foods? There is no use in hiding behind the excuse of “protecting the small farmer”
India has shown it has the capacity to spearhead AI innovation globally thanks to its booming startup culture, strong digital infrastructure, and abundance of highly qualified personnel. In his speech, Modi underlined India's commitment to ensuring that AI remains inclusive, ethical and accessible, a technology that advances humanity while lowering risks.
India, like the rest of the world, is a vast garden of diverse cultures and traditions. To single out Hindus as solely responsible for the country is divisive. All Indians, regardless of their religion, share equal rights and responsibilities in shaping the nation’s future.
One of the concerns of India has been the expanding Chinese presence in Sri Lanka. The China-funded mega projects like Hambantota Port and Colombo Port City have caused some discord in the India-Sri Lanka relations. Growing Chinese presence in South Asian nations - Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka - has been a cause of major security concern for New Delhi.
Diamonds remain a cornerstone of the Belgo-Indian economic relationship, but in recent years strong growth has been visible in various other sectors. The port city of Antwerp is considered to be the international centre of diamond trade which is dominated by Indian diamond traders mainly from Gujarat.
It is good to be ever wary of a nation and a leadership that is and has historically been all about itself at the cost of others, driving others to misery as it gobbles up resources and pushes the idea of American exceptionalism.
It is in this light that one welcomes a new report from US-India Policy Institute and Centre for Development Policy and Practice, ‘Rethinking Affirmative Action for Muslims in Contemporary India’. This report takes an approach away from quotas for Muslims as a whole. They recognize that Muslim community has different economic layers.
Tharoor is acutely aware that he is not particularly liked by the Congress leadership, especially the Gandhi family because of his independence. Things have come to a stage where even Tharoor posting a selfie of him with India’s Minister for Commerce and Industries Piyush Goyal and Britain’s Secretary of State for Business and Trade Jonathan Reynolds is seen as unfurling the red flag.
The assertion of "first comers" is central to sectarian nationalism but contradicts the values enshrined in the Indian Constitution and the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. We must aspire to equality for all citizens, regardless of language or religion. Digging into history to serve political ideologies should be left to academics, not wielded as a tool for divisive politics.
Despite venture capital investments in Indian startups, recent innovation has been lacking. Many Indian companies are run by MBA graduates, business heirs, or marketers. Successful western startups, however, are often founded by engineers. Engineers have a higher propensity for innovation, and promoting this culture may help foster investment.
In past years, Indian Army was making its Pakistani counterparts pay by way of bombarding its locations/defences along the Line of Control (LoC). However as per an agreement between India and Pakistan in February 2021, this practice was stopped for the sake of peace for the civil population residing in the LoC belt. Otherwise, Pak army was paying at least some price for every terrorist attack in the Kashmir Valley by terrorist groups that it supports.
The rise of India and China in the 21st century will surely challenge the hegemony of the dollar. India’s rise is benign, while China’s rise threatens the west. Their evolving bilateral relationship will surely shape world trajectory as well as affect the dollar’s dominance. But for now, the dollar is king
The Trump administration is now redefining the migrant policy and methodology of dealing with the migrant issues for the rest of the world to observe, evaluate and practice.It is likely that those from South Asia and a few other countries would think several times before trying to enter the USA in an illegal manner and perhaps would stop indulging in such misadventure.
The planned deportation of 20,000 Indians from the US will require an endless stream of flights, if all of them are to be sent back, not to speak of more who are being caught as raids by US immigration continue. None of them should be allowed to be detained without access to lawyers, medical aid and humane conditions in the facilities they are kept. None of them should be allowed to be sent back in chains.
