I have said more than once already that it is my fervent hope that Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraaj party somehow manages to win because he is not a ‘potted plant’ (political princeling) and has spent more than two years wandering about the villages of Bihar trying to understand what the people of our poorest state really need.

India needs to appreciate the growing urge in ASEAN for enhanced ties amid the ongoing geopolitical flux

The slow pace of the flow of aid, sporadic Israeli attacks on Gaza, the delay in the reopening of the Rafah crossing, and the extent of the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) involvement, which is opposed by Netanyahu, pose serious impediments

They also lay the foundations for EPFO to morph from an isolated employer instrument into a lifetime

From teachers and doctors to scientists and security personnel, staffing shortages have spared no sector. This has precipitated not just a jobs crisis but also a gaping governance deficit.

Recent reforms are caught between two opposing policy goals. While the streamlined withdrawal processes help towards “ease of living”, they compromise the product’s identity as a retirement instrument

Poetry endures because it refuses perfection. It carries within it the human crack, the breath that falters, the moment that slips between sense and sound. In its imperfections, it mirrors us.

As 80th UNGA unfolds, stakes are clear -- future of global cooperation depends not only on reforming institutions but on rebuilding legitimacy. It must speak to concerns of ordinary citizens, not just diplomats

Worldwide, we are witnessing a return of the “fortress” mentality that seeks to protect intellectual resources by making them more difficult to access. Unfortunately, as Tagore knew, reason and knowledge do not flourish if they are dammed up or placed behind walls

Its history of 47 years shows that whatever little the minorities can expect in terms of the constitutional provisions for their rights as equal citizens can never be secured through NCM's intervention.

From the sixth century to today, a thread of protests connects a group relegated to the margins

Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and increasingly China, have inserted themselves into conflict resolution as Western power fragments and the UN weakens. Mediation has become the new language of power

The real question is not whether Homebound wins an Oscar. It is whether we, as a society, are willing to face the dilemmas it lays bare.

The tulip in Delhi vanishes in mere days amid press and much fanfare, while nobody talks about the fragrant madhumalti and champa that lasts a whole season.

While the quantity of infrastructure built in the last decade has been large (and the amounts spent colossal), the quality has been appalling — obsolete design and technology, falling bridges, collapsing buildings, and new highways that are washed away after the first rain. On quality jobs, the less said the better

The MEA disowns responsibility for the retrogressive step of barring women journalists from attending the press conference by Afghanistan’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, at the Afghan embassy in Delhi on October 10.

India is still a long, long way from being a fully developed country despite our Prime Minister selling us this happy but perhaps deluded dream. Dreams are good, even deluded ones.

India must guard against last-minute negotiating stratagems, protect its freedom to manoeuvre, promote national interest and autonomy

Signals sent by Taliban Minister’s visit have disappointed many in the country

Public-private partnerships are the way forward to preserve our incredible assets.

Our decision-makers are shedding their knowledge of history and their imagination. Problem also lies in defining ‘monument’.

The US-led postwar order is unravelling. In its place, a contest for influence and legitimacy is gathering pace, with China eager to fill the vacuum.

Nations do not fall because of foreign conquest alone — they crumble from within when the bonds of unity snap under the weight of discontent and mistrust. The Centre must take immediate steps to de-escalate the situation. Sonam Wangchuk must be released, and dialogue held with him and other political players.

If her self-assured, distinctive strength marked Keaton, so did her encompassing warmth. No one could look into her smiling eyes and not find a grin forming along one’s lips