Such gestures matter, especially now, because they affirm a profound truth: Compassion is not weakness, solidarity does not demand agreement, and dignity cannot depend on verdicts

They should force us to confront the wider era we inhabit, where multiple powers, convinced of their civilisational missions, reach beyond their limits and discover that the world is not clay

Munda’s legacy refuses closure. It survives not only in statues or stadium names, but in everyday idioms of resistance and pride. It lives on the hockey fields of Jharkhand, where Adivasi youth continue to transform marginal grounds into national pipelines of talent. It surfaces in contemporary assertions around Sarna religion, land rights, and cultural recognition

At the close of 2025, the ‘karyakartas’ of the Hindu Raksha Dal — an outfit that is not banned, but whose members face several criminal charges — were the stars of a viral video. In Ghaziabad, they were distributing swords, calling for violence against minorities and creating a climate of fear

Today, universities have drifted from their core mandate, and the faculty are called upon by the state and regulators to play roles for which they were never trained

If India wants to be relevant in the emerging geopolitics, it has to be a player in the emerging geo-economics

The tragedy of India’s “dog problem” isn’t a lack of law. It’s a failure to apply it. The Animal Birth Control (Dogs) Rules already lay down a clear, evidence-based national protocol: Capture-sterilise-vaccinate-release

The Election Commission of India, which too is at the receiving end of the propaganda, has the responsibility to deliver on this front in 2026

Two wholesale reforms are important. The first is transitioning to a nationwide market-based economic dispatch system. The second is integrating captive power plants into wholesale markets

States that invent frameworks shape what others can imagine as options. Consider George Kennan’s “containment”, Joseph Nye’s “soft power”, or Albert Hirschman’s ideas on development

The orders reflect an acknowledgement that judges, like all mortals, can err, and that such errors are addressed through course correction within the judicial process. Yet, they also raise a legitimate concern: Should the SC’s move to act suo motu in response to public outcry become a recognised basis for urgency?

Addressing these challenges requires institutional reforms, not temporary measures, such as regular and publicly disclosed water quality testing, time-bound grievance redressal, independent safety audits, and clearly defined responsibility at every operational level

The question is not whether we should use these apps, but how. In a season of celebration, ordering food online should move from being an act of surrender to impulse, to a conscious choice shaped by both taste and health

Jammu compelled me to read, listen, and think across positions that refused moral simplicity. It taught me the discipline of discomfort

Iran is going through a period of profound ‘distortions’. As a result, the current regime’s ambitions for regional hegemony are inhibited by socio-economic, political, and generational crises

When we put grocery items on par with an emergency service that we would expect to reach our doorstep quickly, we end up treating our convenience as an inalienable need

No, this is not the Christmas we know. Harassing those earning a living selling Santa Claus caps on the roadside. Beating up those wearing them. Tearing down Christmas trees in malls. Ransacking decorations put up for the New Year. Threatening a congregation as they worship

We are told that historical anxieties can be healed by deepening communal antagonism, as if recasting contemporary politics as an epic struggle between Hindus and Muslims were the path to renewal. In this imagination, politics becomes myth, victimhood becomes virtue, and the past substitutes for the future

Will the road to shedding the slavish Macaulay mentality and getting rid of the vestiges of a thousand years of “foreign” rule be littered with Bareilly-like incidents?

The new tax could wipe out 16–22 per cent of the actual prices received, force contract renegotiations, and weaken the presence of Indian products in the EU — a market that absorbs about 22 per cent of India’s steel and aluminium exports

Labour regulation may mitigate harm in the short run, but it does not interrogate whether speed itself has become an illegitimate competitive variable

Until uninterrupted footpaths are visible underfoot and not just in master plans, the walkers of Indian cities will remain its most neglected citizens

His crowd-pleasing spending agenda worked on the campaign trail, but it needs to be paid for. Can the new mayor manage this task without hurting New York City’s dynamism?