Opinion

How the BJP became India’s dominant political force under Modi

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has scored impressive electoral victories in the recently concluded assembly polls in the three Indian states of the North East, Tripura, Meghalaya, and Nagaland. It has retained Tripura, with 32 seats in the 60 seat assembly.Incumbent chief minister, Manik Sa...

Opinion

153 years on, the idea of Gandhi going strong

We have celebrated the 153rd birth anniversary of “Mahatma” or, more ordinarily, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi.There are question on the minds of many — Is the era of the Mahatma over? This question pertains not only to those who, whether in India or around the world, have come to dis...

Opinion

Lessons from Sri Lanka’s economic crisis

The visuals of Sri Lanka’s presidential palace being overrun by protesters, like the storming of the Bastille, and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s private residence being burnt to ashes sent shockwaves across the world. Especially in the Indian subcontinent, where Sri Lanka has bee...

Opinion

Our march towards a more conscious planet

On June 5th, which was World Environment Day, I found three signs of hope. First of all, early in the morning, we had an unusual visitor in our garden. It was a perfectly camouflaged snake, over five feet long, slithering through our China orange tree. It was colour coordinated so well with the tree...

Opinion

Cannes: A demonstration of India’s soft power

India made a flamboyant splash at Cannes this year. With both India and the internationally famed film festival celebrating their 75th anniversary, it was a felicitous conjuncture. India was also the country of honour for 2022. No wonder, India made its presence felt with an impressive delegation le...

Opinion

Seeking peace and stability in the Indian Ocean

Historically, the Low Countries or the Lowlands referred to several small states in the coastal regions in Northwest Europe. Netherlands, which also means lower lands, in present day Europe is a small country, a good portion of which is made of land reclaimed from the sea and managed by a series of ...

Opinion

What to make of the post-pandemic world

Makarand R. ParanjapeQuite expectedly, the direct flight from New Delhi to New York is totally sold out after the easing of Covid-19 restrictions. Though it's a long, non-stop flight of over sixteen hours, there’s not much service to speak of. In the economy class, if you want a hot bevera...

Opinion

Lata Mangeshkar: Soundtrack of the subcontinent

February 6th. There was not an eye that was dry as Lata Mangeshkar’s cortege made its way to Shivaji Park, Mumbai. Draped in the national flag, her body was handed over to her family to be cremated with full state honours, her pyre lit by her brother, Hridaynath Mangeshkar. She was 92.The Indi...

Opinion

India heads to key elections amidst Covid-19?

So early in the new year, let alone a prophet of doom, I hate to say, “I told you so!” and “Don’t say I didn’t warn you!” But as I write this, the coronavirus cases around the world have crossed 308 million.At the top of the chart is, of course, our oldest democra...

Opinion

Omicron scare: A common-sense guide on how to cope

The bad news first. There is a worldwide surge in Omicron Coronavirus cases. According to Worldometer, there were 267,269 new cases and 1,297 deaths in the United States, 119,517 new cases and 147 deaths in the United Kingdom, and 6,681 new cases and 374 deaths in India on December 23rd. The good ne...

Opinion

Improving Delhi’s air quality: What can be done

Tn its World Urbanization Prospects of 2018 report, the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations, forecasting on global population dynamics, predicted that Delhi was heading to becoming the world’s largest conurbation. By 2030, an estimated 39 million people will live in...

Opinion

Here is why Indian values matter in the global context

I woke up rather early for a Sunday morning to participate in an online event to felicitate eminent Indian academics and educationists in the United States who were also recipients of the “Padma” or highest civilian awards conferred by the Government of India. The programme was scheduled...

Opinion

India marks a brilliant tradition in science

India observes February 28 as National Science Day. It commemorates C V Raman’s discovery of the scattering of light, later named as the Raman effect after him.For this he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930, the first Asian to win it in science. We may remember that the first Asian to...

Opinion

India’s vaccination drive laudable

Last year, on 30 January, the first cases of coronavirus were detected in India. It took another two and a half months for the first deaths to be reported. But by September, with close to 100,000 infections and 1000 deaths each day, India was soon to be one of the worst affected countries in the wor...

Opinion

After Corona: ‘New normal’ or ‘same-same’

There’s scarcely a family anywhere in the world which hasn’t had a brush with the novel coronavirus COVID-19. During the raging pandemic, some, unfortunately, have lost loved ones. Others have combated the virus and recovered or know someone who has.Even as I write this, my wife’s ...

Opinion

The political rise of the Indian Diaspora

The Indian diaspora, spread across 150 countries and numbering over 32 million, has much to be proud of. And justifiably so. For the descendants of the labour diaspora of the nineteenth century, created by the British after the abolition of slavery in 1833, the passage out of their homeland was peri...

Opinion

Combat Covid-19 by following Mahatma Gandhi’s ideals on body and morals

The year-long sesquicentennial birth anniversary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) come to an end on 2nd October. Gandhi was as much the father of public health as he was the father of the nation. Those familiar with his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, would easily re...