Opinion

By Nir Kshetri Even though it’s unclear what exactly the metaverse is and whether it even exists, colleges and universities have jumped onto the metaverse bandwagon. They have augmented in-person and remote video learning with features such as gamified interactive virtual worlds, virtual reality and mixed reality. In one of the largest efforts thus far, […]

By Amitava Mukherjee Hasina Wazed, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh, is scheduled to come to India at a time when her country is exercising a ‘politics of balance’ in order to steer clear of an impression that Dhaka is willingly embracing a Chinese dragnet. Her country is running short of money and in order to […]

By Nayakara Veeresha On 2 August 2022, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court delivered its verdict in the case of Satyajit Kumar & Ors vs the State of Jharkhand & Ors (2022). The bench opined that 100% reservation to the local Adivasis is found to be violative of Articles 13(2), 15, 16(3) and 35(a-i) […]

While rising inflation, tightening monetary policy, and climbing crude oil prices have made the current fiscal a difficult one for the INR, the Russia-Ukraine war sparked a near-freefall.

The treaty sets a standard and it depends on the extent to which countries and civil society groups are willing to cooperate

The TRS government has implemented a mixed development plan of capital-intensive infrastructure with socioeconomic welfare schemes, commensurate with the objectives of the new State.

By Pramod K Nayar Heroes adorn poetry, whether in Greek epics or Hindu ones. Their valour, their appearance, their chivalry and their inspirational actions have served poetry well. So what would poetry about dictators, villains, tyrants and evil-doers – real and mythic – be like? The Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges once said in his […]

By G Nagaraj, T Damodaram India is in a paradoxical situation with respect to edible and vegetable oils. It is one of the largest producers and also the largest importer. Naturally, it has also become the major consumer of edible oils in the world. Despite vast sources available, India has been importing a sizeable quantity […]

By Avi Dutt India is now at a crucial stage where infrastructure investment will play a vital role in sustaining economic growth. However, land acquisition, aggressive bidding and non-performing assets are key challenges to infrastructure PPPs (public-private partnerships). Further, India is dealing with a high level of stressed assets, and there is a need to […]

By Vibhavari Desai, Moitrayee Das Since its introduction to the Indian market in 2015, Tinder has become a popular dating app. It’s no surprise that the nationwide lockdowns saw a surge in its usage — approximately 31 million Indians were using Tinder in 2020. According to a Tinder Pressroom release, on 3rd May 2020, Indian […]

By Arun Sinha It is going to be interesting to watch how the BJP navigates its ship through the strait the JD(U) storm has spun it into in Bihar. Although the party’s national core committee has said it will win 35 out of 40 Lok Sabha seats in the State in 2024 — a valorous […]

By T Vijay Kumar, A Giridhar Rao All government schools in Gujarat have begun mandatorily teaching English to six-year-olds at the start of primary school, from June. “We are doing this so that students start learning the language at an early stage and don’t face problems in the future,” said Gujarat’s education minister. The policy […]

By Venkatanarayana Motkuri Telangana, once considered an educationally backward region, is now a progressive State in the same domain. Almost all of its 6-14 years-age children are attending schools, near universalisation. My estimate based on the unit-record data of the latest Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS-III) 2019-20 shows nearly 99.5% of the children in the […]

By Avi Dutt, Atul Sanganeria The government’s thrust on infrastructure projects just received a new lease of life through the PM Gati Shakti programme. This programme cuts across transport and connectivity, industrial and urban development with the end goal of improving movement of goods, services and passengers. Since 2014, the government has made commendable efforts […]

By Pramod K Nayar Some years after World War II, a Jew who survived the camp and lost his parents in the Holocaust, published his first volume of verse. In 2022, we are witness to the 70th anniversary of ‘Todesfugue’, which, although written around 1944, was published in the 1952 collection, Mohn und Gedächtnis (Poppy and Memory). Translated […]

By Jagannadha Pawan Tamvada, Rashedur Chowdhury There’s a good chance that you would like to see Covid disappear for good. And you may also wish for an end to the war in Ukraine – or any other war for that matter. But would you feel the same way if you were the head of a […]

By Craig Jeffrey, Jane Dyson Young people have been taking to the streets across India, demanding governments act to provide more jobs. In Bihar, large numbers protested recently at delays in filling public sector vacancies. Some of them had passed the required examinations but waited several years for their job to start. In July and […]

By William D O’Connell There is a well-known saying shared by both crypto experts and sceptics: “Not your keys, not your coins.” The phrase, popularised by Bitcoin entrepreneur Andreas Antonopoulos, refers to how the contents of a crypto wallet are the property of whoever has access to that wallet’s digital “keys.” This means that unless […]

By ManMohan S Sodhi, Christopher S Tang Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan has elicited a strong response from China: three days of simulated attack on Taiwan with further drills announced, plus a withdrawal from critical ongoing conversations with the US on climate change and the military. This strong reaction was predictable. President Xi had […]

By Thomas E Doyle, II Every five years, the nearly 200 member states of the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons meet to review their progress – or lack thereof. After being postponed because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the month-long conference is now meeting in New York and opened with a stark warning. The […]

By Pramod K Nayar That poetry is the most compressed form of expressing the strongest emotions is now a truism. Think of how Imtiaz Dharker in ‘They’ll Say: “She Must be From Another Country”’ describes a nation’s rulers: fat old fools, the crooks and thugs who wear the uniform that gives them the right to […]

By Arun Sinha When Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for an end to the ‘revadi culture’ on July 17, he might not have expected that two weeks later a Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice NV Ramana, hearing a petition seeking curbs on the distribution of ‘freebies’ by political parties, would decide to set […]

By Elsabe Loots Over the past 25 years there has been lots of research and debate about the concept, history and state of globalisation, its various dimensions and benefits. The World Economic Forum has set out the case that the world has experienced four waves of globalisation. In a 2019 publication, it summarised them as […]

By Dr Oruganty Prasada Rao Over the years, ‘freebies’ have become an integral part of politics for parties to either win elections or stay in power by offering them as ‘bait’ to woo the voters. Political parties vie with each other to provide freebies and add new ones to the list with each election. These […]