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Bhupen Hazarika wrote a melody for a heart that will not settle, a heart that trembles because it remembers something it cannot put down. The artificial intelligence industry has spent the past fortnight performing a version of the same song, with better lawyers, worse poetry, and a valuation attached. On September 9, a 27-year-old researcher…

The 18th Brics summit will open in New Delhi on September 12 to 13. India holds the rotating chairmanship this year under the theme “Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability.” The gathering comes as Brics marks two decades since its members first sat down as a political grouping. It also comes at a moment…

Last year, 80% of all new generation capacity added anywhere in the world was renewable. 80% of that was solar. And 80% of that new solar was built in Brics countries.  Three datasets define that the centre of gravity of energy transition has moved to Brics,  and Brics now have the opportunity to influence the…

As a BRICS chair, India is hosting the 18th BRICS Summit on 12-13 September in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited Bangladesh’s counterpart Tarique Rahman to the Outreach Session of the summit. Bangladesh has been in top priority of India’s “Neighbourhood First Policy.” Earlier in 2023, erstwhile Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina…

Hello and welcome to another edition of the Weekly Vine. I tell everyone who is willing to listen that there are three great dystopian novels one needs to read. The first, by Bihari lad George Orwell, is obviously Nineteen Eighty-Four. Orwell, born Eric Arthur Blair in Motihari, discovered, much like Buddha before him, that any association…

On garlic confit, béchamel crimes, the Manchurian defence, and why I am declining my invitation to the future of food. I was recently offered a taste of the future, at lunch, in the office, and it came in a borosilicate ‘tiffin’ container. A dear friend and colleague had brought his wife’s cooking to work, as…

The international consensus that formed on climate change is dissipating as geopolitics gets complex. However, climate impacts are getting even more severe. Whether because of the politics of the West or global economic concerns, the climate agenda is no longer understood through international targets alone.  It is too late to be chasing a treaty-based cap…

There was a time when becoming a guru required inconvenience. You had to retreat to the mountains, renounce a reasonable quantity of worldly goods, sit under a tree for an unreasonable length of time, acquire disciples, develop some familiarity with the human condition, and then wait until somebody else began referring to you as wise….

As we continue to know more about Guru Padmasambhava, the sat-guru of GMCKS, his life & contribution to the world is worth mentioning. His influence extends from India to Nepal, Tibet, Bhutan, Sikkim, Ladakh, Arunachal Pradesh and the wider Himalayan world. The Nyingma tradition in particular regards him as a foundational master, while Bhutan reveres…

The Himalaya is a landscape of extremes: young and tectonically active mountains, glaciers, steep slopes, unstable rocks, and powerful rivers are increasingly influenced by rapid climatic change. But the catastrophic event of 26 August 2026 in the Rasuwa–Gyirong region along the Nepal–Tibet border demonstrated something even more important: in high mountains, a disaster rarely begins…