Blogs

The UK wants to end smoking. That’s good — but its new law also raises questions about freedom and choice King James I of England hated tobacco. He even wrote a pamphlet called A Counterblaste to Tobacco, where he said smoking was “hateful to the nose” and “dangerous to the lungs.” So when King Charles…

As ecological risks intensify across India’s mountain states, the question is no longer whether forests generate national benefits, but how these benefits and risks are being recognised and internalised within the country’s fiscal federal architecture. Forests have been part of India’s tax devolution formula since the Fourteenth Finance Commission (FC14), signalling an important shift in recognising them as fiscal assets. The underlying logic…

A grand dame of Kolkata’s Park Street prepares to celebrate her 100th birthday Even as she prepares to turn 100 next year, a grand lady of Park Street in Kolkata remains as vibrant and vivacious as ever. Of Swiss parentage, she made herself at home in what was then called Calcutta, one of the most…

UK’s resolve to end tobacco use is good, but its new law to do so is an example of bad logic James-I would have approved. The British monarch was a staunch opponent of tobacco, so much so that he wrote a pamphlet – ‘A Counterblaste to Tobacco’ – about it. In his words, smoking was…

Delhi govt’s war on old cars hurts environment in environment’s name, punishes those of modest incomes In India, consumer rights feel very conditional, and erratic. Case in point: Delhi CM has directed strict enforcement of the ‘no PUC no fuel’ policy. That’s your right to an essential service, gone, poof. With petrol pump staff expected…

Oleshki, a city on the Russian-occupied left bank of the Dnipro River in Ukraine’s Kherson region, is under a new form of siege: a combined mine and drone blockade. Drones control movement from above and drop mines to block roads. Civilians are cut off from food and medicine and cannot escape. “The situation is critical,”…

India’s foreign policy has always been deeply shaped by geography – its borders are not merely lines on a map but dynamic corridors of culture, commerce, migration, and shared history. From the Himalayas to the Indian Ocean, India’s immediate neighbours – Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Myanmar and Afghanistan, have always been central to its…

The human quest to understand God and the purpose of existence lies at the heart of spiritual inquiry, especially within the profound traditions of Hindu philosophy. One of the earliest realizations in this journey is that God cannot be grasped by intellect alone. Logic and analysis, though powerful tools for navigating the material world, fall…

There’s a pattern here — and it’s not about what Donald Trump said. It’s about how we react every single time someone outside says something unflattering about India. Let’s get the facts right first. Trump didn’t actually call India a hellhole. He reposted a transcript of remarks made by Michael Savage — conservative commentator, Newsmax…

Unconditional cash transfers just before elections may help fight anti-incumbency, but it bleeds the economy and has limited long-term gains in real welfare of the people A new pattern of freebie disbursement has spread its tentacles across the Indian polity, state elections at its core. Parties in govt, implement a plethora of freebies, just before…