Blogs

Hello and welcome to the 87th edition of the Weekly Vine. In this week’s edition, we track the brief history of memes, decode the many faces of Sam Altman, look back at a remarkable moon hoax, and discuss the Indian middle class’s unique woes. A brief history of May Mays (or Memes)A few years ago,…

The global food system is at a critical juncture; facing issues like soil degradation, climate risk, and biodiversity erosions are converging with investor and regulator expectations in ways that make “business as usual” harder to defend. Global estimates show agrifood systems account for about one-third of total anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions when farming, land-use change, and supply…

Today’s world order is less stable and less secure than any time since World War II. The system we’ve known for decades, built on security alliances and growing markets, largely kept us safe and prosperous while lifting billions around the world from poverty. No one would say it’s perfect — the list of failures is…

The threat arrived, as so often in transatlantic politics, in a few angry lines and an off‑the‑cuff remark. Donald Trump, now back in the White House, has openly mused about pulling the United States out of NATO, furious that European allies refused to join US operations to secure the Strait of Hormuz and support the…

The Economic Survey 2025-2026 in its coverage of the insurance sector, appears to highlight the fundamental idea that the high dependence on intermediaries – read ‘high’ distribution overheads – acts as a barrier to increasing insurance penetration. The Survey notes that rising customer acquisition cost through the intermediary channel causes not only an operational friction,…

With midterm elections looming, there are still serious divides within Democratic Party, the kinds that cost Democrats dearly in 2024. But the unpopular war with Iran is giving them a unifying issue, a way to package all their arguments into one coherent, anti-Trump message. Read full story on TOI+  Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views…

The image of an elderly man in West Bengal, in tears because his name was not on the voters list, is haunting. In recent conversations in rural and urban Bengal, it became clear, at the time, that two out of three voters had not found their names on the new voters list. This was mass…

Trump, stomping around in Oval Office, pouting petulantly, and randomly kicking furniture. Trump: Ingrates! Ingrates! Ingrates! Rat fink ingrates, the whole lotta ’em! Chief of Staff: Who’re these ungrateful fellas, who’ve got you so hot under the collar? Trump: I’m all het up with those supposed buddies of mine – an’ who won’t help me with this war…

Govt of the people, by the people, for the people – Democracy sure is fab. But it can also be a war machine, wreaking senseless, hideous destruction. The very thing that animates democracy’s empowered core – its people’s vote – creates something like ‘demoscotoma’ – demos (people) + scotoma (blind spot). In an unintended, negative…

Two weeks to elections, around 27L people, as things stand, will not be able to vote in upcoming Bengal elections. This is unprecedented. And deeply worrying. Their status in the electorate is suspended, because processes that’ll allow them to be on the new voter roll, being created through EC’s Special Intensive Revision, have not been…