Blogs

The 26/11 attacks in India’s commercial capital, Mumbai, were a pivotal moment in the country’s troubled history of terrorism, and while much has been written about the attacks themselves, the documentation of the complex organizational structure and dynamics that underpinned these attacks has, at best, been fragmentary. Terrorism, moreover, has most often been examined in…

Lithium powers our dreams of a cleaner future. It is the hidden pulse inside electric cars gliding down highways, the quiet engine behind rooftop solar systems, and the chemical promise in every climate pledge that imagines a world free from fossil fuels. As the planet warms and nations race to decarbonise, lithium-ion batteries have become…

Most of us think about health as something that pays off in our later years: fewer diseases and better aging. But a recent conversation I hosted with Mayank Bathwal, CEO of Aditya Birla Health Insurance (ABHI) demonstrated that taking care of your health isn’t just good for long-term wellbeing, but is also one of the…

Quiz: Who is your ward councillor? If you have the correct answer, you are in a minority. We, the urban residents of Tamil Nadu, complain endlessly about decaying civic amenities, but remain clueless about our civic representatives. And that is in stark contrast to our neighbours in Kerala. The just-concluded local body elections in Kerala,…

A welcome vibe, a local charm, a homely feel…quaint villages, beaches, rivers, hills and romance with nature, where life comes alive among the sun, sand and sea. Goa is all of this and a sum total of more than this. It also is content in being susegad . But beneath this veneer lies an unease…

The voter list purification campaign launched by the Central Election Commission is being discussed nationwide. The issue of purifying voter lists is linked to the problem of illegal immigration in the country. For the past few months, false and misleading information has been systematically spread against the verification of voter lists.   The Constitution established…

NDA winning Kerala state capital muni signals there are takers for third front in Left’s last state Nothing screamed anti-incumbency more than the results of Kerala’s local body elections. Pinarayi-led LDF, 10 years in govt, and having lorded over local bodies for decades, was turfed out by main opposition Congress-led UDF. But it is in…

The last weeks of December are usually a lull: thinner trading desks, shuttered parliaments, executives on leave. Yet geopolitics rarely respects the calendar. This year, several theatres are converging at precisely the moment the global economy is most sensitive to shocks: inflation has cooled but remains reactive; growth is resilient but moderating; and supply chains—re-engineered…

When football star Lionel Messi came to Kolkata, something strange happened. It reminded everyone that in India, VIP culture is still very strong — and ordinary people often come last. In many Western countries, leaders don’t act like they are special. Once, France’s president had to walk for 30 minutes because the road was blocked….

The results of Kerala’s local body elections sent a strong message: many people want change. The Left government (called LDF), led by Pinarayi Vijayan, has been in power for 10 years and controlled local councils for a very long time. But this time, voters were unhappy. The main opposition, the Congress-led UDF, won many local…