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It’s quite simple, really.When lyricists and singers celebrate alcohol and drugs in their songs, young, intoxicated people at parties are encouraged to consume more alcohol and normalise drugs. And let me tell you that alcohol also causes cancer and erectile dysfunction. When filmmakers show songs with raunchy lyrics and double meanings, objectifying women, they are…

The new amendments proposed to the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019, which came out of nowhere on March 12, are like a knife twisting into the heart of the trans community. The central claim for transgender rights has always been gender self-determination. The Supreme Court, in its seminal judgment in National Legal Services…

The sudden resignation of Atanu Chakraborty as non-executive chairman and independent director of HDFC Bank is not just another boardroom development. It is a moment that compels India Inc. to pause and reflect. In a country where board exits are typically cloaked in polite euphemisms — “personal reasons” or “other commitments” — this resignation stands…

He fits the bill. But it’s a tough call Should Modi mediate in the US-Israel vs Iran war? At least one head of govt, Finland’s president, has publicly said so. Some pundits have mused about this. More important, though, is Modi ticks all the mediator boxes. Let’s list them. He’s prominent on the global stage….

It is day 18 of the largest shipping disruption since WWII. I am looking at the dashboard www.hormuztracker.com: ~3,200 ships (4% global tonnage) idle in Gulf region and ~100 container ships (10% of global fleet) affected. “Probable cancellation and withholding of insurance cover in the face of calamity – doesn’t that contradict the spirit of…

The growth in the defence economy is the narrative of Uttar Pradesh (UP) over the past nine years.It is not merely a slogan, but a transformation of mind and action, realised on the ground. A state once viewed through the lens of limited potential and backwardness is today carving a new identity as a confluence…

An Iran–Israel–US conflict would not stop at the battlefield. Through polluted seas, disrupted shipping, fuel shocks, and damaged marine ecosystems, its environmental and economic aftershocks could hit the Indian subcontinent hard.  A widening Iran–Israel–US conflict is often discussed in terms of missiles, deterrence, and oil prices. But that framework is far too narrow. Wars in…

I have coached leaders who can negotiate billion-rupee deals, handle crises with a straight face, and command rooms full of sceptics. Then, in the next breath, they confess something quietly human: “If I am not the one speaking, I feel irrelevant.” That sentence is not about strategy. It is about wiring. The podium is not…

Most of us are familiar with the popular Buddhist maxim, “what we think, we become.” The mind, much like the body, is ultimately the product of what it is fed, and unlike our bodies, our minds feed on thoughts for much of our waking hours. It is no surprise that the same maxim can be…

If one were to ask what is common to John Keats, Franz Kafka, D H Lawrence and George Orwell, those with even the slightest interest in English literature would know that they are all celebrated writers. However, there is another common thread binding them and that is the fact that they all died from tuberculosis….