Every January, as winter sunlight softens the edges of India’s capital and the rumble of tanks meets the quiet awe of schoolchildren lining Rajpath, the nation pauses for more than a parade. Republic Day is not merely a celebration of constitutional ceremony. It is an annual audit of the Indian state itself — of what…
China’s latest claim that a single People’s Liberation Army soldier can control a swarm of more than 200 AI-enabled drones is designed to sound less like a military update and more like a declaration of technological supremacy. According to PLA-affiliated media and a test conducted by the National University of Defence Technology, the drones can…
The stage was grand. The symbolism, unsettling. A “Board of Peace” chaired by the President of the United States, Donald J Trump, with Pakistan—long scrutinized for its tangled history with extremist networks—occupying pride of place. And beside Trump, Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, his presence on the dais framed as a diplomatic victory rather than…
When Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw publicly questioned the International Monetary Fund’s Artificial Intelligence Preparedness Index (AIPI), he was not merely disputing a number on a global leaderboard. He was challenging a worldview that still measures technological readiness through Western institutional lenses, often blind to the scale, speed, and democratic depth of India’s digital transformation. The…
As India prepares to welcome the European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, as Chief Guest for Republic Day, the symbolism could not be louder. Beyond the pageantry and protocol, a far more consequential event is unfolding in the background: the likely signing of what many are already calling the “mother of all deals” —…
India’s cultural conversation has always thrived on its ability to hold contradictions in the same frame. A country that sings in a hundred tongues, prays in a thousand ways, and watches the same silver screen together also knows how quickly applause can turn into argument. That tension resurfaced recently when Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman spoke…
In 1945, the United Nations was born from the ashes of a world torn apart by imperial ambition. Its founding promise was simple and solemn: no nation, however powerful, would again be allowed to redraw borders by threat, coercion, or force. Eight decades later, that promise lies in tatters — not because the rules are…
The verdict from Maharashtra’s civic polls is not merely a tally of seats—it is a political statement, loud and unambiguous. The Bharatiya Janata Party has emerged as the dominant force, not just in Mumbai’s prestigious Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), but across the state’s urban landscape. Exit polls projected it, ground reports confirmed it, and the…
If there was any lingering doubt about who stands for constitutional order and who thrives on political anarchy, the Supreme Court put it to rest on Thursday—firmly, unequivocally, and publicly. By staying the petitions filed against Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government, the apex court delivered a stinging rebuke to West…
Donald Trump’s politics have never been subtle. It is coercive, transactional, and unapologetically destabilising. When he threatens Iran today with military action, sanctions, and economic strangulation under the familiar pretext of “regime behaviour,” the world would be naïve to see it as an isolated episode. Iran is merely the current theatre. The method—pressure, humiliation, internal…
