The recent global disruption of Microsoft’s services has exposed a disturbing vulnerability in the world’s rapidly expanding digital ecosystem: a failure in one technology giant’s infrastructure can send shockwaves across industries that, on the surface, have little or nothing in common. What initially appeared to be an outage affecting Microsoft’s own applications, including Outlook, Teams,…
Abdul El-Sayed’s victory in Michigan’s November 3 US Senate election is undoubtedly historic. By defeating Republican Mike Rogers, the 42-year-old Democrat has become the first Muslim elected to the US Senate, giving the progressive wing of the Democratic Party a significant political victory. But with the electoral celebrations behind him, the spotlight is now shifting…
Bharat was fortunate to get a decisive leadership change in 2014. Otherwise, the accumulated rot in several public institutions, including the banking sector, could have continued unchecked. For nearly six and a half decades, Congress governments treated public-sector banks and financial institutions less as independent institutions serving depositors and borrowers and more as extensions of…
The cybersecurity developments of the past 72 hours offer a timely reminder that the digital world, while making life faster and more convenient, is also exposing individuals, businesses and governments to increasingly sophisticated threats. The emerging risks are not evidence of an impending internet collapse. Rather, they highlight how rapidly cyberattacks are evolving—and how Artificial…
The French astrologer Nostradamus acquired enduring fame for prophecies that generations have interpreted through the lens of subsequent events. But what happens when a geopolitical magazine’s annual forecast appears, in retrospect, to echo political turmoil unfolding months later? Is it coincidence, perceptive forecasting, or simply the human tendency to connect the dots after the event?…
India’s external position is becoming more fragile, even though the country still has important sources of strength. Rising energy costs, a weaker rupee, portfolio outflows, and record gold imports are widening the gap between the foreign exchange India earns and the foreign exchange it spends. At the same time, services exports and remittances—India’s two most…
History is not merely a collection of dates and names. It is also a record of how knowledge is transmitted, challenged and, sometimes, distorted. That is why the story of a Wikipedia editor known as Jagged_85 deserves attention. The controversy does not establish that the scientific achievements of the medieval Islamic world were fictitious. They…
For generations, Indian traditions such as homas and yajnas have often been dismissed in some quarters as superstition, blind faith or meaningless ritual. But what happens when something embedded in an ancient tradition is subjected to a scientific experiment and produces a measurable result? That is precisely where the conversation about havan smoke becomes interesting….
History has a curious way of leaving clues in places historians sometimes overlook. One such clue may be standing quietly in our fields: the Indian humped cattle, or zebu. For more than a century, the idea that a nomadic race of “Aryans” invaded India around 1500 BCE, destroyed the Indus Valley Civilisation (IVC), and introduced…
For nearly 460 years, generations have looked at a map of the world without necessarily realising that they were looking at a mathematical compromise. The familiar world map was never designed to show the true size of countries and continents. It was created primarily to help sailors navigate. Yet a navigational tool gradually became something…
