Recently, while speaking at the Startup Mahakumbh in New Delhi, Union Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal said that startups were not innovating enough and were limiting themselves to grocery delivery. Are Indian startups not scaling up on innovation? Thillai Rajan and P.K. Jayadevan discuss the question in a conversation moderated by Ashokamithran T. … Read more
Newsrooms the world over are grappling with a new, formidable entrant — AI. The advanced capability of machines and systems can help simplify labour in many areas, reducing the time spent on grunt work. AI could potentially sharpen our output by bringing down the time required for rigour, which often entails background reading, fact-checking, speaking … Read more
Court on Waqf Act The Supreme Court of India’s discussion on the Waqf (Amendment) Act 2025 is an opportunity to reinforce the constitutional values of equality, secularism, and justice. This debate is a positive step toward preserving the Constitution’s spirit and ensuring fairness for all citizens. Its stance signals efforts to align contentious provisions with … Read more
‘Better analogies and frameworks are needed to understand the role of AI in strategic affairs’ | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto The concerns about an artificial intelligence (AI) arms race have become increasingly frequent. There is speculation about how long it would take for researchers to develop artificial general intelligence or AGI, that refers to AI … Read more
The University of Cambridge issued a press release regarding a paper coauthored by one of its scientists that reported an exoplanet called K2-18b may be habitable, with the misleading headline, Strongest hints yet of biological activity outside the solar system. The paper, published on April 17, 2025, made headlines because astronomers have been interested for … Read more
“To me,” United States President Donald Trump has famously said, “tariff is the most beautiful word in the dictionary”. Mr Trump has shown that he means it. By imposing tariffs of varying degrees on a wide range of countries, he has initiated a trade war, the likes of which the world has not seen since … Read more
AIADMK general secretary and former Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami’s assertion that Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while in Chennai last week, did not talk of power sharing in the event of the victory of the newly stitched AIADMK-BJP alliance in the 2026 Assembly election, is not surprising given the State’s contemporary political history. Tamil … Read more
When the Constitution of India was first published, over 75 years ago, it included many artworks. Amongst them was one showing Kubera, Ravana’s brother and the king of wealth and yakshas (nature spirits), fleeing from Lanka. It is often mistaken for Hanuman burning Lanka, but there are no flames of a burning city or a monkey’s tail. … Read more
The newly-elected BJP Tamil Nadu president Nainar Nagenthran has said that the DMK government in Tamil Nadu had failed to fulfil its electoral promises, and was increasing the burden on people by revising taxes. In an interview with The Hindu, Mr. Nagenthran stressed that there was a huge anti-incumbency wave against the DMK government. With … Read more
A Muria Gond woman from Chhattisgarh sits in a temporary hamlet in Khammam district of the then undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2009. | Photo Credit: AFP via Getty Images In 2005, around 50,000 Gond tribals were forced to migrate to then-undivided Andhra Pradesh (now parts of Telangana) when the Government of India embarked on the … Read more