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Relatives of the victim of a stampede in the New Delhi railway station mourn her death. | Photo Credit: PTI Two stampede incidents topped the headlines recently. Twenty train passengers were killed while trying to board a crowded train in New Delhi, a tragedy that came soon after the stampede at the Maha Kumbh in … Read more

‘India’s diplomats should be given the task of coming up with a new type of principles of global governance for a more equal world’ | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto India is at another inflexion point, reminiscent of Vasco De Gama sailing into Kozhikode in 1498 and of a complacent Zamorin lacking strategic intention. Instead of … Read more

Fourteen people, two of them children, were killed and 13 injured in a hotel fire in the Mechua market area of Burrabazar in central Kolkata on Tuesday. The fire engines had trouble accessing the congested area. It appears, yet again, that many of the victims were asphyxiated — smoke is as much a deadly killer … Read more

Census, caste, reservation Reservation was introduced to correct historical injustices, and even Dr. B.R. Ambedkar had said it should be a temporary measure. But seven decades after Independence, political parties are still using it for vote-bank interests. There is now competition among parties to increase reservations — not out of concern for the poor, but … Read more

A historical fact is that over nearly three years, the Constituent Assembly met for 167 days to frame the Constitution of India. Among the many crucial debates that occurred was the question of what form of government India should adopt. Defending the choice of a parliamentary system, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar argued that it offered more … Read more

After painstaking negotiations, marked by inflammatory exchanges, Washington and Kyiv have signed an agreement that would grant the U.S. access to Ukraine’s critical mineral and oil and gas resources through a joint investment fund. Ukraine has claimed that it would lead to an equal economic partnership, while its actual impact remains uncertain. The idea of … Read more

Robin Uthappa (left) and Jarrod Kimber It’s that time of the year again, when the Indian Premier League (IPL) dominates sports pages in India across a couple of months. When it comes to sports broadcasting — and increasingly, podcasting — fans are divided into two groups. One group, old-school, likes former players sharing anecdotes from … Read more

A file photo of a journalist going into the Cu Chi tunnel network. | Photo Credit: Reuters In Satyajit Ray’s classic Pratidwandi, set in the late 1960s in Kolkata, the protagonist Siddhartha, played by Dhritiman Chatterjee, goes for a job interview. The panel asks, “What would you regard as the most outstanding and significant event … Read more

The calculated brutality of the terror attack in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir appears to have crossed a red line for India-Pakistan ties that were already at an all-time low. Following its diplomatic measures against Pakistan, what appropriate military response can India craft? Has the Pahalgam attack crossed a red line? Sharat Sabharwal and Lieutenant … Read more

Private Member’s Bills (PMBs) are a mechanism through which Members of Parliament (MP), who are not Ministers, can propose their own legislation. In India’s parliamentary system, most laws are introduced by the government, drafted by Ministries and tabled by Ministers. In contrast, PMBs come from individual MPs, both ruling party or the Opposition. In each … Read more