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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
The Sterlite Plant in Thoothukudi. File | Photo Credit: The Hindu With Sterlite Copper shifting its machinery out of Thoothukudi, a new question emerges: Is it a gain for other States? The answer depends on your viewpoint — as a citizen, vendor, contractor, activist, pacifist, community leader, or administrator. The smelter at Thoothukudi was shut … Read more
I was in Delhi for a shoot. All-night shooting schedules left my days free. Delhi’s summer was scorching…the new State government… lawmakers from across the country congregating in the capital… Parliament on the boil due to the Wakf (Amendment) Bill, now an Act. I thought of Umar Khalid. It is going to be five years … Read more
Cases that drag on The report (Page 1, April 16), “National Herald case: ED files chargesheet against Sonia, Rahul”, only raises one pertinent question: why do cases get delayed for abnormally long periods? Do we need decades to clear cases? The judiciary needs to work to a time frame that is reasonable. The various agencies … Read more