business

A forensics team examines the tail of the crashed Air India aircraft. | Photo Credit: Vijay Soneji Some assignments outlast deadlines. The recent Air India crash is one such incident. It will remain etched in my memory not only because of the scale of the tragedy — nothing prepares anyone to see an accident site … Read more

On the bright side, vaccine coverage globally, between 1980 and 2023, doubled for six diseases including measles, polio and tuberculosis. Also, at 75% globally, there has been a sharp fall in the number of zero-dose children — those who have not received the first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTP) vaccine — during … Read more

The cessation of Israel-Iran hostilities, announced by United States President Donald Trump, sets the stage for the denouement of the horror drama that began on October 7, 2023, with Hamas launching its Operation Toofan al-Aqsa. While the fog of war and rounds of one-upmanship make the immediate foreground inexact, unless the choreographers take due care, … Read more

The 12-day war between Iran and Israel ended with a tense ceasefire. Israel claims that it has set back Iran’s nuclear programme by years in a ‘historic victory’. But the reality appears to be more complex. Iran has suffered enormous damage — its key nuclear facilities were attacked, much of its top chain command was … Read more

Conflict and aftermath The Iran-Israel conflict has virtually left the nuclear non-proliferation treaty in tatters. Meanwhile, a well-scripted agenda of genocide continues in Gaza. It is another matter that the Ukraine war — which U.S. Preisident Trump had famously promised to end in “24 hours” upon taking office — has been relegated to the background. … Read more

The announcement by the United States of the rescission of its Framework for AI Diffusion, a set of export controls for Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology announced earlier this year, has been viewed as a good thing. The Framework was considered counterproductive to AI technology development and diplomatic relations. However, recent developments suggest that controls on … Read more

‘If you can give grief the attention it needs, it will start going about its own business soon’ | Photo Credit: Illustration: Zainab Tambawalla I had never really known grief, not the real kind anyway. I had known heartbreaks and disappointments, but most of my life I had somehow managed to stay away from grief. … Read more

“With an ever-increasing number of migrants travelling from poorer to richer areas in search of employment, the number of those effectively disenfranchised will only increase, unless mechanisms are put in place to facilitate voting by migrants” | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto Bihar, a State with one of the largest out-migration populations in India, is going … Read more

During its campaign for the 2023 Assembly elections in Karnataka, the Congress focused on the alleged corruption of the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and on claims that contractors had to shell out a “40% commission” for all government works. This catapulted the party to power. Two years later, ironically, the Siddaramaiah-led Congress regime … Read more

Feeble voices The whole world has been left feeling helpless, unable to put an end to the theatrics of the superpowers that are escalating strife. Absurdity and megalomania are evident in the rhetoric of some world leaders. There seems to be no room at all for values, grace, magnanimity, humility, amity, credibility, humanity and morality. … Read more