Opinion

By Jasmine Meher The economic trajectory of post-liberalisation India has long been dictated by a predictable, well-trodden path: a migration of labour from agriculture to heavy, carbon-intensive industries, followed by a gradual climb into service sector dominance. Yet, for a resource-rich state like Odisha, this...

By Rajdeep Sardesai My earliest encounter with the leadership of the Sangh Parivar came in 1989 when I was sent to cover a press conference of the late Ashok Singhal, then president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP). It was the high noon of the Ram...

By Slavoj Žižek Francis Fukuyama’s 1990s end-of-history thesis was the last big narrative that united the liberal-democratic West. Western liberal-democratic welfare-state capitalism, he argued, was the best possible social system. The only remaining question was empirical: Precisely when and how would other parts of the...

The booming growth of AI, along with its evolving engagement with everyday issues, reveals that AI is set to become a staple of daily life—mapping and shaping people’s choices across everything from food and friendship to family, health, and livelihoods. AI is going to be...

India's rapid rollout of E20 fuel has been projected as a major step towards energy security, climate action and farmer welfare. The government deserves credit for reducing dependence on imported crude oil and creating a larger market for domestically produced ethanol. Yet an equally important...

In a remarkable commentary published at the end of June, a former leading economist in the Trump administration acknowledges (and endorses) what many have suspected: The function of Trump's foreign economic policy is to act like a 21st-century robber baron. The original robber barons were...

Melvin Durai I recently survived a heat wave that confirmed to me that the greatest man in history was the man who invented air conditioning. He was an American engineer named Willis Carrier, inventor of the first electrical air conditioning unit in 1902. The greatest...

Ian Buruma With the 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by Canada, the United States, and Mexico, in its knockout rounds, it’s now win or go home. But as more teams are eliminated and the field narrows, the tournament looks increasingly like a success, despite many...

By Ajit Ranade 27 June marked National MSME Day, bringing a wave of lavish tributes canonising small businesses as the “backbone” of employment, industrial production, and exports. A few days later on 1 July, the nation marked GST Day, commemorating the ninth anniversary of the...

Manica Balasegaram & Martin Fitchet   Despite delivering extraordinary gains in the fight against child mortality and diseases such as HIV, polio, and malaria, the global health system has come under strain not only from shrinking resources but also from unprecedented scrutiny and rising expectations....