Opinion

Melvin Durai My 18-year-old daughter, Lekha, a college student, recently got her driver’s license. She was happy when she passed the driving exam, undoubtedly relieved that she wouldn’t need to keep taking lessons with me. I had mixed emotions. I was happy and proud, but...

Dhurjati Mukherjee Agricultural reforms are imperative in our country as these have a high potential to look after a major segment of the population. There is need not just to increase productivity, but also to ensure that farmers get a better deal and are assured...

Jagdish Rattanani The world’s most-watched election is today, November 3, with Joe Biden in the lead but pollsters are still unsure if he will make it to the White House. The prospects of Donald Trump’s victory are bleak but not many are ruling out a...

Ruth Ben-Ghiat At certain moments in history – often after substantial social progress has discomfited certain segments of society – an individual appears on the political scene claiming to stand for something grand and new. Skilled in the arts of self-presentation and emotional manipulation, he...

Sudha Devi Nayak The pandemic, no respecter of individuals or identities has laid low the human hubris. One way of reconciling to the situation of isolation and living in and out of lockdowns is to turn to books, because books are friends, books are community...

Toby Ord The COVID-19 pandemic underscores just how tightly interwoven humanity has become. A single infected animal somewhere in China set in motion a chain reaction with effects that, nearly a year later, are still reverberating in every corner of the planet. This should not...

Rup Narayan Das The selection and appointment of vice-chancellors (VCs) at times attracted media attention for very many reasons. The latest instance is the suspension of the VC of Delhi University. Ironically he was appointed by the same regime. In the educational edifice of the...

Michael Bröning Europe’s progressive intelligentsia have come to scorn political ‘centrism.’ A misguided focus on the middle ground, critics argue, precludes the formulation of political alternatives, leading to the rise of extremist parties on the left and right. Seen through this lens, the corollaries of...

Federico Finchelstein, Pablo Piccato, & Jason Stanley Many Americans can see that voting for President Trump is tantamount to endorsing white nationalism and the kind of conspiracist, magical thinking that denies real threats like pandemics and climate change. But it also must be recognised that...

Bharat Jhunjhunwala Prime Minister Narendra Modi has enumerated a number of positive signs in the economy seen in September and expressed hope that GDP growth rate will pick up in 2021-22. He has pointed out that agricultural production is at record levels; a 15 per...