Opinion

Melvin Durai Akshay Kumar is not just a Bollywood star — he’s an “international megastar,” according to a press release sent out recently by a UK-based public relations firm. This reminds me of all the press releases I’ve seen about professors or scientists who are...

Shivaji Sarkar The farmers’ issue is getting both interesting and intriguing. With the new farm laws, foreign investors are bringing in more money and funding for warehousing is also increasing, though the farmer gets low returns. In the talks between the Government and farmer representatives,...

The BJP has distanced itself from the remarks by the Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant that India has been “too much of a democracy” to allow for reforms, which he career bureaucrat categorised as “bold”. Officers trying to keep the ruling party in good humour,...

Josef Joffe German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has ruled the 71-year-old Federal Republic for a total of 50 years. When she steps down next fall after 16 years in office, it is safe to assume that another Christian Democrat will succeed her....

Bharat Jhunjhunwala A report by McKinsey Global Institute says that there is a shortage of 8.5 crore skilled workers having higher secondary education and above in the developed countries; while there is an excess of 9.5 crore unskilled workers having primary education in the developed...

Dhanada K Mishra Odisha made news recently for an unusual final test to choose vice-chancellors for several universities in the state. The shortlisted candidates - all presumably highly qualified, experienced and senior academicians - were handed over a question paper as they were waiting presumably...

Sudha Devi Nayak ‘La Peste’ or The Plague is the story of Oran, a French prefecture in the Algerian coast, told through the lens of the doctor narrator, Bernard Rieux, an unbeautiful place, “Treeless, glamourless, soulless” where people are chiefly interested in matters mercenary, living...

Melvin Durai I was happy to hear that Ranjitsinh Disale, a primary school teacher in Maharashtra, has been awarded the 2020 Global Teacher Prize. The prize, sponsored by the Varkey Foundation in partnership with UNESCO, comes with enough money to change a teacher’s life: Rs...

Sharan Srinivas Autocratic leaders often seek new ways to undermine the right to protest, because they know protesting can be an extraordinarily powerful force for political and social change. Over the past decade, protests have toppled autocrats, forced governments and corporations to recognise the climate...

Ajit Ranade In the last week of November, the government confirmed that India was officially in a recession, possibly for the first time in modern history. The technical definition of a recession is when the economy contracts for two successive quarters, i.e. three month periods....