Ethnic violence in India’s troubled frontier is not just a law-and-order problem but the culmination of history and political failure. For more than three years, Manipur has remained trapped in a cycle of violence that has scarred communities, displaced tens of thousands and exposed the limits of the Indian state’s ability to manage ethnic conflict. The turmoil is the product of historical grievances and competing identities that have gradually transformed social tensions int

India's solved cases are proving that surveillance can accelerate justice, while unresolved cases are demonstrating the devastating cost of its absence. Crimes are continuing to occur in shadows on deserted roads at midnight, inside locked rooms, and in spaces where victims are crying for help but no witness is stepping forward. Investigations are stalling, perpetrators are escaping, and thousands of criminal cases across India are remaining under trial for years because of i

Last month saw three major indigenous defence breakthroughs in three days, underscoring India’s growing ability to build strategic technologies at home. AI generated image For most of its post-independence history, India’s strategic establishment has had a peculiar relationship with military power. Major acquisitions were announced in press conferences. Sophisticated platforms were purchased abroad. The long years of design work, testing and technological development often oc

The 1962 Indo-China war was a wake-up call for India. Among its many lessons was the need to build a pipeline of future military leaders. Defence Minister V.K. Krishna Menon responded by establishing Sainik Schools across the country to identify talent early and prepare young Indians for entry into the National Defence Academy. One of those institutions was Sainik School Bijapur in Karnataka, spread across more than 430 acres and built with the support of the state and Union

The South China Sea has become the testing ground for the future of global trade and the balance of power in Asia. For centuries, great powers have understood a simple truth that whoever controls the seas shapes the destiny of nations. In the twenty-first century, that proposition has acquired renewed urgency in the waters of the South China Sea, a vast maritime crossroads through which the arteries of global commerce flow. It has emerged as one of the world’s most consequent

China’s creeping conquest of the South China Sea is testing the limits of international law and the resolve of the world’s democracies. Few lines have caused as much anxiety in the cartographic theatre of our times as the one China insists on drawing across the sea. The “nine-dash line,” an ambiguous crescent looping deep into the South China Sea, transcends the limits of a mere maritime claim. It is Beijing’s geopolitical doctrine and a challenge to the post-war internationa

Shirdi: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday asserted that India is on an unstoppable trajectory to emerge as the world’s biggest weapons exporter within the next 25 to 30 years. He was speaking while inaugurating a massive, state-of-the-art ammunition manufacturing facility at Shirdi. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, Chief of Defense Staff General Anil Chauhan, minister Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil and Nibe Group Chairman Ganesh Nibe were present. The event marked a his

As Beijing lectures India on ecology in Great Nicobar, its own record in Tibet and the South China Sea tells a rather different story. There is something theatrical in China’s sudden environmental concern for India’s proposed infrastructure project in Great Nicobar. Beijing and its sympathisers in India have warned darkly of ecological destruction, seismic fragility, threats to indigenous communities and irreversible environmental degradation. One would imagine, listening to

India’s nuclear expansion is not merely an engineering challenge but a test of diplomacy, trade strategy and geopolitical resilience. India’s nuclear energy ambitions sit at the intersection of geology, geopolitics, and economics. As the country seeks to expand low-carbon baseload power, the question is not whether nuclear should grow—but whether India can secure the uranium required to sustain that growth without strategic vulnerability. The answer lies in a calibrated mix o

China’s discomfort with India’s island ambitions may be the clearest indication yet of Great Nicobar’s strategic value. As India pushes ahead with its ambitious Rs. 80,000-crore Great Nicobar infrastructure project, an unlikely convergence has emerged. Chinese commentators have intensified criticism of the island’s development, warning of ecological destruction and strategic destabilisation. At home, opposition politicians and environmental activists have mounted similar atta

The Bargi Dam tragedy exposes India’s dangerous neglect of inland water safety. The recent capsizing of a tourist boat at Bargi Dam near Jabalpur, which claimed multiple lives, is a stark reminder of a deeper and systemic failure in the approach to inland water safety. Early reports point to a familiar and disturbing pattern: inadequate safety measures, questionable operational decisions in adverse weather, and a lack of effective regulatory monitoring and enforcement. Yet, t

The UAE’s exit from the OPEC signals not just a rupture in oil diplomacy, but a shift toward a more buyer-friendly energy order. For much of the modern economic age, oil has been less a commodity than a lever of power. Industrial growth, geopolitical alignments and even wars have turned on access to crude. For decades, that lever was held firmly in Western hands by the clutch of companies famously dubbed the ‘Seven Sisters’ that dominated the global oil trade from the 1920s t

India’s security battle is no longer confined to contested borders but spans supply chains, trade routes and political narratives. When Indians think of national security, the mind still conjures the familiar tableau of a jawan on vigil on n a wind-swept ridge, guarding a distant frontier. But for a country of India’s scale and ambition, its security today far outgrown the trench and the checkpoint. The country’s security now sprawls across markets and media, rivers and route

France’s surprise veto with Russia and China exposes a fraying Western consensus, raising awkward questions about NATO’s future. For seven decades, the choreography of great-power diplomacy has been comfortingly predictable: when push came to shove at the United Nations, France stood with the United States and United Kingdom, balancing the habitual dissent of Russia and China. That symmetry has now been disrupted. In a jarring diplomatic turn, France recently joined Russia an

The TCS Nashik incident and its grim revelations show that India Inc. needs an urgent cultural reckoning. India’s corporate sector has long been celebrated as a beacon of meritocracy, diversity, and opportunity. Gleaming office towers in Mumbai, Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Gurugram house millions of working professionals who arrive each morning with ambitions and the presumed expectation of a safe workplace. But beneath the polished surface of this world, a deeply troubl

A fragile pause between Iran, Israel and America exposes the widening gap between diplomatic signalling and military reality. By definition, a ceasefire is a temporary suspension of hostilities. In practice, it is often something murkier: a tactical pause, a diplomatic fig leaf or worse, a convenient illusion. The ceasefire announced on April 7 between Iran, Israel and the United States appears to belong firmly in this latter category. Less a bridge to peace than a pause preg

Red Reckonin g Part 5 Our five-part series examines the rise and decline of India’s Maoist insurgency, once described as the country’s “greatest internal security threat” and the uneasy transition from conflict to control in its last strongholds. From the Puvarti bridge to the Bastar Band, connectivity and culture are reshaping India’s last Maoist redoubt. For decades, Abujhmad (literally “the unknown hill”) was less a place than a void on India’s map. Sprawled across the den

While Dhurandhar 2 dramatises a fake-currency crackdown, the real 2016 shock may have struck far deeper — at the cash lifeline of India’s Maoist insurgency. In the 2026 blockbuster Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge, director Aditya Dhar stages a sequence that has already become a cultural talking point. Using actual footage of the 2016 demonetisation announcement, the film depicts a Rs 60,000 crore fake-currency racket aimed at destabilising Indian elections, collapsing in a single n

Red Reckonin g Part 4 Our five-part series examines the rise and decline of India’s Maoist insurgency, once described as the country’s “greatest internal security threat” and the uneasy transition from conflict to control in its last strongholds. In the Naxal heartland of Bastar, the Indian state is no longer just clearing territory but opening accounts, extending credit and reclaiming everyday life. Once defined by gunfire and fear, the village of Anandapur in central Chha

Red Reckonin g Part 3 Our five-part series examines the rise and decline of India’s Maoist insurgency, once described as the country’s “greatest internal security threat” and the uneasy transition from conflict to control in its last strongholds. In the rugged terrain of Bastar, long defined in the national imagination by security bulletins and encounter reports, a significant transformation is underway. In Sukma district, one of the most acutely Naxal‑afflicted and logistica