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

For decades, India’s navy has been a force defined as much by restraint as by reach. It has excelled in sea denial, in guarding chokepoints, and in projecting quiet deterrence across the Indian Ocean. However, it lacked the ability to decisively shape events ashore. That omission is being remedied. Recently, India’s Defence Acquisition Council chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has granted a fresh Acceptance of Necessity for the procurement of four Landing Platform Doc

Red Reckonin g Part 2 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. The dense, teak-filled forests of Gadchiroli have long been synonymous with the ‘Red Corridor’ - a landscape defined by minefields, ideological rigidity and the persistent hum of an insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives. For

Red Reckonin g Part 1 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. Last month, Union Home Minister Amit Shah declared in Parliament what would once have sounded improbable. The country, he said, was now “Naxal-free.” The Maoist insurgency has spanned nearly six decades, claimed thousands of lives an

Amid the Iran crisis, India’s quiet convoy war in the much-contested Strait reveals a maturing maritime power. Few bottlenecks are more consequential today than the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow maritime hinge through which a quarter of the world’s seaborne oil and vast volumes of gas must pass. Weeks into the escalating Iran–Israel–United States conflict, traffic through Hormuz has slowed to a trickle, as insurers have recoiled and prices have lurched upward. For energy-impor

War in Iran has turned the INSTC, India’s most promising trade shortcut, into a strategic liability. The fog of war in the Middle East has obscured more than battle lines. It has also hidden the quiet unravelling of one of Eurasia’s most ambitious trade experiments: the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC). Conceived at the turn of the millennium as a faster, cheaper artery linking South Asia to Europe, the corridor now finds itself a casualty as collateral da

Decades of mistrust, proxy wars and ideological rivalry have brought Iran, Israel and the United States to a perilous crossroads. Once friends, Iran and Israel are now locked in a confrontation that has grown ever more combustible. The 1979 Islamic Revolution transformed Iran from a regional partner of Israel into its most implacable foe, rejecting the Jewish state’s very legitimacy. Since then, Iran has embraced the mantle of proxy warfare, backing groups from Hamas in Gaza

On July 26, 1976 we arrived at the Naval Academy at INS Venduruthy, fresh engineering graduates from across India who had successfully navigated the demanding interviews of the Service Selection Board. We formed what came to be known as the E & L Batch of 1976 under the University Entry Scheme. Most of us arrived dressed in the fashion of the day - bell-bottom trousers, long hair and youthful optimism. The transformation began almost immediately. The hair went first, replaced