Supporters from the Tibetan Youth Congress react during a protest at Azad Maidan in Mumbai on Monday against China's new ethnic unity law. Pic: Bhushan Koyande Mumbai: Over 250 Tibetan refugees, activists and members of the Friends of Tibet took out a rally and demonstrated near the Chinese Consulate in Mumbai as part of an international action to protest against China’s new Ethnic Unity and Progress Promotion Law (EUPPL). The Tibetans living in Mumbai were joined by other pr

The Quad is evolving from a strategic conversation into a practical partnership aimed at preserving a free, open and secure Indo-Pacific without becoming a formal military alliance. The Indo-Pacific has become the centre of gravity of global geopolitics. Its vast maritime routes carry a significant share of world trade, its waters connect major economies, and its stability determines whether Asia can continue its remarkable economic rise. In this contested space, the Quad - t

Northeast India’s geography and proximity to ASEAN could make it the missing link in India’s bid to become a global manufacturing alternative to China The global search for more resilient supply chains has placed India at the centre of the China+1 strategy, with multinational companies increasingly looking to diversify manufacturing and sourcing beyond China. Yet, one crucial dimension of this strategy remains overlooked: India’s Northeast. Although much is made of western p

A cursory survey of the past decade would show that New Delhi has approached its neighbourhood with alternating bouts of confidence and anxiety. Confidence because India’s economic and geopolitical weight has steadily expanded. Anxiety because every election in South Asia in recent years seemed to produce a new leader who promised to stand up to India, reduce dependence on it or seek alternatives elsewhere - usually in China. Indian policymakers have been concerned that anti-

Amid a surge in online ‘anti-Indian’ narratives, Singapore’s decisive intervention has offered a model that many Western democracies have often shied away from. Last week, Singapore ordered three major social-media platforms to block access to 14 posts believed to have originated in China. The content allegedly targeted the Indian community and sought to chip away at the city-state’s carefully cultivated model of multiculturalism. The move was striking not only for its speed,

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

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

As China grows more assertive in Asia, India and Vietnam are discovering that shared anxieties make for a durable strategic partnership. In Asia’s crowded geopolitical theatre, few relationships have evolved as consequentially as that between India and Vietnam. Bound by ancient cultural ties and united by modern strategic anxieties, the two countries are steadily crafting a partnership that stretches from Buddhist monasteries to missile systems, from maritime security to semi

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

China’s environmental awakening has brought cleaner skies and greener industries, but the costs of decades of ecological devastation remain immense. Mao Zedong was not a farmer. Though born into a peasant family, he had little farming experience. It was political struggle that interested him. This struggle would come to define his whole life; struggle against everything he thought was holding China back from becoming the Marxist utopia it was destined to be. In 1917, as a you

It doesn’t just change how you see the world—it changes a small part of you. China is not just a country—it is an experience that unfolds gently, layer by layer, revealing stories of emperors, revolutions, nature’s grandeur, and human resilience. It is a land where ancient heritage and modern ambition exist in harmony, where every journey slowly becomes personal, almost intimate. I remember one moment during a group journey when I was leading 38 people that has stayed with me

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

As academic incentives harden into predictable pathways, science risks trading curiosity for predictable outcomes. A recent article in Nature magazine describes an unusual online game from China in which players step into the life of a young faculty member. They must publish papers, secure research grants, manage teaching, and navigate institutional pressures. What is striking is not the game's premise but how real it feels to those who play it. This reaction is worth pausi

Under China’s expanding shadow, the once-dominant Indosphere faces slow erosion born as much of external pressure as of India’s own long neglect. The term Indosphere, post its coinage around eight decades ago, was broadly understood to include the whole of Southeast Asia, except the northern or one third of Vietnam. It, by definition as well as by factual development, excludes the later born (2002) and newly admitted (2026) ASEAN member state of Timor Leste. A lot can be said

As other nations rebuild their entire knowledge systems for an AI-driven future, India remains trapped in incrementalism while leaving the deeper architecture of learning untouched. Picture a classroom. Thirty students. Bright faces, packed bags, parents who sacrificed holidays and savings to put them there. Now remove fifteen of them. Tell them that you studied hard, you passed your exams, you did everything right but are not ready for the world waiting outside this door. Th

Cyber fraud, human trafficking and weak states have fused into a criminal ecosystem that even China’s heavy hand struggles to dismantle Chinese actor Wang Xing with Thai police authorities In January of this year, eleven members of the mafia family Ming were executed in China. Their crimes included homicide, illegal detention, and the operating of cyber scam centres across the border in Myanmar. Five members of the family Bai were sentenced to death back in November, and ther