Bangladesh’s growing embrace of Chinese infrastructure and strategic capital confronts India with a geopolitical challenge that extends far beyond the Teesta. For more than five decades, India and Bangladesh have built one of South Asia’s most stable bilateral relationships. Bound by geography, culture and the shared memory of Bangladesh’s liberation in 1971, New Delhi viewed Dhaka as an indispensable partner in securing India's eastern frontier and integrating its northeaste

Yastika Bhatia’s maiden Test century at Lord’s crowns the rise of an elegant wicketkeeper-batter who has quietly become indispensable to India’s new generation. Critics may say that there are flashier cricketers than Yastika Bhatia. She does not possess the raw power of a Smriti Mandhana or the aura of a Harmanpreet Kaur. She rarely dominates highlight reels or social media clips. Instead, she has built her reputation through reliability – a quality far more vital. At a time

The repatriation of a centuries-old Kartikeya idol from Australia underscores the importance of ‘civilisational diplomacy’ on India’s part. India and Australia have spent the past two decades discovering that they have more in common than cricket, the Commonwealth and a shared affection for the Indian Ocean. What began as a cautious strategic courtship has matured into one of the Indo-Pacific's most consequential partnerships, spanning defence, critical minerals, education,

From January 2025 to January 2026, sewage-contaminated piped water caused disease outbreaks in 26 cities across 22 states and union territories, sickening at least 5,500 people and killing 34. Sixteen state capitals were on that list. In Gandhinagar, Gujarat’s capital, more than 150 children were hospitalised with typhoid in a single week after contaminated water entered the supply. In Bengaluru, residents of an entire layout reported diarrhoea and stomach infections after se

India’s shocking T20 series defeat to Ireland is a warning that the country’s greatest cricketing opponent is no longer the team standing across the pitch, but the complacency festering within its own dressing room. A team that commands the richest cricket board, supposedly the deepest talent pool and the most lavish ecosystem in the sport has contrived to lose a T20 series to a nation where cricket remains a minority pursuit. That this is Shreyas Iyer’s fifth match as T20 ca

India’s BRICS presidency will be judged less by declarations than by its ability to translate ambition into economic cooperation. Following the BRICS Summit, attention has quickly shifted from the bloc’s expanding membership to India’s upcoming presidency. While BRICS now represents a larger share of the global economy than ever before, the question is no longer about whether the grouping matters, but whether it can deliver tangible economic outcomes. India’s presidency prese

India’s rising crimes against senior citizens expose a failure of social protection, policing and community responsibility. AI generated image India is ageing rapidly. With a growing population of citizens above 60 years, the vulnerability of our elderly has become a stark national concern. The latest data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) in its ‘Crime in India 2022-24’ report reveals a disturbing trend: crimes against senior citizens are not only persistent but

As the Indo-Pacific enters an era of heightened geopolitical competition, India and South Korea are discovering that economic complementarity alone is no longer enough. For decades, India and South Korea have enjoyed cordial relations built upon commerce, investment and the success of Korean conglomerates in the Indian market. Yet, despite flourishing economic ties, the relationship often lacked strategic urgency. That complacency is no longer tenable. The Indo-Pacific has be

From Aadhaar to e-passports, India has digitised governance at scale. But the legal architecture of citizenship remains opaque and poorly understood. The recent controversy over the Ministry of External Affairs’ statement that an Indian passport is not proof of citizenship has produced predictable political reactions. Opposition leaders questioned what document then proves citizenship. Government officials responded that nothing had changed and that passports have never been

As geopolitical uncertainty reshapes energy markets, India is rediscovering Venezuela as a useful partner in a pragmatic search for energy security. For much of the past decade, Venezuela occupied an awkward place in global diplomacy. Once one of the world’s richest oil producers, the South American nation became synonymous with economic collapse, hyperinflation, political turmoil and Western sanctions. While many countries kept their distance, India has never entirely severe

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-

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

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,

India’s booming lifestyle management industry is a symptom of the state’s withdrawal from care infrastructure. AI generated image An IIT-founder CEO in Gurugram pays Rs. 1 lakh a month to a single person who manages his laundry, food, wardrobe, domestic staff training, and household repairs. In Bengaluru, a young professional couple uses a lifestyle management firm to coordinate their home schedules, travel bookings and vendor calls. These are not outliers but the visible edg

India stands at a remarkable crossroads in its journey toward economic democratization. Over the past decade, the country has witnessed a profound transformation in how millions of its citizens interact with formal financial systems. The latest data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6, 2023-24) reveals an impressive surge in financial inclusion metrics. What was once a landscape marked by systemic exclusion, especially for rural populations and women, now shows nea

India’s battle against pollution cannot be won without confronting the social inequities hidden within the smog. Each winter, India’s cities disappear behind a familiar grey curtain. Schools are closed; flights are delayed while hospitals are full of respiratory patients Air pollution has become so common in India that it is like a season in itself. But beneath this ecological catastrophe lies another, less talked-about crisis. India’s pollution is very uneven. Not everyone b

As conflict in West Asia continues unabated, India finds itself confronting the rising cost of economic patriotism AI generated image On 10 May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi stood before a crowd in Hyderabad and asked Indians to change how they live. Avoid foreign travel for at least a year. Work from home where possible. Stop buying gold. He called it economic patriotism. A war involving the United States and Iran had disrupted oil supply routes, driven up the price of every

A small object changed hands in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, and almost no one paused to consider what it meant. Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the President of the United Arab Emirates placed a silicon chip in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s palm. It was a Cerebras chip given to the Indian Prime Minister as part of a bilateral agreement – a working piece of one of the most powerful artificial intelligence machines money can build, soon to be installed on Indian soil. That gest

From late meetings to delayed projects, India’s casual attitude to punctuality carries an invisible national cost. AI generated image My earlier article on the W2K problem argued that our working weeks are limited and should not be wasted casually. This article takes that idea further and looks at a larger social habit: the culture of not valuing time seriously. Timekeeping began with shadows, stars, sundials and water clocks. Today, however, a second is defined with extraor

As geopolitical shocks expose India’s imported fuel dependence, the country’s vast thorium reserves may hold the key to long-term energy sovereignty. India’s energy future may ultimately depend less on imported oil, solar panels or even foreign uranium, and more on a mineral buried quietly in its coastal sands: thorium. For decades, thorium occupied a curious place in India’s energy discourse — celebrated in scientific circles, occasionally invoked in policy speeches, yet oft