As the war in West Asia continues to drive up crude prices and fiscal pressures, India’s economic resilience is being severely tested. AI generated image It has been nearly three months since the West Asian conflict began, and its ripple effects are striking us harder than the scorching summer sun in the subcontinent. The unfolding situation has already shaken the government’s risk management framework. For years, India benefited from a prolonged “Goldilocks” phase of economi

The latest increase in petrol and diesel prices — the fourth hike in just 11 days — underlines how vulnerable India remains to geopolitical turmoil and its own unfinished reforms in the energy sector. Brent crude surged again after fresh American military strikes in southern Iran deepened fears of the renewal of the Iran conflict on a higher scale. Markets are now gripped by uncertainty as hopes of a negotiated settlement continue to fade. For a country like India, which impo

As Turkey grows closer to Pakistan and the Mediterranean gains geopolitical weight, India has discovered an unlikely but useful partner in Cyprus. In diplomacy, small states frequently become the hinges upon which larger geopolitical doors swing. Cyprus, a divided island in the eastern Mediterranean with barely 1.3 million people, is increasingly acquiring such importance. India, whose foreign policy has traditionally looked east towards Asia or west towards the Gulf, now app

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

Mumbai: India has emerged as the most attractive real estate yield market across the Asia Pacific region, driven by strong economic fundamentals, rising institutional participation and sustained occupier demand, according to a latest survey by CBRE. The consultancy’s Q1 2026 Asia Pacific Cap Rate Survey shows that India offers the highest yields across every major asset class, including office, retail, logistics, hotels and student housing, significantly outperforming mature

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

With the renewed conflict involving Iran sending tremors through global energy markets, India once again stares at creeping inflation. Oil prices are rising, the rupee is under pressure and the costs of everyday essentials from milk to transport, are beginning to climb steadily. The question now is no longer whether the geopolitical crisis in West Asia will affect India, but how deeply it will hit the ordinary Indian household. While the government has not announced any fuel

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

On Technology Day, India’s future as a technological power will depend as much on a culture of maintenance as on innovation itself. National Technology Day, observed on May 11, commemorates India’s successful Pokhran-II nuclear tests in 1998, a powerful demonstration of scientific capability, strategic ambition, and sustained national effort. These milestones rightly celebrate innovation and breakthroughs. Yet they also prompt a deeper reflection: such achievements rest not o

India and Italy are rediscovering each other as partners in a more fractured, multipolar world Diplomacy often advances through the steady accumulation of modest alignments. The recent warming of relations between Narendra Modi’s India and Giorgia Meloni’s Italy suggests just such an incremental and pragmatic shift, one that is shaped by the pressures of a changing geopolitical order. An unremarkable bilateral relationship is now being recast as a partnership spanning defence

While India’s gamble has yet to choke Pakistan’s flows a year after the suspension of the Indus Water Treaty, the move has redrawn the rules and weaponised water diplomacy. One year has passed since the Pahalgam terror attack, an event that triggered a wave of fierce anti-Pakistan sentiment across the nation. In its immediate aftermath, India suspended the Indus Water Treaty (IWT), long regarded as one of the most successful examples of international cooperation, despite deca

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

Austria’s chancellor visits India, signalling a pragmatic European pivot towards a rising Asian partner For a country often described as the quiet heart of Europe, Austria has chosen a moment of global flux to step outward. Its outreach to India, in form of Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker’s recent visit this month, is marked by shifting alliances, economic anxieties and a search for reliable partners beyond the Atlantic. Austria’s geography has always endowed it with an

When sections of India’s self-anointed ‘liberal’ media cheer Pakistan’s fleeting diplomatic theatre, they reveal less about geopolitics than about their own reflexes. There is a peculiar reflex that grips a section of India’s self-styled ‘liberal’ media whenever the world tilts even slightly against the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Central government. It is not analysis, not even contrarianism in the noble sense, but a barely concealed thrill - an instinct to diminish India’s

After a period of drift, India and Bangladesh rediscover the logic of cooperation. In history and diplomacy, geography is destiny but memory often intervenes. For India and Bangladesh, two neighbours bound by history, culture and an unruly border, the past has a habit of intruding upon the present. Yet recent developments suggest that the bilateral relationship, strained by political transitions and mutual suspicion, may be entering a phase of pragmatic recalibration. The vis

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

The ocean gives peace… if the heart is calm. There are places we visit for sightseeing, and then there are places that quietly transform us from within. The Maldives is one such destination—a paradise where turquoise waters meet endless skies, where the rhythm of waves replaces the noise of busy life, and where every sunset reminds us to slow down and simply live. From the moment you arrive, the air feels lighter, the ocean calmer, and the heart begins to breathe in a rhythm

As AI renders entry-level work obsolete, India’s education system risks producing graduates for jobs that no longer exist. Last week, I made a simple phone call. I was trying to help a young finance graduate - a bright kid, full of hope - find a job at a company I knew well. A BPO firm. The kind of company that used to hire hundreds of freshers every year. My friend, a senior leader there, heard me out. Then he said something I was not ready for. “We don't need freshers like

Abhay Singh and Anahat Singh Mumbai: As squash prepares to make its long-awaited debut at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games, India’s position on the global map of the sport received a significant boost with the successful staging of the JSW Indian Open 2026 in Mumbai. The tournament, held on the Professional Squash Association World Tour circuit, not only showcased elite talent but also underlined the growing importance of corporate partnerships in nurturing emerging sports.