The death of 13 Indians and the disappearance of three others in the unabating US-Iran conflict should end any illusion that this is merely another distant geopolitical crisis. For India, West Asia is not an abstract theatre of great-power rivalry but home to nearly nine million Indian expatriates. Every missile fired across the Strait of Hormuz carries the potential to claim Indian lives. While the Ministry of External Affairs has expressed concern, called for uninterrupted

The uncomfortable conclusion emerging from Donald Trump’s understanding with Iran is that while wars are expensive, failed wars are even more so. After months of military confrontation, repeated threats of escalation and lofty declarations about reshaping the Middle East, Washington appears poised to offer Tehran a package of sanctions relief, restored oil revenues, access to frozen assets and reconstruction assistance that could eventually amount to hundreds of billions of d

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

Amid mounting economic pain, Maharashtra’s Opposition is losing the plot on price rise. As tensions between the United States and Iran roil energy markets, crude prices have surged, currencies have wobbled and inflationary tremors have spread across much of the developing world. India, heavily dependent on imported oil, finds itself exposed once again to the brutal arithmetic of global instability. The rupee is under strain. Petrol prices have breached the psychologically imp

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

Donald Trump has always understood one thing better than most modern politicians that markets respond to perception. In the grinding drama over Iran, the American president appears to have weaponised uncertainty itself. One day he hints at a diplomatic breakthrough with Tehran and signals the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz which causes investors to breathe a sigh of relief. However, hours later, he reverses course by declaring there is “no rush” for a deal and that restric

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

The renewed conflict involving Iran, America and Israel has pushed global oil markets into panic while revealing India’s dangerous dependence on imported energy and vulnerable maritime chokepoints. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unusually stark appeal to Indians to conserve petrol, diesel and cooking gas reflects the seriousness of the moment. India imports nearly 85 percent of its crude oil and depends on the Strait of Hormuz for roughly half of those imports. The narrow wat

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

Trump’s Hormuz blockade seeks to weaponize a chokepoint that history shows is far easier to disrupt than to control. Across centuries, for rulers and states alike, to command a narrow strait has been to wield power far out of proportion to its geography. From the Hellespont of antiquity to the Danish Sound, chokepoints have tempted them with the promise of effortless leverage. The Strait of Hormuz is the latest test of that enduring illusion. If the latest stream of conflicti

Amid war-driven oil shocks and a weakening rupee, the RBI opts for caution and reform. India delivered a strong performance in 2025, with growth estimated at 7.6 percent and inflation contained at 1.95 percent, setting the stage for continued momentum into 2026. Benefiting from a ‘Goldilocks’ mix of robust growth and subdued inflation, the government presented a budget focused on long-term stability rather than short-term stimulus. Following last year’s front-loaded rate cut,

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

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

If diplomacy is theatre, then the recently collapsed US–Iran talks in Islamabad was an elaborate farce staged with all the solemnity of statecraft but none of its credibility. After 21 hours of marathon discussions, the outcome was as predictable as it was embarrassing with no agreement or breakthrough achieved, and no illusions left intact. Except, perhaps, among those still inclined to believe that Pakistan could ever serve as an ‘honest broker.’ But the fact that the talks

For a country that still depends on the monsoon, India has grown surprisingly dependent on the Middle East. Not for rain, but for the fuel and fertilizers that keep its farms running. In an era of proliferating conflicts, especially the chronic instability across West Asia as evinced by the Iran conflict, that dependence is proving costly. The connection between geopolitics and the price of tomatoes in Pune is no longer abstract. When tensions flare in the Gulf, crude prices

For a man who relishes brinkmanship, US President Donald Trump has increasingly begun to resemble a pyromaniac with a fire extinguisher, lighting crises only to theatrically douse them. His latest performance, announcing a ceasefire to pause the ongoing Iran conflict, bears ample testament to this phenomenon. Within the span of a single day, Trump threatened to annihilate Iranian civilian infrastructure by warning that “a whole civilisation will die” before pivoting, scarcely

The decisive story of the 21st century is currently unfolding in the Persian Gulf. What was seen as another flare up between the US, Israel, and Iran has caused a structural shift in international relations. This conflict signals the weakening of the US dominated unipolar order and the rise of a fragmented, multipolar world. In this new landscape, power is measured less by military dominance than by energy security, strategic independence, and industrial strength. Iran’s 1979

In the world’s most vital oil chokepoint, the elegant certainties of maritime law dissolve into a murky contest of power, risk and coercion. The Strait of Hormuz is, in the dry language of international law, a “strait used for international navigation.” In the less sterile vocabulary of geopolitics, it is a loaded gun pointed at the global economy. Barely 21 nautical miles wide at its narrowest point, this corridor connects the oil-rich Persian Gulf to the wider Arabian Sea.

Iran’s multi-front strategy of blending proxies, cyberattacks and economic pressure shows how hybrid warfare is emerging as a complex challenge for international security. Sometime last month, four ambulances engaged in humanitarian service were set ablaze on the streets of North London. These vehicles belonged to a Jewish volunteer organization dedicated to saving lives in medical emergencies, without discrimination of religion or race. The very next day, in Bahrain, an Iran