Russian Airplane Crash: Terror In The Sky

The I.S. claims responsibility for the crash of a Russian airplane with 224 people on board after it took off from Sharm el-Sheikh. Western and Russian investigations concluded that it was a terrorist act, but the Egyptian authorities dismissed this as propaganda. 

Tardy Progress Of 'Swachh Bharat Mission'

One year after the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission, it is clear that the mission is still a long way from meeting its targets and that its approach to the problems of providing sanitation are inadequate. 

Narendra Modi's Blow-Hot-Blow-Cold Approach To Pakistan

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surprise stopover at Lahore is of a piece with his government’s blow-hot-blow-cold approach to Pakistan.

The UNSC resolution: A Chance For Peace

The UNSC resolution on Syria takes into account the ground realities in the region, but Western leaders persist with their contradictory statements.

Pathankot Attack: A Desperate Act

The terror attack on the Pathankot Indian Air Force base fails to deter India and Pakistan from continuing the dialogue process in right earnest. 

North Korea: Answering With Bombs

North Korea’s latest claim of having tested a hydrogen bomb is partly a result of the politics of intimidation practised by the U.S. and South Korea.

Terror Dots On The Globe

The deadly terrorist attack on the Bacha Khan University campus in Pakistan’s Peshawar closely follows three others in the same fortnight, in Istanbul, Jakarta and Ouagadougou. 

In A Sea Of Hate

The fate of the Rohingya refugees in India hangs in the balance as the Narendra Modi government sees them as a threat to national security although police verification of refugees camping in Jammu has proved to the contrary.

Tinderbox Petition

The legal challenge to Article 35A, which protects the demographic composition of Jammu and Kashmir, has brought all sides of the political spectrum, barring the BJP, together. Tampering with it has the potential of setting the Valley ablaze once again.

Breaking Point Of Kashmir

The young people who throw stones in Kashmir know that it will not bring a solution but see it as the only option left to them to vent their frustration at the government’s “oppressive tactics”.

Sticky Wicket

Successive electoral defeats have put the Aam Aadmi Party on unsure ground and given the BJP an edge in Delhi.

Hall Of Shame

The way the Yogi Adityanath government has dealt with the Unnao rape case has caused a setback for itself and the BJP, which came to power in Uttar Pradesh promising, among others, improved law and order.

Stillborn Scheme

An audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India comes down heavily on the Haryana government for its lax implementation of the Beti Bachao scheme.

A Spanner In The Works

Hit hard by demonetisation and GST, micro, small and medium enterprises in Vadodara and Surat, the industrial hubs of Gujarat, are striving to make a comeback.

Reverse Growth

Demonetisation and GST have pushed back Kanpur, the second largest city in Uttar Pradesh and a leather industry centre, by ten years.

Clean Sweep In Himachal Pradesh

The BJP wrests power from the Congress in a keenly fought election marked by a few upsets.

Long Road Ahead

With his formal elevation as Congress president, Rahul Gandhi now faces several challenges to lift his party from the doldrums. 

Mayhem In Mandsaur

The Shivraj Singh Chouhan government remained complacent as resentment was building up among the farmers of Madhya Pradesh over the unremunerative prices of farm produce. Then came Mandsaur to wake it up.

Bumper Problem

With low market prices and little help from the government,Rajasthan’s farmers, especially garlic producers, are in a financial mess in a good crop year.

Maharshtra Chief Minister Gives In

Maharashtra farmers drive a hard bargain, forcing the Devendra Fadnavis government to concede their demand for farm loan waiver.

Scheme Sans Substance

The Yogi Adityanath government’s waiver plan, constrained by resource crunch, is a non-starter.

The Strikes & The Echo

Tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbours in the subcontinent are escalating following India’s “surgical strikes” across the LoC in late September.

Chief Minister in hospital

Speculation is rife about Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa’s health, and the secrecy surrounding it raises the issue of the right to privacy versus the public interest.

systemic bias

ncrb data and other reports indicate how the most marginalised sections are also the most criminalised.

matter of routine

the killing of innocent civilians in fake encounters and branding them as foreign mercenaries has been going on in jammu and kashmir for close to 27 years in what is seen as an attempt to subjugate the local people.

violation of doctrine

the bhopal “encounter” and its aftermath raise the question whether the madhya pradesh government is aware of the supreme court guidelines to be followed in cases of death in police encounters.

israel's isolation

in the first serious condemnation of israel by the international community in eight years, a u.n. security council resolution holds the establishment of jewish settlements in the occupied territories illegal.

A Method In The Madness

There are similarities between the murders of Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare, M.M. Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh that cannot be dismissed as merely coincidental.

Murdering Scholarship

Why was M.M. Kalburgi, a top-notch scholar who doggedly pursued the path of truthful research, assassinated two years ago? What, in his research, moved Hindutva bigots to mow him down? 

Ruined livelihoods

More than 80 per cent of India’s workforce is in the informal or unorganised sector and has taken the full brunt of the demonetisation move.