The Narendra Modi government presented the last budget of its second term on February 1. The sixth budget presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman was one of the most bland and ‘dull’ budgets in a long long time. It also being Sitharaman’s shortest (58 minutes) further underscores this point. It…
Why I found most criticism of ANIMAL movie 'unwarranted'
February 5, 2024
‘Animal’ has been perhaps the most “polarising” movie to have been released in a long time. While the movie turned out to be a humongous hit raking in close to 500 crores at the domestic box office, the criticism and very livid criticism kept happening simultaneously. I had not witnessed…
What consecration of Ayodhya Ram Mandir means in New India
February 1, 2024
January 22, 2024, will go down as a historic date in Indian history. On this day, the grand Ram Mandir was inaugurated at the “controversial” site in Ayodhya. What made the occasion even bigger, was some prominent names from India’s ruling BJP and its ideological father RSS, led by Prime…
Narges Mohammadi and her fight against Islamist tyranny
January 14, 2024
Miles away in Tehran, she craves her children, whom she hasn’t seen for the last 8 years, as she continues to suffer ‘White Torture’ (intense psychological torture) inside the ‘notorious’ Evin Prison in Tehran. All this is for raising the cause of women’s rights in Iran and fighting against the…
October 17, was a day of huge disappointment for the queer couples in India who had knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court pleading for the right to marry their loved ones, just like any other ‘normal’ citizen in the country. The petitioners and a significant proportion of citizens…
On December 11, India’s top court gave a historic verdict upholding the BJP government’s decision to abrogate Article 370. It was not a regular judgement, as the ruling of the five-judge bench, included some extremely important observations and remarks which will be echoed and used in the legal and political…
COP28: Major hits, misses from Summit; India's bid
December 13, 2023
COP or the Conference of the Parties, a summit that takes place annually to discuss the progress towards reducing carbon emissions and reaching the target of ‘Net Zero’. This year, the COP28 summit was held in Dubai, UAE — which actually looked quite ambitious in hosting it — but, the…
Will thwarted murder attempt on Pannun hamper India-US ties?
December 3, 2023
In a shocking development, the United States Justice Department on November 29 unsealed an indictment which unveiled charges of a ‘thwarted’ attempt to kill Sikh separatist leader Gurpatwant Singh Pannun by an Indian national through a hire-for-murder scheme. This failed plot also has connections to the killing of Hardeep Singh…
10 successive wins. The most consistent team in the tournament. Almost everything working right on track. But, just one bad day and you are only the ‘Runners Up’ and not the Champions as you should have been. This Team India surely deserved better. Although, I am too heartbroken to write…
Claudia Goldin and her 'Nobel' research on gender gap
October 29, 2023
“Men are able to have the family and step up because women step back in terms of their jobs, but both are deprived. Men forgo time with their family and women often forgo their career,” these are the words of Nobel Laurette Claudia Goldin who was awarded the Nobel Prize…
