The Malayalam State of Cochin, small as it is, has achieved a reputation for being in the ranks of the most advanced and progressive Native States in India. In one respect at least Cochin is distinctly in the leading position and that is in the education of its women, and …

Reviews of the recently released film, Mulk , remind me of the 1974 classic, Garam Hava , in which the late Balraj Sahni excelled himself in the role of Salim Mirza. Both films deal with the question of the loyalty of Indian Muslims and their place in the country. Garam …

Britain has long insisted that too many Indians have been overstaying their visas. It has cited this as a reason for not relaxing visa rules for Indians. In 2016, British Prime Minister Theresa May had said that Britain would consider giving India an improved visa deal “if, at the same …

On Tuesday, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras chose Ithaca, home to Odysseus, the protagonist of Homer’s epic, and the place to which he returns after a decade of being lost at sea, to announce the end of Greece’s “modern-day Odyssey”. The country has exited its third and final bailout since …

The Punjab Cabinet’s decision to amend the law to make acts of sacrilege against the holy books of major religions punishable with life imprisonment is retrograde and fraught with undesirable consequences. It may also set off a needless flurry of legislation in the rest of India to pander to different …

Indonesian elections have a history of generating strange bedfellows. Yet, even by Indonesia’s flexible standards, President Joko Widodo’s recent announcement of his running mate for the 2019 general elections is disappointing, if not altogether surprising. His pick, Ma’ruf Amin, is an Islamic cleric with the kind of anti-liberal record that …

We are living in a precariously equilibrated earth where the temperature is just right for ecosystems to flourish. The Holocene, which began about 12,000 years ago, is the stable epoch during which Homo sapiens settled and developed agriculture and other technological innovations. These led to social and economic transformations, which …

The Fields Medal, popularly seen as the equivalent of a Nobel Prize, is awarded once in four years to two-four mathematicians below the age of 40. In its long history, no woman had won this medal until 2014 when an Iranian, Maryam Mirzakhani, won it for the first time. No …

In U.S. President Donald Trump’s simplistic world-view, slapping tariffs on the U.S.’s main trading partners — Canada, China, the European Union, and Mexico — will reduce U.S. trade deficits, bring back well-paying manufacturing jobs, and make America great again. This has such populist appeal — some 73% of Republican voters …

India has sought renegotiation of the natural gas price it is to source through a proposed $10 billion Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India (TAPI) pipeline due to slump in global energy markets, a top source said. The four nations had in 2013 signed a gas sale purchase agreement (GSPA) that bench-marked the price of …

Principal Economic Adviser to the Finance Ministry Sanjeev Sanyal on Wednesday sought to allay concerns over the falling rupee against the U.S. dollar, saying India should not get too swayed by a single bilateral exchange rate. “If you take any broad based basket, you will see that the rupee is …

The West Bengal government has signed pacts with BSE and NSE to raise awareness among the State’s MSMEs to tap the capital market as an alternate funding source. The State has the highest number of micro, small and medium enterprises — 52.7 lakh in 2016-17, employing about 1.1 crore people, …

U.S. President Donald Trump’s National Security Adviser warned on Wednesday that the United States would respond “very strongly” if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad uses chemical weapons in an offensive to retake Idlib province. “We now see plans for the Syrian regime to resume offensive military activities in Idlib province,” John …

An Indian in Canada has been allegedly racially abused over a parking dispute by a White woman who yelled “go back to your country” and called him a “Paki”, according to a media report. Rahul Kumar, who moved from India to Canada seven years ago, was also called a “loser” …

Satyapal Malik, the newly-appointed Governor of J&K, will be administered the oath of office on Thursday, ending the five-decade-long practice of retired bureaucrats being appointed to the post, officials said on Wednesday. Mr. Malik,72, has experience of working with almost all political hues of the country, and will be the …