The US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) on 20 February 2026 delivered the most momentous decision in its 236-year history. Its significance lies in its worldwide impact on the tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. In a series of Executive Orders in January and February of 2025, the US Administration had imposed a broad spectrum of tariffs…
I am well into the third year of my research based on the life and works of John Steinbeck (1902-1968), an American author and Nobel prize winner; and at this point, he has ensconced himself in my head like a resourceful tenant who doesn’t help with rent but comments on everything. Anything that irks me,…
For many students in India, CERN feels like a distant dream, tied only to the Large Hadron Collider and the Higgs boson discovery. In reality, while physics drives CERN’s mission, the lab is one of the world’s leading engineering and technology ecosystems. Nearly 77% of CERN’s personnel are engineers, technicians, and support professionals who build,…
For long, the political imagination around youth in Uttar Pradesh was shaped by images of mobilisation, assertion and proximity to power. Energy often translated into visibility rather than productivity. That phase reflected a society in transition. But across the state today — from expanding urban centres to remote rural belts — a deeper and more…
Narayani Ganesh So often in our roles as parents, children, siblings, cousins, employees, colleagues or friends, we tend to beat ourselves up when things go awry. We ask, where did we go wrong? Blaming self or others, can be a very draining exercise – it saps energy, pulls you down and your confidence takes a…
Many migrant workers prioritise spending on phone data plans. Because that’s how they get access to interesting content that helps them cope with daily hard grind Entertainment is often described as luxury – to be enjoyed only after life’s basic necessities are secured. Food, clothing, shelter come first; leisure is presumed to follow. Yet, recent…
Financial mis-selling happens when bankers lure customers to meet their targets. Eg: selling insurance while hawking investment options. To tackle it, fix sellers’ incentive structure & mandate stiff penalties Sometime during UPA’s tenure, the then FM held a meeting on a Saturday amid a tussle between Sebi and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India…
I returned to India after six years, travelling between 24th December 2025 and 4th January 2026. It was a short ten-day trip, but one I used deliberately, not as a tourist insulated byhotels and private travel, but by moving on foot and public transport, among the common people. I wanted to experience grassroots reality and…
It can be conveniently contended that Preemption, whether be it in the realm of strategy, political diplomacy or even economic diplomacy happens to be the au currant order of the day. When the “Grandiose Order” fluctuates, then the regulator state ideally has to come to the rescue and act in the veneer of a “philanthropist”,…
Is our higher education compliance centric? The answer is yes, because higher education institutions (HEIs) lay larger focus on securing timely approvals from regulating bodies, subsequently accreditation with a good score, good national/international ranking, etc. Indisputably, the compliances are supposed to assure quality, but the obsession with compliance estranges the HEIs from achieving excellence in…