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The flare-up began on Nov. 7, when Japanese PM Sanae Takaichi told her parliament that a Chinese military attack on Taiwan would be an “existential issue for Japan” – justifying a Japanese armed response. China responded with sharp diplomatic protests, military posturing, economic signaling aimed at reminding Tokyo of its vulnerabilities and swaying public opinion in Japan against Takaichi. Chi...

The Bihar election quietly highlighted something much bigger than an electoral result: the growing power of Direct Benefit Transfers (DBTs). 1.5 crore women received ₹10,000 directly. We can argue about the politics, but the economic impact is worth paying attention to. 1. From Leakage to Delivery For decades, public money leaked through layers of departments and intermediaries. With DB...

The Bihar election quietly highlighted something much bigger than an electoral result: the growing power of Direct Benefit Transfers (DBTs). 1.5 crore women received ₹10,000 directly. We can argue about the politics, but the economic impact is worth paying attention to. 1. From Leakage to Delivery For decades, public money leaked through layers of departments and intermediaries. With DB...

Every September, the world gathers in New York for the United Nations General Assembly, a stage unlike any other, where presidents, prime ministers, and monarchs stand before humanity to define what they believe the world should become. But this year’s assembly felt different. Three speeches stood out. Not because they agreed, but because together they reflected a western world at a crossroads whe...

The inspiration of this video is a meme which I saw recently. It is a take on a very popular Hindi film Deewar where the elder brother Amitabh Bachchan who has accumulated wealth in dubious ways tells the younger brother, “Mere paas building hai, property hai, bank balance hai, Bangla Hai, Gaadi Hai; Tumhare paas kya hai” and the younger brother Shashi Kapoor says, “Mere pass Maa hai” meaning that...

Vaccine hesitancy has a long history. Initially, vaccines were opposed on religious grounds, viewed as interference with divine will. Later, in liberal societies, they were resisted as infringements on personal freedom, especially when made mandatory. In modern times, the anti-vaccine movement gained steam from 1998 through a widely publicised study by Dr. Andrew Wakefield that falsely linked t...

The famous bystander effect was first noticed by two psychologists, Latane and Darley, after a murder occurred in New York’s Kew Gardens at 3:00 a.m. There was nothing extraordinary about the victim, the murderer, or even the method. What made headlines in the New York Times was the manner in which the murder took place – slowly, over half an hour, with the killer returning multiple times to finis...

First Published in India Today on on 6th July 2025 Vaccine hesitancy has a long history. Initially, vaccines were opposed on religious grounds, viewed as interference with divine will. Later, in liberal societies, they were resisted as infringements on personal freedom, especially when made mandatory. In modern times, the anti-vaccine movement gained steam from 1998 through a widely publ...

Last week, Trump Compared Bunker Busters to Atom Bombs. That’s like comparing: Firing your apprentice to decimating a civilization! The MOAB (Mother of All Bombs) may be America’s biggest non-nuclear bomb, but it doesn’t come with the generational radiation, surrender of nations, or the rewriting of world history. The illusion here is not just technical, it’s historical and moral. Hiroshi...

Amit Shah was not just defending his son’s English… The direction in which the BJP government has been moving – with its strong cultural and political assertion – had made it seem that, in time, while English might continue to be the language of the self-proclaimed elite, Hindi would increasingly become the language of the power elite. But this linguistic transition now faces headwinds. G...