India and the World
Baghdad beckons: India poised to galvanise ties with Iraq
India’s relationship with Iran has garnered headlines in the past few years, and for predictable reasons. The US’ unrelenting pressure and India’s deft diplomacy in guarding its energy security,... Read more
Cross-border appeal: Remembering Deshbandhu in Dhaka
Legendary Indian freedom fighter Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das is not only admired in India, but also has a dedicated following in Bangladesh. C.R. Das, who is better known by the honorific Deshband... Read more
Soft power pull: India is chai, cricket … and loads of creativity
India is … chai, cricket and creativity.
India is … mystical, magical and maddening.
India is … innovative, interesting and incredible.
One could go on and on. Perhaps no country in the... Read more
Diplomacy
Obama-Xi summit: US, China poised to re-define relations 
The leaders of the US and China are looking to re-define terms of engagement amid dissonance on an array of issues ranging from cyber-attacks and trade deficit and firm up a template for building the... Read more
Power Play in Asia: India, China, Pakistan fuel nuke games
It’s playtime in Asia. And how, as the Asian boys are growing up, they are playing with bigger, shinier and noisier guns. Not just guns, other toys too from the armoury, to give them more muscle. It... Read more
A new spring: India, Japan 'major actors' in shaping a rising Asia
Amid the flux in the Asia-Pacific geopolitical landscape, India has enunciated a robust vision of an Asian century that puts closer security and economic ties with Japan at the heart of the unfolding ... Read more
Politics
Messaging muddle? Communication holds the key 
When the United Progressive Alliance II formed a Cabinet committee of seven ministers on media two years ago, I thought that it realised the seriousness of communication tasks at hand. Six months ... Read more
Nine years on, UPA faces moment of reckoning 
Battling a spate of corruption charges and a serious image deficit in the past four years, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) has completed its nine years in office, but the overwhelmi... Read more
It’s time to restore Bengaluru’s glory and get governance right 
Karnataka had been the pride of India a decade ago when its capital Bengaluru earned a niche as the software capital of the country and the ‘garden city’ where professionals from all over the coun... Read more
In Conversation
Unravelling love, sex as self-discovery, writing and living 
In 2001 Indian-American maths professor Manil Suri made headlines when his debut novel The Death of Vishnu created a big buzz with wild figures being tossed around as advance the author got for it. Th... Read more
‘Quality, not commercial success, of artists is what matters’
Rajeev Lochan, a gifted artist who has a genius for transfiguring the mundane in his paintings, has also carved a space for himself as an efficient art administrator. As director of India’s premie... Read more
Imagining with body, cultural diversity in India is fascinating: Israeli director
Known for using the physical approach to acting – what he calls “imagine with your body, where the body is the imagination” - Israeli theatre director and acting trainer Prof. David Zinder visit... Read more
Culture
Flying high in India: The New Snob Index 
Let’s face it! We all have that little green monster inside that makes us want to one-up someone else. Jealousy is in-built. Everyone likes to trump someone sometimes. And standing out in a crowd is... Read more
Why We need an Earth Anthem
On a very hot summer evening in Delhi, a motley group of people had gathered at Azad Bhawan, the headquarters of the Indian Council of Cultural Relations. Azad Bhawan is not as well located as Mandi H... Read more
Waking up to gender justice: A home for Nirbhaya
Six months after the rape that sparked an unprecedented national outrage, the courageous spirit of a 23-year-old rape victim has found a home in the heart of the Indian capital.
India’s President... Read more
Africa Rising
Intertwining African and Indian dreams
Africa Day is a time for rejoicing and celebration of the indomitable spirit of over a billion African people who are dreaming afresh a new narrative of renaissance, resurgence and renewal. This year,... Read more
Reflections on Africa Day: Making a success of India-Africa development partnership 
May 25 is Africa Day and it is an opportune moment to reflect on the expanding India-Africa partnership. This is also the time when there is a general buzz about the resurgence of Africa. A list... Read more
Technology, Aadhaar and Potential for Africa 
In the past few years, the way people speak of Africa’s potential has changed. In the 10 years leading up to 2010, the six fastest-growing economies in the world have been African. Growth in these c... Read more
Book Reviews
Love, Again: It’s all in DNA?
Mrinal Dahiya
“Have I fallen in love?”… He knew the answer. And he knew he was walking into a maze…She was married and she was ‘committed’… The maze would be endless, and the logical ... Read more
Books/Poetry
Demystifying an icon: The Muse of Satire 
Between the extremes of hagiography and demonology lie the middle space of irony, ambivalence and black satire. Bangladeshi-Canadian author Neemat Imam has found the perfect pitch to demystify the liv... Read more
Three Poems: O’ Mirror, Two Half Loves, What If…
O' Mirror
Mirror Mirror on the wall
you have been fooling me, after all.
What i saw was just a reflection;
this vanity needed much correction.
One fine day i met... Read more
Identity, a changing India and love in post 9/11 America 
For Indian-American author Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, telling stories is a way of life. But her stories are not just, simplistic tales of love, longing or rootlessness told through one-dimensional ch... Read more
Travel
Tour de Copenhagen: Tracking the first Bike City of the world
A statistic you can throw to the winds: More people commute by bicycles in Greater Copenhagen than in the entire US. Or you can mull over it, as you wheel into the heart of the Danish capital on your ... Read more
The Arts
A breath of fresh air: Emerging artists set to transform India’s art market
They are bold, innovative, experimental and hungry to be heard and seen. Emerging artists are clearly the new toast in the art world even as their works are being scrutinized and appreciated like neve... Read more
Business with India
Expanding global footprint: L&T gets Saudi boost 
India’s engineering giant Larson and Toubro has won a major infrastructure contract worth nearly $300 million in Saudi Arabia, the largest supplier of oil to India and home to over two million India... Read more
China Connect
China plays for high stakes, fast-tracks urbanisation In an unprecedented step in demographic engineering, China is going ahead with its contentious urbanisation strategy that will entail moving 250 million people from rural areas to shiny new towns and ... Read more
Daily Fix
Deadline 2014: Can Facebook, twitter swing India’s poll roulette?
Will Facebookers, YouTube enthusiasts and twitterati swing the 2014 elections in India? In a country of one billion-plus people with barely 150 million Internet users, it’s anybody’s guess how muc... Read more
