Protests spread beyond Tehran as crackdown hardens
At least seven people have been reported killed across Iran after clashes erupted between demonstrators and security forces in several provincial cities, as protests over the faltering economy and soaring living costs spread beyond the...
Full storyHAPPENING NOW
BJP moves to rein in municipal rebels
A widening chorus of dissent within the Bharatiya Janata Party has prompted the...
in Happening Now Jan 2 ·
BMC election race jolted by mass nomination rejections
Scrutiny of nomination papers for the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has reshaped the political...
in Happening Now Jan 2 ·
Revanth Reddy remarks on irrigation ignite political storm
Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy has triggered a fierce political backlash after accusing...
in Happening Now Jan 2 ·
Opinion
Appeal
The legacy of IPA, founded by Nikhil Chakravartty, the doyen of journalism in India, to keep the flag of independent media flying high, is facing the threat of extinction due to the effect of the Covid pandemic. Only an emergency funding can avert such an eventuality. We appeal to all those who believe in the freedom of expression to contribute to this noble cause.Pushing The Financial System Towards A Dangerous Direction
By Prabhat Patnaik The BJP-led government has just got parliament to pass a legislation permitting up to 100 percent foreign equity-ownership in India’s insurance sector. This, the Prime Minister has announced, marks the beginning of a major “reform” in India’s financial sector, towards presumably much greater private, including foreign,...
BJP’s Cruel Politics Of State-Led Deprivation And Racist Otherisation
By Krishna Jha Power is faceless when it is on its own. It acts only when someone takes its reigns. But when it is made to act by those that are driven by their divisive designs, it gets authoritarian. The year is at its end, and there are attacks,...
The Communist Party Has Long Struggled For Indian People’s Rights
By Dr. Soma Marla The communist movement in India is now a century old. Soon after independence, although, farmers and workers played an active role in freedom struggle, their aspirations were not addressed by the ruling classes. The Communist party took the task of organizing the workers, poor farmers,...
From Indore To Punjab, Media Questions Irk Governments
By Jag Mohan Thaken When a journalist asked questions to BJP leader and Madhya Pradesh Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya, over the death of 10 kids in Indore by drinking contaminated water, he snapped at the reporter, saying, “Don’t ask a worthless (fokat) question.” With the reporter pressing for answers, Vijayvargiya,...
The Modi Doctrine: India’s Navigation Through Global Turbulence
By T N Ashok In the chancelleries of power from Washington to Moscow, a singular question has preoccupied strategic minds throughout 2025: how has India, under Narendra Modi, managed to preserve its economic momentum and political leverage whilst others faltered? The answer lies not in fortune but in a...
Murmurs Of Organisation Reform In Congress Get Louder, Irk Bosses
By Rahil Nora Chopra After poll routs in Maharashtra, Haryana, Delhi and poor performance in the assembly elections of Bihar, the voices for organisational reforms within the Indian National Congress have grown far stronger. The latest in the long line of such voices is senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh....
Gig Workers Concluded 2025 With All-India Strike, Will Have To Do More In 2026
By Dr. Gyan Pathak Gig workers of India have concluded the year 2025 with an all-India strike action on the last day, December 31, 2025, demanding fair wages and working conditions, which have undergone marked deterioration in the last three months. It happened despite the Union government’s repeated claim...
Bangladesh After The Begums: From Hasina’s Fall To Zia’s Demise
By T N Ashok By the end of 2025, Bangladesh finds itself without the two women figures who defined it. With the death of Khaleda Zia at 80 and the exile of Sheikh Hasina after her dramatic fall from power, Bangladesh has entered a political interregnum unlike any it...
Modi–Shah Formula Meets Its Hardest Test Outside Hindi Heartland
By R. Suryamurthy For more than a decade, Indian elections have revolved around a deceptively simple formula: Narendra Modi supplies the mass spectacle, Amit Shah perfects the electoral arithmetic. One dominates the narrative, the other controls the machine. Together, they have transformed the Bharatiya Janata Party into the most...
Drifting Quicksands Of Bengal Politics: Can Mamata Hold Fort?
By Anjan Roy West Bengal is witnessing hectic political manoeuvring by leading political figures, even though the assembly elections are a clear six months away at least. One of these, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who was once a stalwart of the Congress, not only in the state but nationally, is...
Provincialisation Of ‘Venture Schools/Colleges’ In Assam’s BTR Areas
By Rabindra Nath Sinha KOLKATA: The third and subsisting tripartite Bodo Peace Accord signed on January 27, 2020 provides under clause 6.3 for “provincialisation” of schools and colleges in the Bodoland Territorial Region (BTR), as also Bodo-medium schools outside BTR. [The accord rechristened what was then known as Bodoland...
Trump 2.0: The Year America Shook Up The Old-World Order
By Ashok Nilakantan Ayers NEW YORK: When Donald J. Trump placed his hand on the Bible on January 20, 2025, it was not merely the inauguration of a second-term president. It was a hostile takeover of the American state by a man who believed—more than ever—that power existed to...
Indian Diplomacy In 2025: Of National Interests And Global Ambitions
By Asad Mirza India’s foreign policy in 2025 continued to be anchored in the dual ethos of “Bharat First” and “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam,” balancing national interest with global cooperation. Strategic autonomy, non-alignment, and economic diplomacy remained central pillars of its international engagement. India maintained a multi-aligned posture, strengthening ties across...
Unnao Case: Atrocious Crime Against Humanity, So, Whither Is Justice?
By Nilotpal Basu The sensational developments over the last week brought the question of crimes against women to the forefront with a dramatic effect. The exceptional case of the Unnao rape victim, a mere 15-year-old who was lured by Kuldeep Singh Sengar, the local MLA of Unnao, has burst...
Sensation Building Up Around Country’s Biggest Ever Arbitration Award
By K Raveendran As Indian corporates step into the new year buoyed by stronger growth momentum and easing inflationary pressures, a sense of anticipation is spreading across boardrooms and policy circles alike over a dispute that dwarfs most corporate battles seen in the country’s history. At the heart of...
UDF On Upswing, But Groupism Takes Shine Off Its Win In Local Bodies Poll
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As the sun sets on 2025, a close look at the prospects of the principal political fronts in Kerala is in order. The Left Democratic Front (LDF) is certainly down, but not out. Its ‘unexpected’ defeat is not an unmitigated disaster its political rivals are...
Disturbing Decline Of Diplomacy Across South Asia Bodes Ill For All
By Ashis Biswas Within the South Asian context, a noticeable coarsening of diplomatic discourse among four countries has occurred, following the violent regime change in Bangladesh, a brief encounter involving India and Pakistan and sporadic skirmishes between Pakistan and Afghanistan. A new political alignment, whose contours will be clearer...
Overconfidence, Identity Politics Caused LDF Defeat: CPI(M) State Chief
By P. Sreekumaran THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has attributed its ‘unexpected’ poor performance in the local bodies elections in Kerala to overconfidence and the big surge in religion-caste identity politics played by the Congress, the BJP and Islamist forces. Analysing the reasons for the defeat, CPI(M)...
