CATEGORIES

GOLDEN NOOSE

A gold smuggling racket with an official of the CMO involved could pose the biggest challenge yet to the Pinarayi Vijayan government

A COLD START

Though disengagement has begun in Ladakh, de-escalation is a long way off. The lack of trust means that Indian soldiers will be forward-deployed for several months

Rewriting The Rules of Engagement

If you shed tears when you miss the sun, you also miss the stars.” This famous line by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore reminds us of the need to stay sober and focus on the positives as tensions rise between India and China.

The Great Indian Vaccine Quest

India joins the global race to produce a Covid-19 vaccine, but its candidates have to first clear the safety and efficacy test

''LAC Clash Raises Serious Questions About China's Intentions''

Former US National Security Advisor John Bolton’s recent tell-all book, The Room Where It Happened, has hit the Trump administration hard. In an exclusive interview with Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa, Bolton talks about the challenge from China, Trump’s foreign policy—and why India’s air strike in Balakot in 2019 finds only passing mention in his book. Excerpts:

LEISURE: IT COULD BE VERSE

Responding to the pandemic with poetry, Gulzar writes of melancholy while finding hope in humanism

The Battle of Mumbai

The 6,355 sq. km area has recorded a 300 per cent rise in Covid cases in a month. And, alarmingly, the worst is yet to come

The Killing of a Don

Kanpur’s dreaded ganglord Vikas Dubey, whose long-arm connections and influence with the state police and politicians were part of local folklore, didn’t last a day in the custody of the UP police.

THE GWALIOR GAMBLE

CRUCIAL BYPOLLS ON ITS MIND, THE BJP GIVES JYOTIRADITYA SCINDIA LOYALISTS A LION’S SHARE OF POSTS IN THE SHIVRAJ CABINET EXPANSION, RISKING THE WRATH OF PARTY VETERANS LEFT OUT

THE WEAK LINK

The Centre is looking to reform the power sector, with better regulation and a new tariffpolicy. But if state governments do not fall in line, this could prove to be yet another paper-shuffling exercise

THE BURNING ISSUE

The month of June was a cruel—and disorienting— one for Indian consumers.

BUILD-UP ON THE BORDER

A BURST OF ROAD AND BRIDGE-BUILDING SEES INDIA PLAY CATCH-UP WITH CHINA’S BORDER INFRASTRUCTURE. DE-ESCALATION WILL NOT MEAN A REDUCTION IN THE ROADWORKS

Can India Weaponise The $110 Billion Bilateral Trade With Its Aggressive Neighbour?

Can India use an economic offensive against China to persuade its aggressive neighbour to restore status quo ante on the border?

Time Runs Out For TikTok

India bans TikTok, but for some influencers, the platform was home

“WE WANT NATIONAL CHAMPIONS WHO'LL BE GLOBALLY COMPETITIVE”

Against the backdrop of the Covid backlash against China and India’s quest for economic selfreliance, the Union electronics and IT ministry has unveiled wide-ranging incentives to encourage manufacturers of electronic goods and components to set up shop in the country. In an interview with Editorial Director (Publishing) Raj Chengappa and Deputy Editor Shwweta Punj, Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad paints his vision to turn India into a global electronics manufacturing hub and explains how this goal can be realised.

Liberties under Fire

On June 23, Safoora Zargar, 27, a research scholar at Jamia Millia Islamia University, finally secured bail after 70 odd days of incarceration in Tihar Jail for her alleged role as ‘key conspirator’ in the Delhi riots conspiracy case being investigated by the Delhi Police Special Cell. Zargar was vocal and visible during the anti-CAA (Citizenship Amendment Bill) protests that swept Delhi— with echoes all over India—after the controversial Act came into existence in December 2019.

REWIRING THE CIRCUIT

Can India turn the growing anti-China sentiment globally into an opportunity for homegrown electronics?

THE LONG ROAD TO SELF-RELIANCE

India cannot end its reliance on China for automotive components overnight. An import ban would only choke supplies, raising costs for manufacturers and consumers. Needed: a long-term strategy to build domestic capacities

LOSING THE THREAD

India’s textile sector has a long way to go before it achieves economies of scale to challenge China’s dominance in world markets

Feeling the Hunger

Vikas Khanna’s #FoodIndia drive has delivered over 17 million meals to Indians on the brink of starvation. Coordinating efforts from his New York home, the chef says he’s just getting started

DESI UNICORNS IN A DRAGON-HOLD

Chinese firms funded Indian start-ups when domestic sources failed to put in big money. It is not easy to scoff at their contribution or wish them away

A BITTER PILL

India lost the competitive edge in manufacturing APIs—the building blocks of medicine—to China over the past two decades. Regaining it will be a challenge

Covid Hotspots: Can The Big Five Turn The Tide?

Not far from Azadpur Mandi in North Delhi stands Mahendru Enclave. A tanker sprays sodium hypochlorite in the narrow bylanes every morning. Here, 47 homes in Gali nos. 3, 4, and 5 were marked as a single containment zone on June 5, making it one of the largest COVID clusters among the national capital’s 240 active containment zones as on June 23. Only 4 km away, in Jahangirpuri, another 400 homes make up 10 of the 32 clusters in North Delhi district. This entire area has been a hotspot since April when one COVID-positive woman infected 26 members of her family.

COVID -19: The Elusive Miracle Drug

Rudra Govind runs a pharmacy in Delhi’s Shahdara. He remembers the rush for hydroxychloroquine in April when the ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) announced it as a possible prophylactic—his stock sold out within two days. Predictably, there is a similar surge in demand for two new COVID drugs—Favipiravir and Remdesivir—as they enter the market.

Q+A - ACTOR: The Conscientious

Rahul Bose stands out in a milieu that has come to prize quantity over quality. Unwilling to compromise in the latter half of his career, the actor finally said yes to a part in Netflix’s Bulbbul.

SPORTS: FOOTBALL'S COMEBACK

THE ABSENCE OF FANS HAS ROBBED FOOTBALL OF ITS HUMAN SPECTACLE, BUT FOR WHAT IT’S WORTH, THE GAME MUST GO ON

CUTTING EDGE

Fashion-forward NIFT stands firmly on the top, ever quick to adapt to changes in the field of fashion and design studies

INDIA-CHINA: Is the New Détente Credible?

Indian and Chinese troops have agreed to disengage at multiple points along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh. But the massive unprecedented build-up along the long LAC and the new permanent fortifications in the Pangong Tso area challenge optimism about a cessation of hostilities.

DRONES: NEW WINGS IN WAR ON LOCUSTS

The government has mounted a new air defence to take down the swarms of desert locusts threatening crops across western, northern and central India for the past two months.

THE TRADE PUNDITS

SRCC’s future-oriented courses and its own standing as a national resource centre speak of its pedigree