India in 1999 lacked spy satellites and actionable HUMINT (human intelligence), but was the West too taken by surprise or, as it had happened many times in the past, did it wink at the Pakistanis taking Indians for the bus ride to sign the Lahore Declaration? Questions of

The situation now is different (from 2004). The government knows what is in store for it. It has done micro-management at every level and PM Modi keeps talking about the welfare schemes that he has rolled out to address the concerns of the less fortunate. Will it work? Is it

Congress slow off the blocks : The Tribune India tribuneindia.com/news/comment/c…

AS the second phase of this long-drawn-out election gets over, there is a feeling of déjà vu. The BJP is back to its polarising tricks and the Opposition, as usual, is tying itself in knots — a very familiar but distressing poll-time show@thetribunechd⁩ tribuneindia.com/news/comment/i…

That the Gandhis are clutching at the old shrunken roots of legacy need be no solace to anti-dynastic modernists — if there are any. For, the Gandhis’ failure is not that of dynasty as a political concept, but that of dynasts as effective managers. tribuneindia.com/news/comment/p…

It was indeed a team effort that bore fruit after the crash that the newspaper suffered during that Black Swan event — the Covid pandemic. Soon, the paper made a remarkable recovery. There was a 125 per cent growth from the pandemic’s nadir. tribuneindia.com/news/comment/a…

He would have topped NEET/JEE had he tried his tricks back home. Scamster nonpareil! Lehigh University student fakes father’s death for scholarship – NBC10 Philadelphia nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/stu…

Not our man in London! A piece that I wrote when the Conservative Party made #RishiSunak PM. Replugging it now after the Conservatives’ dramatic defeat. tribuneindia.com/news/comment/n…

Churning the Sea of Fire for Nectar by C Radhakrishnan! First published in 2005, it took me about 20 years to finally sit down and read this outstanding work of scholarship, craftsmanship and brilliance. This fictional biography of Ezhuthachhan, the father of the Malayalam

Dr MS Valiathan is no more. A cardiac surgeon of international repute, an outstanding academic and a pioneering innovator responsible for setting up medical technology units producing disposable blood bags and tilting heart disc valves, Dr Valiathan translated and wrote

Even talking about India hosting Olympics is an obscenely dirty joke, particularly in the context of the deaths of UPSC aspirants in the heart of the capital city. Whatever we call civic infrastructure collapses in a day’s rain. A nation that cannot keep its public drains

Hume Centre had alerted Wayanad district administration at least 16 hours ahead of landslide. 'We don't know what they did with our warning,' says Hume Centre director. In 2020, the Centre's landslide alert helped the admin to evacuate people preventing casualties.

Three hours to cross 2 kms in Noida. This is aspirational India where unruly Kanwariyas, wrong side driving and rains can cause a complete standstill. If winter causes asphyxiation, monsoon showers flood roads and kill students in illegal basement libraries. There, surely, is an

Excruciatingly loud disco music that threatens to shatter ear drums and glass panes; ambulances with ringing sirens trailing the musical floats in heavy traffic; commuters stuck for hours crawling behind the disco trucks —- if this is pilgrimage, then we need to redefine the idea

Scintillating prose and brilliant word play reminiscent of Midnight’s Children. This event memoir proves, if any proof was ever required, that Rushdie is a master of his craft who could turn a lethal knife into novel-like non-fiction. While remembering the massacres of 1947 he

This sounds great if it’s true.

The most interesting fact that emerges from #IC814 web series is about the clueless Kathmandu RAW station chief who boarded the hijacked flight. Is he the same person who later headed the RAW and helplessly watched the Mumbai attack unravel? Indian officials are obese, bumbling