If speaking English is “directly proportional” to one’s earning, the LGBTQIA+ community are only eager to learn the language and find a means to a better life.
A tiger acquires a name for any number of reasons: marking on the body, overall shape and size of the body or peculiarity of behavior. If nothing else, a name ensures semblance of dignity in death.
Last December, Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik was quite ebullient at the annual convention of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI).
“I am happy to note that the investor sentiment towards Odisha is extremely encouraging. Even during the difficult COVID pandemic time, I am happy to inform you that Odisha has been...
Covaxin is a class of time tested vaccines that has a good track record of generating long-lasting immunity for many different virus-caused diseases, such as flu, polio, and yellow fever.
Healthcare workers all over the world are exposed to tremendous levels of risk for anxiety, depression, burnout, insomnia, moral distress and post-traumatic stress disorder.
The Covid-19 pandemic only worsened the scenario for women, in terms of discrimination, patriarchal practices and prejudices that increased vulnerability.
Alarmed by the indiscriminate use of steroids by physicians to treat COVID patients, Dr Randeep Guleria, a member of the national COVID-19 task force and director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, has cautioned that it could lead to “faster viral replication and severe viral pneumonia.”
As the second wave of the COVID pandemic rages, India Inc has extended several gestures to provide some relief to its customers; such gestures are, in fact, win-win for the companies and customers, say marketing experts
The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) may have approved Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) ‘medicine’ for “emergency use” in treating COVID patients, but health experts are apprehensive about using the drug since they argue its utility has not been established yet.
Until such time when every single person in the world believes in one story (which is basically never), we must make room in our hearts for those we perceive in the wrong.
lt will be in the long-term national interest of lndia as well as the larger cause of humanity to respect the human rights of the persecuted Myanmar nationals.
To meet the urgent demand for medical-grade oxygen, 28 captive plants in refinery and steel industries have been diverted to produce about 1,500 MT medical grade oxygen daily.
Into his fifth consecutive term as Odisha Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik announced his ambitious plan to develop Puri, the abode of Lord Jagannath, into a world heritage city.
The syncretic culture of Hindus and Muslims celebrating each others’ festivals has been the norm for generations in several districts of north Karnataka.
The government recently postponed class 12 CBSE exams. Understandable, as there were lakhs of students slated to appear and they could be at risk of contracting Covid-19. But postponing NEET-PG that enables MBBS doctors to specialise? That appears to be a short-sighted decision with far-reaching consequences in hospitals which are already suffering...
The new Act gives the right to seek abortion to unmarried women too, as it replaced the term ‘married woman and her husband’ in the original act of 1971 with ‘a woman and her partner’.
Chandan Saroj, 32, a native of Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh, holds two master's degrees—in Sociology and Philosophy and a bachelor of education (BEd) degree.
When he appeared in an interview for the post of an assistant professor in UP's Higher Education Services Commission, he was surprised when the interviewers asked him about his beliefs on reli...
The stinging lyrics and slogans come as a comic relief to the masses amid the bitterly-fought elections which is otherwise smeared by offensive remarks and personal attacks.
Rajinikanth is said to have proved his mettle as a commerical actor with remakes of Bollywood films, like Don, Thee, Paddiakathavan, and turned a superstar.
Big tech companies are dictating terms to customers, partners and also the government, even as they kill the competition by smaller players and garner a larger part of the revenues.
The fungi, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM), could manipulate a specific group of soil bacteria to enrich the soil with nutrients that are required by the plant.
Haleem, the lip-smacking dish available during the Muslim fasting month of Ramzan, is getting ready to be served in Hyderabad from April 14, after a year’s break. It had not been available during Ramzan 2020 because of the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown.
Bordowa is a small village located some 18 kilometres north-west of Assam’s bustling and chaotic town of Nagaon.
With its modest houses, sprawling courtyard surrounded with betel nut trees and leisurely pace of life, Bordowa is indiscernible from any other ordinary Assam village for the uninitiated.
This ordinary-looking village has been the ...
A combination of populist welfare measures along with social justice by DMK and AIADMK over the years has produced a political commitment to the provision of certain basic public services in Tamil Nadu.
The opening scene of Pariyerum Perumal, the critically acclaimed 2018 Tamil drama film, shows caste Hindu men unleashing violence on Dalits. To find their attackers, Perumal, a Dalit youth, and his fellow villagers are hunting with dogs, including his own named Karuppi (black).
Sitting near a pond, their discussion hovers around their identity....
Almost every farmer feel the Mulkanoor Cooperative Rural Bank and Marketing Society in Warangal urban district has not only stood by them but has also changed their lives for the better
Godi Bero is just a dot on the map of West Bengal.
Many in the state have never heard of this picture-postcard village in Purulia district that has been a treasure-trove of history, preserving a few centuries-old cultural links between South India and Bengal.
Located behind two huge rock formations some 52 kilometres from the district headqua...
After nearly a year of worldwide spread, infecting about 127 million causing 2.78 million deaths, the COVID-19 pandemic was appearing to recede during the first two months of 2021. However, COVID cases started to spike alarmingly during March this year in India, ranking it again third after the USA and Brazil among countries with COVID cases.
It’s nearing lunchtime. In the scorching heat with temperatures already soaring over 40 degrees Celsius, two bare-bodied men and two women sit on the cow dung-smeared mud floor to weave Jamakkalam (thick cotton carpets) at Kuruppanaickenpalayam village in Tamil Nadu’s Erode district.
The weavers in their late 30s and 40s, move their hands consta...
When the K Chandrasekhar Rao government demolished the Telangana Secretariat buildings in Hyderabad last year to build a vaastu-compliant sophisticated complex, there was a ‘collateral casualty’ -- Irani chai served in the decades-old Tehran Cafe across the road.
For decades, the tea joint had served as the most favoured hangout place of the sec...
Mohammad Ali was in his early 30s when the India-Pakistan war of 1971 separated him from his wife for ever. Overnight, the couple found themselves on opposite sides of the LoC. While Ali was in Hunderman village, his wife had gone to her native Bilargo village -- and between them lay a newly drawn border that sealed their separation.
Over the ye...
In the heat and dust of the election season, how does the big picture look? Well, Adura Rama, Adura... (Dance Rama, dance). This is how 39-year-old Chennai-based cartoonist Hasif Khan sees the upcoming Assembly elections, where the ‘monkeys’ within the state are forced to dance to the tunes of the big brother from the Centre (in the present context...
At the northern edge of the dense jungles of Jaldapara National Park in West Bengal, nestles a tiny village that attracts anthropologists from across the globe.
The village, called Totopara, is home to the sub-Himalayan Indian Tribe called Toto, one of the smallest primitive ethnic groups of the country, considered endangered. That explains its ...
What’s in a name? Apparently, a lot if the BJP sets its mind to renaming a place.
After the BJP’s impressive show in the recent Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) elections -- winning 48 of 150 seats -- the party has renewed its push to rename Hyderabad as Bhagyanagar.
The renaming attempt assumes more significance since the...
For at least six generations, the Thambiran family of Purisai village in Tamil Nadu has been the custodian of a traditional theatre art form -- Therukoothu. Purisai -- otherwise famous for the Agatheeswarar temple -- acquired a distinct identity, thanks to this family’s efforts in not just continuing the art form but also infusing modernity into it...
What happens when there is one Malayali in a room full of people? Not much. He would more or less be invisible.
What happens when there are two?
That, God forbid, would be a chaotic reunion between two complete strangers with a sudden agenda – to celebrate everything that is simply Malayali! And yes, ignore everyone else.
Rosemary Jacob an...
Apart from the snow-capped Himalayas, Manali is a unique combination of Indian art, history, culture, spirituality, and an astonishing natural environment. Due to the influx of tourists, Manali is losing it all.
Women working out at a gym, students undergoing coaching for competitive exams, or career counselling, or picking up a book from the shelves of the library, high school boys reading textbooks, with a teacher around to clarify doubts, and men, women and children getting their health checkup.
Ever imagined such activities taking place on the premi...
For a young boy from a Tamil family in the Colombo of 1970s and 80s, Arjie struggled to understand why boys were not allowed to wear lipstick. Or why his preference to dress up as a girl than to play cricket with his brother made him ‘sissy’ or a ‘funny boy’.
If all that was not enough to make Arjie’s life difficult, the escalating political ten...
For some, long speeches of politicians are nothing but a bunch of lies and false promises. For others, these are boring as politicians endlessly attack opponents, more on personal issues than on policy or facts.
But in the social media age where everyone is hooked to smartphones, these speeches are hard to ignore as they get quick traction becau...
On April 17, 2018, Ishapur Kheri village in Haryana’s Sonepat district made national headlines after a khap panchayat banned girls from wearing jeans and using mobile phones. Reason: The informal body of village elders believed mobile phones and jeans were the main culprits behind girls eloping with boys.
Referring to an incident wherein three c...
The military coup in Myanmar and subsequent mass unrest has threatened India's Kaladan connectivity project between Northeast and Bengal via Sittwe port.
As vaccines are being rolled out across the world, and there are apprehensions regarding their effectiveness, genome sequencing would provide valuable inputs to tweak vaccine design.
There aren’t too many couples who dare to defy the older-woman-younger-man relationship stereotype or to break the ‘great Indian caste barrier’. So to do both in the 1950s was not just unimaginable but a freaky rebellious step.
Writer T Janakiraman decided to explore this subject in his novel ‘Mogamul’ (Thorn of Desire). The plot follows a 20-ye...
When thousands of youths thronged the streets in Assam earlier this year carrying bamboo torches, chanting ah oi aah, ulai aah (come out, come out all), there was a sense of deja vu for septuagenarian Ramen Mahanta.
The youth were opposing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Assam on January 23 for failing to safeguard the Assamese identity....
Nasa’s rover, Perseverance, successfully landed on the Jezero crater on Mars on February 18. Safely tucked under the probe’s belly, another engineering marvel called Ingenuity rode along the 200 million km journey to reach the planet.
Ingenuity is a mini-helicopter that will deploy and make short flights on the red planet in the coming months. I...
The Patiala House Court in Delhi last week granted bail to 22-year-old Disha Ravi, arrested in connection with the farmers’ protest “toolkit” case and charged with sedition. The court observed that it did not find any palpable reason to deny bail considering the scanty and sketchy evidence on record.
“Citizens are conscience keepers of governmen...
Reji Shaji, head of the surgical ward in a private hospital in Kannur, took her first dose of Covishield, the vaccine by Oxford-AstraZeneca on January 31.
“We were very tense. Those who had taken it before us had shown mild symptoms of fever and body pain. So we had already popped a Dolo-650, before getting the shot,” she says.
“Some of my co...
A common joke in Mizoram is that football is the only functional industry in the state.
In the jest lies an incredible story of a tiny hill state becoming the country’s top churner of footballers.
What is more spectacular is that it took only a few years for Mizoram to transform into the country’s footballing powerhouse from a minnow.
It a...
On January 14, Basava Jaya Mrutyunjaya Swami, the seer of the Lingayat Panchamasali Mutt in Kudala Sangama in Bagalkot district, started his 450-km padayatra (walkathon) demanding change in reservation categorisation for Panchamasali Lingayats within the state’s Other Backward Caste (OBC) list.
The Panchamasalis, one of the largest sub-sects withi...
Amid roaring applause, “Touchdown confirmed”, cheerfully exclaimed Dr Swati Mohan, guidance and control operations lead for NASA’s Mars 2020 mission, bringing to an end the anxious seven nailbiting moments.
Perseverance, NASA’s Mars mission launched seven months ago, whizzing through 472 million kilometres of interplanetary space, had kept its r...
A good number of Kashmiri youths are part of the fledgling fashion industry that promote ethnic traditions, clothing lines, tourism spots and jewellery brands.
With Teejan Bai, a new lease of life would be given to the folk art form called Pandavani as the unsung saga of the folk artist is going to be picturised on the silver screen.
For seaweed farmer Suganthy, work from home is not an option. But the travel to her workplace is a long ordeal taking about 2-3 hours. From her house in Pamban in Rameswaram taluk of Ramanathapuram district in southern coastal Tamil Nadu, she has to catch a bus to Rameswaram town, from where she boards a share-auto to Mangadu, a seashore hamlet, a...
Kottarathil Sankunni’s Aithihyamaala (Garland of Legend), a popular lore and legends from Kerala, has now been translated into English by Vrinda Varma.
RSS and its wings have begun a nationwide door-to-door fundraising campaign on behalf of the Shri Ram Janmabhoomi Teerth Kshetra (SRJTK) for the construction of Ram Mandir.
The male lead in the recent Malayalam film, ‘The Great Indian Kitchen’, a hit on OTT, is a man (played by Suraj Venjaramood) with no noticeable blemish in his character (as per the usual parameters that ‘define’ a responsible Malayali male). He does not smoke or drink, doesn’t hang around with his friends unnecessarily but returns home straight aft...
It was around 11.30 pm. The ever-bustling New Market had emptied long back, giving the semi-lit Victorian Gothic-styled giant shopping arcade on Kolkata’s Lindsay Street an eerie look.
Seven to eight shadowy figures appeared at the main entrance of the deserted market. They were there for an unusual mission—to explore some of the haunted places ...
In Akshayambara, an experimental Kannada play, the director uses contemporary theatre art and Yakshagana, the traditional multi-dimensional folk art of Karnataka, to weave in a story of gender role reversal.
For long, men have played women characters in movies and plays. But how would people take it if a woman played the role of a man? Akshayamb...
Wetlands are widely recognised as important wildlife habitats and as being among the most biologically productive and biologically diverse habitats on the planet.
This tale, Dear Reader, you’d find really funny,
On this, I am ready to bet every bit of my money,
In the end, you’d be all ha-ha-ha
And, not just ‘cause a newspaper headlined it Riha-ha
This is about a hilarious fight on twitter
To which not many would’ve given a s**t
If many celebrities had not got their nicker,
Khaki or othe...
The word music to ordinary Indian ears is largely about film scores. Other genres need specific prefixes such as 'folk', ‘classical’, 'pop', 'indie' or 'Carnatic'.
While classical and pop do get their due in popular media, folk or indigenous music rarely gets the attention, unless the film industry embraces it.
Folk or indigenous music forms ...
All eyes are on Mars this decade, as space giants ramp up explorations to the red planet, with an intent to explore technologies that will benefit human habitats in future. A new entrant to this elite club is the United Arab Emirates (UAE), which is fast emerging as a strong contender for interplanetary space missions.
The UAE space agency, the ...
This Budget has been a big hit because it gives growth a big push, the one thing the Indian economy desperately needs after a year of coronavirus lockdown.
One morning, India woke up to a tweet that created a storm across the world.
IM Gandhi @TheforgottenBapu: “M returning to earth for a few hours to speak to farmers. See you there #farmersprotest.”
Frenetic enquiries by the government revealed it wasn’t some Martyrs’-Day hoax. Gandhi had indeed found a Christopher Nolan-esque wormhole and was ...
Several heritage buildings and sites in and around Visakhapatnam, which stand as sentinels of a glorious past dating back to 3rd and 4th century BC, are under threat due to massive rise in construction activity.
The port city in the north coastal region of Andhra Pradesh is the new executive capital of the state under the three-capital plan of t...
In Mani Ratnam’s Bollywood movie Guru, actress Aishwarya Rai dances to ‘Barso re megha’ song atop a historical monument located in Melkote, Karnataka.
The picturesque Raya Gopura, an unfinished monument built during the Hoysala dynasty rule around the 10th century, on which she stands, overlooks a series of deep stepped temple tanks and farmland...
Shadow of Jayalalithaa. That is how Vivekanandan Krishnaveni Sasikala is often described. The rise and fall of Sasikala, a confidante of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa, is an interesting and significant chapter in Tamil politics.
As she is set to be released from the Parappana Agrahara prison in Bengaluru on January 27 following her convic...
This 26th January, the public is fittingly taking charge of the Republic.
The proposed tractor rally by farmers on the outskirts of Delhi in support of their demand for repealing farm laws will reiterate a lesson that was forgotten through decades of misrepresentation: the Republic is owned by the public, and the Republic Day is a celebration of...
Like the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, vaccine rollout has begun around the world after a long period of COVID-19 distress. From grim and gloom helplessness, a ray hope is at the horizon.
At the time of writing this article, about 14 lakh doses of vaccine had been administered in India, with the world total crossing a staggering 6...
The compulsion of electoral politics is such that those who swear by right wing Hindutva are today vying to appropriate the legacy of its biggest critic, Subhas Chandra Bose, ahead of the Assembly elections in West Bengal
One day, in the 1870s, Swaminatha Iyer was reading some verses from a printed copy of the Kambaramayanam, along with some fellow students at the Thiruvavaduthurai Adheenam. Just then, Ambalavana Desikar, an old-fashioned scholar and teacher of Mahavidwan Meenatchisundaram Pillai, happened to pass by. He enquired about the book in their hands. On he...
Benoy PP has had a hectic three months since October but he isn’t complaining. The strong rebound in tourism in Kerala has only lifted the spirit of Benoy, general manager of Kerala Tourism’s hotels in Thekkady, and the entire industry.
The pandemic notwithstanding, Thekkady and the rest of the Idukki district witnessed a huge number of tourists...
On January 20, Joe Biden will have former presidents Barack Obama, George W Bush, and Bill Clinton at his inauguration as America’s 46th president. But one man will be conspicuous by his absence—the outgoing president Donald Trump.
Enacting the new anti-cow slaughter bill was never going to be easy for the BS Yediyurappa government in Karnataka. On December 9, 2020, the government quickly passed the bill in the Assembly, inviting severe backlash from opposition leaders.
Congress leader Siddaramaiah slammed the government for passing the bill without discussion among legisl...
Mappillai vandhan mappillai vandhan maattu vandiyile
Ponnu vandhal ponnu vandhal potti vandiyile
Pullaiya petha amma vandhal mottai vandiyile
Ponna petha appa vandhar ottai vandiyile
This song from the Tamil film, Kaveriyin Kanavan (1959), penned by lyricist Thanjai N Ramaiah Dass, is an eulogy to a wedding procession wherein the humble-looki...
Fifteen-year-old Hafizur Rahman is confused about his future. A student of Class 10 at Howrarpar Senior Madrasa in Assam’s Dhubri district, Rahman aspires to be an Islamic scholar and teach at a madrasa.
He, however, has put his dreams on hold for the time being after the Assam government enacted a law to convert all pre-senior (elementary to Cl...
On his first day at school in a small village in Solapur district of Maharashtra, Ranjitsinh Disale was shocked to see only 5-6 students against a capacity of around 60.
It was his first day back in 2011 as a teacher at the Zila Parishad School, Kadamvasti, Paratewadi in Madha taluka of Solapur district. And there were no girls too in this prima...
Nearly a week after her son Zubair Lone was buried at a sprawling cemetery—designated exclusively for militants—Sara Lone couldn’t take it anymore. Walking through a thick carpet of snow on January 4, she came out to demand that his body be returned to the family.
“I don’t know what they did to him?” a wailing Sara told newsmen at Srinagar’s Pre...
Bishan Singh Bedi has never believed in pulling punches. Even as an active cricketer, he wasn’t shy of taking on the establishment if he believed the cause was just. That trait hasn’t deserted him in retirement, be it his sustained condemnation of Muttiah Muralitharan’s action despite the off-spinner getting the all-clear from the International Cri...
While festivity and cheer hung in the air in Bengaluru and across the world on the last day of 2020, it was business as usual in a small office in commercial Shivajinagar. A group of lawyers and staff in Manthan law firm were poring over documents, strengthening their cases against the government, which has been relentless in its attack on its oppo...
Along with China, India’s role is considered vital in pursuing Myanmar to end the Rohingya refugee crisis, and New Delhi needs to raise the issue fervently at the world stage.
Kudumbasree, the Kerala government’s ambitious poverty eradication mission, was launched in 1998 by helping women form neighbourhood groups and engage in employment opportunities.
The sight of a fresh wound or cut with blood spurting out uncontrollably could be quite disturbing. But what could be more traumatic or debilitating or sometimes even fatal is when that bleeding doesn’t stop.
Our body repairs minor cuts and wounds by forming a clot at the wound site. However, when there is profuse bleeding in traumatic injuries ...
For decades, honeymooners and adventure-seekers have looked for romance and escapade travelling through the lush green mountains of Tamil Nadu in a five-hour train journey. Yet the 46-km journey on Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) up and down the scenic route of Mettupalayam -- at the foothills of Nilgiris -- to Ooty continues to be relived and recou...
In the early days of the decade, Aditya Rao, a young graduate from BITS Pilani was caught up in the startup-wave that swept through India. After a couple of failed attempts at building products, Rao in 2013 founded LocalOye -- an on-demand home service marketplace that connected consumers with local service providers such as carpenters, electrician...
One may not know Rajinikanth personally, but if he were to be judged by his actions there is one sterling quality about him that seems to stand out -- he is an honest man. He also seems courageous and straightforward. These epithets for a person who is running away from a battlefield may seem odious, but he is sensible enough to realise that discre...
Siddhartha, a middle-class youth of the 1970s, was struggling to get a job amid rampant unemployment.
In one of the many job interviews he faced, he was asked what the most significant and outstanding world event of the past decade was. After a brief pause, Siddhartha replied, “The war in Vietnam.”
“More significant than man landing on the mo...
As a few Covid-19 vaccines began rolling out, the world crossed its fingers, looking forward to better times in the coming year, hoping to limp back from the aftermath of the pandemic. However, the tale took an ugly turn in mid-December when scientists in the UK reported a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 — potentially more contagious than the present o...
Borders, they say, are just lines on land, and not hearts. But ask 55-year-old Mohamed Ali and he will tell you how a single line can break hundreds of hearts and homes. A resident of Thang near Turtuk in the Leh district of Ladakh, Ali -- more popularly known as Goba Ali -- lives in the last village on India-Pakistan border.
Ali’s father and br...
Ninaithathai Mudippavan. One who accomplishes what he has set out to do.
Released in 1975, the iconic Tamil film by the above name was a superhit. The name signified much more for its star and part-time politician, Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran aka MGR, who had only three years back broken away from the DMK to form his own party, the AIADMK.
...
Alibhai, a coconut farmer in Kerala, isn’t aware of the ongoing protest against the new farm laws, at the Delhi border. The 67-year-old finds it strenuous to read the newspaper because of his weakening eyesight. Nor does he find his smartphone user-friendly. Old age ailments and a fading memory have made Alibhai weak. But despite his age and health...
Today, with the maidams having been systematically restored to safeguard their structural integrity, the Assam government is in the process of finalising the dossier of the site—which will be sent to the Centre and then to the Unesco for world heritage recognition.
Ashok Gowda, an architect-turned-entrepreneur, wanted to set up 10 schools in 10 years in Bengaluru. But with stiff competition and with reasonable profit, he managed to open and run three—a play school, a primary school with a state board syllabus and another with central board syllabus—in the suburbs of the city between 2013 and 2020.
Gowda’s ...
Until six months ago, I used to go on these walks with a friend of mine. One day, he had asked: ‘Why do you think young women bathe, make themselves pretty, and go to the temple?’
‘To worship’, I had answered.
‘No. Look again, carefully. Why wear their best clothes and get decked up if it’s only to worship? They’re subconsciously giving the s...
The fear of the uncertain environment — the ongoing India-China tensions along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in eastern Ladakh region — and scarcity of winter pasturelands in border villages amid massive military footfall and infrastructure buildup is adversely affecting the nomadic herdsmen community in Changthang region.
Despite being quite unacknowledged, low level workers form the strong base in Kerala’s robust primary health care (PHC) network, an internationally acclaimed health care system.
On December 6, the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency, JAXA, added another feather to its cap by achieving a magnificent space feat. JAXA’s robotic spacecraft Hayabusa 2 travelled to a near-earth asteroid called Ryugu, dug into its soil, retrieved the sample and returned with it to earth.
A specially designed 16-kilo capsule on Hayabusa 2 enc...
A young Fancy Jan’s life unfurls before her mother Khatija Khan, moment by moment, every day, year after year. It's been 10 years since Khatija lost her daughter, then 25. But her memories continue to haunt every nook and cranny of their two-storey home in Margarmal Bagh area in Srinagar.
No matter how much Khatija tries to avoid these memories,...
A year after the BJP government passed the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the legislation is yet to come into force. Many are experiencing hardships in jails without trials having even started or after having been freed for want of evidence.
There are special provisions in the constitution for protection of tribal communities and preservation of their distinct culture and practices. However, there are many violations too.
Septuagenarian Leelavathi Bommayya Naik cannot imagine living a life outside her village Manjuguni in Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka along the Western Ghats.
She has been living in a small patch of land with three of her brothers and their families for over seven decades. The area is home to around 1,500 people who harvest paddy, groundnut...
The BJP's month-long Vetrivel Yatra, a pilgrimage-like rally from one shrine of Lord Murugan to another is nothing but an attempt by the party to get a foothold in the upcoming Tamil Nadu state assembly elections due in April-May next year.
An estimated 170 million population living on India's coasts are perennially at the receiving end of tropical storms and cyclones, and are forced to migrate following loss of land and job opportunities.
Home videos, shot mostly in rural settings in which the characters speak the local dialect, are phenomenally different from the mainstream Malayalam cinema.
Formed as a result of increased caste atrocities in the state at the hands of the intermediate castes, the Dalit parties and outfits, however, seem to be finding it difficult to position themselves in the political spectrum between the proponents of Hindutva and the champions of now-softened Dravidian politics.
Just as political commentators started writing epitaphs of the communist movement in India, it stirred back into the reckoning with an impressive showing in just-concluded Bihar assembly elections, raising hopes of its revival.
Even before Bihar happened, class politics has been made relevant in Indian politics again by a string of decisions tak...
Stationed 400 km above the earth's surface, the International Space Station (ISS) or the home in the sky circles the earth 16 times a day and has been doing so for the past twenty years.
While some argue that the entry of corporates in governance is good since it benefits neglected sections of the society and enhances quality of life, others point to a number of conflicts in the arrangement, the environmental pollution caused by Kitex factories a case in point here.
A museum showing the unique culture and heritage of the Miyas, people living in the char-chaporis, would only bolster Assam’s rich history of syncretism.
“The fate of the city changed the year I was born,” mused Nakul Dey, a retired employee of the West Bengal’s education department.
The city, Dey was referring to, was slowly stirring back to life after a night of slumber. The autumnal sun had risen above the horizon across the Hooghly only a few hours ago, drawing out early risers like Dey for a...
Manusmriti, the ancient text, whose exact origins are attributed to Manu—who is believed to be the first man and lawgiver during 5th century BC—is a discourse on the roles and moral codes to be observed by different sections of the society.
As millions of others across the National Capital Region (NCR) wait to light up the night sky in Diwali, blowing to bits all concerns over the severely poor air quality, the annual chaos over ban on crackers has only become shriller.
You could never imagine a game of cricket being played in a stadium without the participation of fans. But, the year 2020 has been different for cricket, and sports in general.
Many teachers across Karnataka have experienced a caste battle under the Vidyagama outreach education programme, wherein the upper caste people had a problem with lower caste students entering their premises, or accessing education with their kids.
Undergoing treatment at Kerala's COVID first line treatment centre (CFLTC) can be an exhausting experience, that leaves patients isolated and distressed.
While social media platforms fail to regulate violent content and rape threats and the police show helplessness, Indian women have every reason to feel unsafe both online and offline.
There are several such villages in the region where boundaries between states remain contested, often triggering inter-state conflicts akin to one witnessed recently between Assam and Mizoram, and Mizoram and Tripura, laying bare a major chink in India’s nationhood concept.
On September 14, 2020, an international team of astronomers and astrobiologists reported that they detected traces of a rare chemical — Phosphine — in the upper clouds of Venus atmosphere.
Data indicates most of the 6.33 crore MSMEs in the country, employing nearly 11 crore people, are hurting due to debt burden that worsened due to the COVID lockdown.
Is it a bad omen to have a statue of a living person? Does it bring bad luck? Did it happen in the case of singer SP Balasubrahmanyam who had asked a sculptor to build a statue of himself?
Not too surprisingly, in a world full of unfounded beliefs even in the 21st century, such questions do crop up often. But there are hardly any answers as to w...
An unfinished building, a rusted auto-rickshaw, empty glasses in a tea stall and an unlit hearth are some of the vignettes of life in the times of coronavirus portrayed at a Durga Puja pandal (marquee), as Kolkata turns into a city of art amid the pandemic.
The theme of the artwork created by Somnath Dolui on a 50-feet-by-20-feet area for the Be...
On July 31, 2015, as part of a historic land boundary agreement (LBA), India and Bangladesh exchanged 162 landlocked islands embedded deep inside the territory of the other country.
Experts opine that there can be sustainable unlocking and greening of economic revival to sustain the unexpected gains of the lockdown to whatever extent possible.
Paradsinga village near Nagpur is slowly and steadily inching towards self-sufficiency with its indigenous cottage industries, an IT firm, sustainable organic farming.
Growing up in Coimbatore’s Saibaba Colony, a middle-class neighbourhood, 27-year-old Prakashan* boasted of an ‘entourage’ of six close friends in college. That number came down a few years back to just two after Prakashan found a new ‘mission’ in life—to be proud of his Hindu roots.
Some of those friends still don’t know what changed Prakashan’s...
The cannabis plant has been the mainstay of livelihood for many villagers in Manipur, particularly in some of the economically backward districts, for decades despite a ban on its cultivation, posing a dilemma for the government’s anti-drug drive.
Following reports about the mass elephant deaths in Botswana, conservationists in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore are worried if a similar bacteria is causing elephant deaths here.
Sitting in a small rented shop in Yarab Nagar to the south of Bangalore city, Aasha Vadivelu and four of her family members sort through dry waste every day. For the poor family that has been dependent on waste segregation for livelihood for decades, things are turning for the better in the last few years.
A rapid rise in mobile phone usage and ...
Although trials in sexual harassment/rape cases have been generally held in-camera as stipulated under section 327(2) of CrPC, some argue that that the blanket ban on media from reporting the trial need not necessarily help the victim always.
Five years after the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme was launched by the Narendra Modi government, the state of the scheme to save the girl child remains dysfunctional at the ground level as workers battle patriarchal mindsets amid shortage of resources.
Can a Tamil novel be written in Malayalam? Sounds baffling but seems possible, if a great translator can give the readers a work beyond the language in which it was written and yet retain the original essence.
“A translation should always reflect the spirit of the author’s original work and that should be the thumb rule of every translator,” say...
As the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a ‘standstill’ with mass-participation events either postponed or cancelled, organisers of prestigious marathons across the world decided to hold virtual marathons instead.
On April 15, 2009, farmers Rajan and PP Baby were surprised to see hundreds of trucks unloading sand in a field adjacent to their land in Kizhakkambalam in Ernakulam district of Kerala, an eastern suburb of Kochi. But the two, who also happened to be CPI(M) activists, were busy with the Lok Sabha elections that were being held in the state the next...
Apart from suppressing facts, the Centre is also being accused of rushing through its contentious policies at a time when the scope of protests and stakeholders interventions has been severely constrained by the pandemic.
For a regular movie goer, visiting a cinema hall is like being in a dream, where reality is forgotten and imagination is brought to life. But that came to a stop during this lockdown.
Soon after the government announced its first lockdown in March this year, the biggest worry for Veena KS, a farm labourer, was how to repay the loan of Rs 1.5 lakh borrowed by the self-help group run by her.
Veena and 10 other women, part of Siddapaji women self-help group, had borrowed the money for self-employment and household expenditure. W...
Thousands of families across the state whose children were given nutritious midday meals at school, but had to lose out on them due to the pandemic lockdown, received raw supplies through the anganwadi centres.
With the number of dolphins going down, spotting of the species is becoming rarer and rarer, ironically sprouting a tourism industry on dolphin sightings in various parts of India.
Once a favourite of the locals in Kerala, toddy consumption has been seeing a steady decline over the years, thanks to many factors, including a decline in interest among the youths of today.
Most Siddis still reside in the forests, surviving on agriculture and minor forest produce. One of the reasons for that, according to the community, is racial discrimination.
When the carefully choreographed pictures of Prime Minister Modi feeding peacocks and geese at his official residence were released last week, it was greeted with the usual hoopla.
Beneath the veneer of soothing vista of mango grove, Rabindranath Tagore's Visva Bharati University in Shantiniketan is gradually slipping into an abyss.
S Kavi Darshini, an 18-year-old girl who has completed her Class 12 from a government school in Krishnagiri district of Tamil Nadu, is full of anxiety these days as she doesn’t know how she will attend the NEET exam on September 13 at the exam centre in Coimbatore, which is over 300 km away from her house.
“Though the restrictions on travelling ...
As governments and the industry look to revive tourism, a survey has revealed that 75 per cent of the respondents were concerned about health and safety.
Thousands of youths from backward and marginalised communities are waging many battles on the financial, social and political fronts to access higher education.
Throughout history, pandemics and plagues have targeted cities as if it was nature’s wrath for the destruction that cities have wrought on nature, killing its rivers and trees.
Several centuries after 15th century Bengali poet Krittibas Ojha tried to mainstream Rama in Bengal by depicting him as a devotee of Durga, another movement is now being launched to reinvent the mythical hero in the state.
While Facebook has bowed down to governments in other countries after causing violence and riots, its content moderation is yet to raise alarm in India.
Without the tribal people’s support, tiger conservation cannot be achieved, and so dialogues need to continue rather than evicting locals, and the community participation initiatives and tiger numbers are proof of that.
The wards in the Institute of Mental Health, Chennai, for the mentally challenged are a revelation, that challenge general perceptions about people with mental issues
Wittingly or not, Mani Ratnam’s acclaimed film Roja, released on August 15, 1992, about a woman's battle to get her abducted husband back from Kashmiri terrorists set the trend for more such one-sided ‘patriotic’ movies.
For nearly three months, a fire has been raging at OIL's natural gas field in Assam's Baghjan, leaving thousands of people homeless, their crops and cattle destroyed and the ecology affected.
In a latest ‘revolt’ to Centre’s ‘betrayal’, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) released a confidential report prepared by a government-appointed high-level committee to answer the question ‘who is an Assamese’.
Meera Crasta (name changed), a class 9 student of a private English medium school in Bangalore, has a harrowing time every time she sits for online classes.
All her classes are available online on Doordarshan’s Youtube channel but they are in Kannada. The Tamil-origin girl who has limited knowledge of Kannada and has taken up studies in English ...
The devastation caused by the floods in Assam is terrible. This year alone, more than 56 lakh people were affected in 30 of the 33 districts since May and 109 persons have died.
It was early morning and a road trip from Delhi to Shimla looked inviting enough to make Arumita Mitra slip into a dreamy nap inside the car. Outside, the sun was shining bright and the trees were swaying gently. Arumita was not alone in the car. A young couple, Arumita’s close acquaintances, and their 10-month-old baby were also travelling along w...
Crime stories topping news headlines headlines over the past week speaks volumes about the law and order situation in Uttar Pradesh under Yogi Adityanath, an alien insider in the Sangh Parivar, who was pitchforked into chief ministership by the RSS.
Sixteen-year-old Sreedevi has to walk at least 5 km from her home in Poochukottamparai tribal settlement in Tamil Nadu’s Tirupur district just to get a workable mobile phone signal.
Sreedevi recently made headlines after scoring 95 per cent in her Class 10 board exams and became the first one from the forest-dwelling Muduvar tribal community to ...
In the Kenye family in Kohima, there is a much-shared joke they often laugh over: “What goes on and on and on? A gossipmonger’s tongue and the Naga peace process."
Unfortunately, they say, this joke will never get old or die. Recent developments in the state have once again given the Kenye family reasons to believe so. The state government, at t...
What’s in a name? Well, a lot if it's a Tamil film and the hero goes by the name of Karthik. While Rahul happens to be the textbook hero of millennial romance in Bollywood, Karthik wields the same sway, if not more, over Kollywood filmmakers and their audience.
This perhaps became more pronounced with Mani Rathnam's Alaipayuthey (2000). Since th...
In the early 2000s when Mohun Bagan was struggling to raise funds to sign Brazilian footballer Jose Ramirez Barreto, a fanatic fan mortgaged his house to arrange the money.
For over a century the grand-old club Mohun Bagan Athletic Club -- commonly popular as just Mohun Bagan -- had been essentially run as a public institution dependent on the g...
About 50 km from Bengaluru, on the way to Mysore, lies the Ramanagara silk cocoon market, one of the largest in Asia. Farmers from across Karnataka gather here to sell their produce through a bidding process.
They arrange the cocoons in the bins allocated, as per different grades and qualities. Reelers who reel the cocoons together to produce si...
The coronavirus forced funeral rituals in India to undergo dramatic changes as many families refused to perform the last rites of their relatives over the fear of the spread of the virus.
The criticism against migrants leaving Chennai city seems unjustified as experts believe most of the city's population comprises settlers from outside and it is outsiders who built the city.
IMD’s repeated failures have given a leeway to private weather monitoring companies to come up, with a number of state governments hiring private agencies to firm up their plans.
Senthil Kumar and his ventures Qube Cinema and Media Artists Centre have been working behind the scenes silently to ensure the Indian film industry's shift to digital.
Since the first recorded Chinese settler, Tong Atchew in the 18th century, the Chinese community in Kolkata has grown considerably, although they have lost touch with their homeland and speak little Mandarin.
Channapatna toys, made of ivory wood, has a long history tracing back to the times of Tipu Sultan, and has been accorded the geographical indication tag.
Siddhars were the earliest known medical professionals who discovered a particular form of medicine from the forests and mountains, which is now known as Siddha.
One loses count of the number of occasions West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar engaged in a war of words with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her government since taking oath as Governor on July 31 last year.
The erstwhile royal Dorje family has lost their ancestral property, a heritage castle in Chabji to the Chinese while another one in Chumur area has been made out of bounds as it falls in the border buffer zone.
Sometime in May, Promilla Devi, who was 32 weeks pregnant, visited a healthcare centre in Jharkhand’s Bokaro district with complaints of heavy bleeding. Suspecting it to be a case of placenta previa — low lying placenta — the healthcare centre run by Jan Chetna Manch sent her to the Sadar Hospital in Bokaro since it has an ultrasound machine, 24x7 ...
COVID-19 has brought the world to its knees, and created a new normal for almost all. What used to be big fat Greek affairs have seen a minimalist, stick-to-essentials makeover, especially special moments in life, weddings, birth of newborns, or even normal phases of life, like a career leap.
Rapid urbanisation and development have eroded the habitats of many animal, plant and insect species. Butterflies are no exception. That's why conservation efforts in this regard is a welcome change, even from urban spaces.
Cinema and alcohol have always attracted controversy in Jammu and Kashmir, with reasons being linked to political discourse and social sensibilities than to perceived radicalism or intolerance.
For villagers living in Athirappilly-Vazhachal region in Kerala’s Thrissur district and opposing the proposed Athirappilly hydroelectric project for over three decades, the tide in Chalakudy river is turning, albeit sluggishly.
Bhumika Sharma was flicking through a book in her study when she received a notification on her smartphone: “Atlas Cycle (Haryana) Ltd is closing its operations on June 3.”
A rush of childhood memories started flashing before her eyes — how she would pedal 10 km from her village to her school in Sonipat city. “I am a lecturer at Sonipat’s GVM Co...
For the Galwan family, the contested valley is at the core of their happiness and prosperity. They fear that if China won’t retreat from Galwan Valley, India may lose a strategic location and territory but the Galwans would lose the fulcrum of their existence, legacy and dreams.
It is portrayed as if there is no water scarcity in the city. Maybe the government will initiate some measures only if the rich get affected and are left without water.
Amitabh Bachchan’s cinematic odyssey is a metaphor for India. He has, like Forrest Gump, not just been present as a witness to several social, cultural and political transformations, but has had the good fortune — and the bad luck — to have been part of them, sometimes as the leading man, sometimes as the side actor, and once or twice as the sidekick.
Despite the Supreme Court decriminalising homosexuality, the LGBTQ+ community is largely stigmatised and face persecution, even at the hands of families.
In the wake of the pandemic and the ensuing financial hardship, Jewish organisations from Mexico, USA and Israel are sending aid to the Bnei Menashe community in Mizoram and Manipur.
Thousands of customers have fallen prey to lending apps which are misusing data, overcharging customers and taking advantage of the digital illiteracy.
It was due to Shailaja teacher's tireless efforts that the ‘Kerala model’ is today recognised as an effective anti-COVID strategy, not only by the country but around the world.
With the lockdown being relaxed in phases, many believe that the gig economy will be back to normal sooner than later and help migrant workers earn their livelihood.
While largely the coronavirus has been classified into two superclades, A and B, referring to Europe and South Asian origins respectively, a new variant has been found in India
Malappuram, the only Muslim majority district in Kerala has often been referred as a ‘mini-Pakistan’. The reality, however, is far from these myths created outside Kerala.
Unable to practise and maintain fitness levels, and with uncertainty looming over events, whether state-level, national or international, including the Olympics, sportspersons fear a loss of competitiveness, opportunities and other benefits, including jobs.
Clouds of uncertainty looming over admission processes, academic schedules and financial aid at the US campuses, growing visa restrictions and job losses have hit aspirants very hard.
Panic gripped Inbaraj when the police took scores of daily wage labourers engaged in loading and unloading vegetables and fruits from Chennai’s Koyambedu market for COVID-19 testing in early May.
Since the lockdown was imposed on March 24, the scene at Asia’s largest perishable goods market had been scary. He has been striving hard for a meal. “...
Muslims across the country are adapting to the crisis but it has been hard for them to accept the new normal, especially in not having the mosque as their centre of rallying point during Ramzan.
For S Suresh, a server working in a Dubai bar, life had gotten better since he left his native Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu. “Since I was given food, accommodation and a decent pay, I always felt safe to be here, instead of looking back at my native.”
But the novel coronavirus struck, forcing the bar to shut, leaving the daily-wage earner without a ...
More than any long term measures, the migrant workers seeking immediate relief after their recent nightmarish experience are pinning their hope on the MNREGA, once ridiculed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a living monument of the failure of the erstwhile Congress-led UPA government.
The word ‘migrant’ in the time of coronavirus lockdown conjures up images of tired, desolate men walking hundreds of kilometres trying to evade hunger and misery. However, women migrants who are either on their own or with their families, remain largely invisible as they quietly brave the transient times in the face of the pandemic.
For 45-year-...
Post offices have evolved over the ages to cater to the new needs of the new ages, but experts feel it could have become local internet service provider and acted like moving ATMs, especially in a time of crisis like this.
Experts believe that he decision of states to amend labour laws will be a body blow to the working class, especially migrant workers, and that taking the ordinance route for this was unconstitutional.
After 40 days of lockdown, the serpentine queues outside liquor shops across the country, disregarding social distancing norms, became a telling sign of the importance of alcohol consumption for thousands and the extent of addiction, even when a pandemic like COVID-19 was close on heels.
For ambulance drivers on COVID-19 duty, they have to protect themselves fully and be ready anytime to transport patients to hospitals and back even as they navigate problems and face a high risk of contracting the disease.
Migrant workers say they would return from their homes only after there is clarity about the situation and the future. “We will leave now and will decide about coming back after a few months.”
Companies in the edtech, foodtech, healthcare, telecom and OTT sectors have seen an uptick in demand even as others lost out, dragged down by a slow economic growth and coronavirus lockdown.
Everything was planned. And then nothing made sense anymore. The most disruptive event in our lives happened — COVID-19.
As a bunch of individuals who’ve been predicting how people think and how their purchases can be influenced, we thought we could spend this time thinking about what the post-corona world would be like. We are not economists or...
One of the grandest of festivals in Tamil Nadu, the Chithirai Thiruvizha associated with Meenakshi Sundareswara temple, this time has been cancelled owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown.
It is the job of the government to take care of all its citizens, both rich and poor. Those in power should not become complacent just because some citizens have taken upon themselves to help these people.
“I mutter a prayer every time I enter the COVID-19 ward in the hospital,” says Saroja (name changed), a 49-year-old nurse on COVID-19 duty in a tertiary government hospital in Chennai.
The fear of contracting the virus lingers although she has 25 years’ experience and like nurses across the country, she has gone through the drill about precautio...
Right next to a containment zone in Uttar Pradesh's Noida, a towering high-rise apartment complex with more than 1,100 flats houses a dirty secret. And Usha Devi, a sanitation worker, has been one of the many keepers of that secret for a couple of years now. Rain or shine, mahamari (epidemic) or Mahashivratri, her God, she says, has never been merc...
When the world goes back to being 'normal' (if ever), perhaps we will have mastered the art of being vulnerable, perhaps we will have understood that nothing lasts for ever, that power crumbles easily, that life is fragile, that love is precious.
With India scaling up the tests for COVID-19, the limited number of testers in the country are racing against time to identify cases quickly and prevent further spread of the contagious virus.
For constable Bittu Singh (name changed), a childhood memory has remained etched into his mind like words on a tombstone. Bittu, along with his elder bother and friends, was playing cricket in the lane leading to their red-brick house with a leaking tin roof in Uttar Pradesh’s Azamgarh district.
Suddenly an argument ensued over a missed wicket a...
By the end of March, Anand (name changed) would have completed his graduation in medicine (MBBS). But in the middle of the month, he and his batchmates at Thanjavur Medical College Hospital in Tamil Nadu received a message that thrust them into the frontline of a crisis.
“We were told that we will be on a month-long duty till April 28 in the COV...
The COVID-19 lockdown has brought about a certain kind of loneliness among humans, but loneliness is a basic trait of human beings and it has been captured in literature in different languages through the ages.
Farmers in many parts of Assam, Bengal and other states too are facing problems in harvesting and transporting their produce due to the COVID-19 lockdown.
With no future to look forward to, migrant workers stranded in relief camps in other states yearn to go home. “From there we can make a fresh start," they say.
A society devoid of rationalists will continue to invoke superstitious beliefs and practices. This gets amplified when top political leaders attach everything to mythology and vedas and puranas.
The lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19 has brought about a temporary relief to elements of nature, especially the wildlife which plays a great role in running our ecosystem.
What seems to be keeping the vilification of Muslims afire on social media and on the ground is the coverage of the pandemic, from a communal angle, by many news media outlets.
As Basanti Puja passed off quietly in the state, it left many in Bengal, like everywhere else, in a state of daze and disbelief. Could this be the last spring and celebration?
As the coronavirus is new, it is not surprising that there are no drugs against it. At present, the treatment for COVID-19 is primarily supportive care, including ventilation if necessary.
Cinema often reflects society but some filmmakers have gone the other way and projected an imagined future. Based partly on science and partly on fiction, these films remain just films until an imagined scenario becomes real.
With COVID-19 lockdown forcing people to work from home, a hidden sexism has been exposed, thanks to the lack of domestic helps, which leaves women in the house to be expected to do all household chores and also her office work.
On the afternoon of March 31, retired bank employee Sudip Dasgupta hopped into his neighbourhood sweet shop in South Kolkata’s Jadavpur area as the state government allowed a four-hour window to tickle the taste buds of sweet-toothed Bengalis.
Armed with a face mask and a jhola, the 67-year-old rushed to get his favourite dessert — mishti doi (...
Government will have to generate employment like beedi rolling, incense stick manufacturing, tailoring, among others to keep the informal settlers engaged, according to experts.
Unfortunately for the poor, the Coronavirus continues to chase them as barriers have come up in their own villages, which wish to safeguard them against the impending disease.
As on March 26, 2020, the novel coronavirus pandemic (COVID19) has killed 18,589, and infected 4,16,686. Every minute, the virus is claiming more lives.
Before we are convinced of the savagery of the novel coronavirus pandemic, let us look in comparison, say, the deaths caused by road accidents. The epicentre of the novel coronavirus, China, has...
A pandemic is not a public health issue alone — but economic and social as well. Incorporating cultural and social aspects into the scientific efforts by public health authorities coupled with people’s support can go a long way in fighting coronavirus.
Du Fengyan, 35, a Chinese from Beijing arrived in Mumbai, India on January 29, a day before India reported its first coronavirus case in Kerala. The airport authorities had screened him for the virus and had cleared him.
As Fengyan toured the maximum city for a week, staying out of a hostel, little did he know what was in store for him, as the n...
Like seasonal flu, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus is a respiratory disease. About 80% of infected persons will recover on their own, not even needing a visit to a doctor.
The COVID-19 crisis is attracting the best expertise from around the world to find solutions. But India has many other problems of its own, and will have more in the future, which require all the homegrown expertise we can get.
Dressed in chiffons, eyes highlighted with kohl and a long bindi on the forehead, she is often scheming about how to bring down the other woman — the female protagonist, who is angelic and sacrificial. If you have already guessed that this is the antagonist of popular Hindi soap operas from the stables of Ekta Kapoor and her spawns, you won’t be di...
By analysing the public genome sequence data from SARS-CoV-2, researchers have convincingly concluded that "SARS-CoV-2 is not a laboratory construct or a purposefully manipulated virus", putting to rest all suspicions of bio-weapon gone astray.
For Siva Kumar, 28, a management professional working for a China-based cross-border e-commerce firm, seeing his fellow Chinese colleagues flying down to Bengaluru every month was a routine.
They visited Bengaluru for the company’s monthly review meetings. But since January, the travel restrictions placed across countries due to the novel corona...
Dhaka, like its ethnic cousin Kolkata, is known for street protests and agitations. But even going by its own track records, the large-scale mass demonstrations Bangladesh’s capital witnessed earlier this month were unprecedented.
The Islamists, as well as the secularists, were on the streets, for once, over the same cause — to oppose participat...
It is not often that one gets to act in a Hollywood movie, or for that matter, any movie anywhere. Today, in 2020 CE, the entire world appears to be “acting” in a classic Hollywood blockbuster where entire cities and even countries are in varying degrees of a lockdown marked by deserted streets, empty malls and humans dressed in white, moving, as i...
Cryptocurrency experts say the government does not see technology as disruptive but perceive it as a threat to the banking culture and so seek to ban it.
Considering that the BJP leaders themselves engage in hate speeches, spreading misinformation and rumours continuously, the act of not condemning the posts on these party-monitored groups comes as no surprise. They let such content flow freely without any technological possibility of moderating them.
Acclaimed director Anjali Menon says not informing actress Rekha, who was a minor then, about the kiss (with Kamal Haasan in Punnagai Mannan) meant transgression of body rights.
In the wake of the recent violence in Meghalaya triggered by the anti-CAA protests, the fact remains that the perceived threat to tribal rights in Meghalaya is often amplified, as their interests are well protected by job reservation and land rights.
The French Institute of Pondicherry has over 1.7 lakh archived photographs of idols and temple art, recorded over a 60-year period since 1955, which has come to the help of police tracing missing or stolen idols in several Tamil Nadu temples.
If, say, WhatsApp makes one pause for 30 seconds to check whether the information is unverified or asks the user to exercise caution while forwarding messages or while posting inflammatory speeches, the hatred one spreads can be reduced, feel experts.
Writers, including the Jnanpith awardee, have been treated mercilessly by filmmakers who promise to adapt novels and books, only to give them the slip.
Only the politically very naïve would have thought that the American President’s visit to India would have set either the Potomac or the Indian Ocean on fire. But from the time Donald Trump and his delegation set foot in Ahmedabad, there was no doubt that the 45th President of the United States and his family that included the First Lady, Daughter ...
Waste management is beyond just data and adherence to the rules and regulations. It has to be supported by appropriate education, training, commitment of healthcare staff at the grassroots level.
Look-alikes of Hindu deities have burgeoned across Arunachal Pradesh as efforts are being made to formalise the indigenous religions of various tribes of the state in a bid to thwart the growing influence of Christianity, which emerged as the largest religion of the state, as per the 2011 Census
The Tamil Nadu government's noon meal scheme is surrounded by a controversy in the state over its decision to tie up with Akshaya Patra, which removed onion and garlic from the ingredients.
On a February Friday, in an unassuming alley outside a marriage hall in Madurai, two kids break into a jig in tune with the beating of the drums. Inside the hall, the coy bride is waiting for her groom, her heart beating hard. As guests start crowding the venue, both her heartbeats and the sound of the drums grow louder. By now, even passersby coul...
