Four days after N Biren Singh resigned as chief minister of Manipur, President’s rule has been imposed in the state. Singh’s resignation is seen as a belated one by many. Since May 2023 when violence flared up, more than 250 people have been killed and 60,000 have been displaced and unable to return to their homes. There has also been a huge prolif…

The Supreme Court on January 30, 2025, permitted High Courts to appoint retired judges on an ad-hoc basis to address the mounting backlog of cases. However, these judges were authorised to hear only criminal appeals as part of a bench led by a sitting judge. Is the ad-hoc appointment of judges a viable remedy for reducing pendency? Here we discuss …

Ahead of the Budget, there was an expectation that the government would provide some relief for the middle class, and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman delivered. In her budget speech, she announced that there would be no income tax for incomes up to ₹12 lakh. Of course, this stole the show, but it wasn't the ONLY big news. The Union Budget 2025 …

Two weeks ago, the World Health Organization released a set of guidelines recommending the use of the lower-sodium salt substitutes. These products reduce the amount of sodium chloride in the salt, replacing it with potassium chloride. Reducing salt intake – or sodium intake, has long been held by experts as one of the easiest and cheapest ways to …

Five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen and the chess world’s governing body FIDE were embroiled in a public spat until a few days ago. Carlsen, in collaboration with a German businessman, Jan Henric Buettner, has launched a new chess tour, titled the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, and FIDE objected to their use of the term ‘Word Championship’, which …

In 2023, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s remarks in India on the cost of training foundational AI models — like the ones that power ChatGPT — sparked a debate on whether Indian firms should spend millions of dollars on the aim of that technology. The issue pits sovereignty and national pride against financial constraints. Is it necessary for sovereignty an…

US President Donald Trump has often said that ‘tariff’ is his favourite word. Within weeks of taking office, he imposed 25% tariffs on all imports from America’s two biggest trading partners, Mexico and Canada, and 10% tariffs on goods from China. Subsequently, he paused the tariffs for 30 days, after Mexico and Canada promised to take certain meas…

More than 100 people have been killed and over 50,000 displaced in violence that has erupted in north-east Colombia, near its border with Venezuela. The scale and nature of the violence -- described by President Gustavo Petro as “war crimes” -- has prompted the government to declare “a state of internal commotion” and a “state of economic emergency…

Uttarakhand becomes the first Indian state to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) since Independence. On January 27, 2025, Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami officially rolled out the UCC, a move that promises uniformity in civil laws but comes with key exemptions—tribal communities and the Hindu Undivided Family (HUF) remain outside its purview…

As of February 1, 140 cases and four deaths due to Guillain- Barré Syndrome have been reported in Pune, Maharashtra.The outbreak has shocked the public – most people have never heard of this rare, autoimmune neurological disorder before. Guillain- Barré Syndrome or GBS leads to the immune system attacking the peripheral nervous system, causing weak…

Since the inauguration of President Donald Trump, the administration’s crackdown on undocumented migrants has led to more than 3,500 arrests. In a related development, Colombia narrowly avoided a trade war with the US when it turned back American military planes bringing back Colombian migrants. India, in contrast, has repeatedly said that on the i…

The INDIA bloc managed to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from reaching the majority mark in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. However, it went on to lose the Haryana and Maharashtra Assembly elections. In the ongoing campaign to the Delhi Assembly elections, the INDIA bloc appears fragmented as certain constituents of the coalition, such as t…

The government is slowly but steadily, increasing its focus on nuclear energy. India's nuclear power operator NPCIL invited proposals from industry to set up captive small nuclear reactors on December 31, 2024. This invite is in line with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's announcement that the government would support the use of SMRs to i…

It’s official now – the number of births in Kerala have hit an all-time low of about 3.9 lakh per year, a significant drop from the previous average of about 5.5 lakh per year. This ironically, has led to a spike in maternal mortality – not because more mothers are dying – Kerala has an excellent track record – but because fewer babies are being bo…

Will Arvind Kejriwal return to power once again in Delhi? Or, will the BJP build on the momentum of its recent victories in Haryana and Maharashtra to dislodge the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) from power? What are the stakes for the Congress in these elections, given that its vote share in the last election had shrunk to less than 5%? These are some of th…

Last month, the government released a factsheet on the 2023-24 Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES), which recorded a decline in poverty in urban and rural areas. Over the last few years, policymakers and academics have debated the issues of incomparable data sets, the unavailability of data, and the definition of an adequate consumption…

Last month, The Hindu broke the story of 16 Indian workers trapped in ‘prison-like’ conditions at a cement factory in the Libyan city of Benghazi. Their phones and passports had been taken away, they hadn’t been paid their wages for months, and had been forced to work for much longer hours than what was specified in their contract. These workers, h…

After more than 15 months of conflict and devastation, there is finally a ceasefire agreement in Gaza. The ceasefire will come into force on January 19. The agreement, brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and US officials, will unfold over three phases. It involves Hamas releasing Israeli captives, in exchange for Israel releasing thousands of Palestinian pri…

India’s 1-3 loss in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy marked the end of its decade-long dominance in the series against Australia. This was not an exception; India’s performance in Test cricket has been dismal for a while now. Over the last four months, the team has lost six out of eight Tests, including a shocking 0-3 defeat against New Zealand at home. …

On January 20th, Donald Trump will take the oath of office as the United States’ President for the second time. There is a lot of speculation, and also apprehension, on what to expect from his administration: will there be mass deportations of undocumented migrants? Will we see a new tariff war as he raises import tariffs across the board? How will…

After a long wait of sixteen months, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on January 3, 2025, unveiled the draft rules for implementing the Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act, 2023 —India’s first comprehensive data privacy legislation applicable across all sectors of commerce and industry. The government is currently invi…

At an event in December, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar said there are a lot of challenges in providing dual citizenship to Indians settled abroad. He pointed out that the Overseas Citizenship of India drive is a step towards meeting the demand and added that the debate on dual citizenship is “still alive”. Here we discuss the issue. Guest…

Just as the New Year 2025 began, there was panic once again in the media. Reports of a supposedly new respiratory virus that had caused a surge of infections in China began to do the rounds, fuelling speculation about its entry into India. Suddenly HMPV, the human metapneumovirus became a buzzword – headlines were full of it, cases were being detec…

On December 29, 2024, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) accused each other of manipulating the Delhi electoral rolls in an attempt to win the Delhi Assembly elections, scheduled to be held in February. While the AAP has accused the BJP of submitting applications to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to get the names…

In this special year-ender episode of the In Focus podcast, our hosts discuss the key episodes from this past year. From environmental issues and health-related topics, to international affairs and legal developments within the country, this episode covers a range of diverse subjects that were discussed in In Focus this year. With six key episodes …

At a recent panel discussion in New Delhi, French economist Thomas Piketty suggested that a wealth and inheritance tax be imposed on the super-rich in India, which, in turn, could fund health and education. India’s Chief Economic Advisor, Anantha Nageswaran, opposed the idea, arguing that higher taxes could encourage fund outflows. Should the wealt…

A recent study conducted in the U.K. found that paracetamol, a common, over-the-counter medication can have serious stomach, heart and kidney complications in senior citizens who take it repeatedly. Constant use of paracetamol was linked to a 24% risk of peptic ulcer bleeding, a 19% risk of chronic kidney disease and a 9% risk of heart failure. Thi…

South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol has been impeached by the country’s National Assembly. His impeachment follows his sudden declaration of martial law on December 3, a move he was forced to withdraw in a few hours after the Parliament voted it down. Mr Yoon’s Presidential powers remain suspended as the impeachment goes to the Constitutional Cou…

The Constitution (One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth Amendment) Bill, 2024, introduced in the Lok Sabha on December 17, 2024, mandates a fixed five-year term for the Lok Sabha, with State Legislature elections aligned to this cycle. If the Lok Sabha or any State Assembly is dissolved before completing its full term, mid-term elections will be held only f…

The Indian government fixes a Minimum Support Price or MSP for 22 crops - paddy, wheat, several pulses, oilseeds and millets are a part of this list. The objective of declaring MSP is to help farmers get a good price for their produce and to procure food grains for public distribution. However, recent data shows that the cost of production is risin…

The Great Nicober Island is the southernmost island in the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago in the Bay of Bengal. It is home to species of flora and fauna not found anywhere else on the earth. It is designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. It is also the habitat of indigenous communities, including the Nicobarese and the Shompen, a ‘Particularly Vu…

United States President Joe Biden’s recent decision to pardon his son Hunter Biden for any federal crimes he committed or may have committed between January 1, 2014, and December 1, 2024 has brought renewed focus on the expansive clemency powers granted to the President by the U.S. Constitution. The President’s volte-face has provoked strong condem…

After battling insurgency for 13 years, the Bashar al Assad regime has collapsed in Syria. Assad and his family have fled to Russia where they have been given asylum. An Al Qaida affiliate that today goes by the name of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) has taken control of the Syrian capital Damascus. The immediate future of Syria now depends on the lead…

For the past month, the news has been filled with headlines about Delhi’s toxic air. Air quality levels deteriorated so sharply that a number of emergency measures had to be put in place, from shutting down school to halting construction activity, just to bring the levels down from ‘very poor’ to ‘poor’. But apart from the many respiratory issues t…

Nearly 400 days since the October 7 attacks on Israel that led to the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, West Bank, and Lebanon, more than 43,000 have been killed, mostly civilians. Despite calls by the United Nations (UN) for urgent action to address the humanitarian crisis; an International Court of Justice (ICJ) verdict on the risk of genocide being p…

Five people were killed and many were injured in clashes that followed protests over a survey of the Shahi Jama Masjid in Chandausi, in Uttar Pradesh’s Sambhal district. The police have arrested dozens of people and registered cases against 400 people. The UP government has ordered a judicial probe into the violence. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh …

The fifth meeting of the UN’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) has ended without delivering a legally binding treaty to address global plastic pollution. The talks, which began in March 2022, were supposed to have produced a treaty by the end of 2024 but they haven’t. The discussions saw a sharp divide between two camps – a large coa…

Today, we are discussing an important topic concerning the elections in Maharashtra. Now after the results that were announced on the 23rd of this month, we have seen that there have been several doubts which have been raised with respect to the results concerning the EVMs. Even today Maharashtra Congress president Nana P submitted a memorandum to …

On November 23, the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party-led Mahayuti alliance won a landslide victory in Maharashtra Assembly elections. Among several reasons cited for this victory are the implementation of the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana — a direct benefit transfer programme introduced by the Maharashtra government in July 2024 – four mont…