Category: current affairs

Salvaging the idea and reality of Manipur Kham Khan Suan Hausing is Professor and Head, Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad The stability and territorial integrity of a society such as Manipur can be secured only by genuine recognition and substantive accommodation of territorial rights and identities. The communal riots which erupted in Manipur since the evening of May 3, between the Meiteis and Kuki-Hmar-Zomi communities, have unleashed unprecedented human displacement, a tragic loss of lives and destruction of property, and show no signs of closure. As the nature and character of the riots transform from one of ethnic…

Buddhism, India’s soft power projection tool Abhishek Srivastava is Assistant Professor of Diplomacy and Disarmament, CIPOD, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi With its strong historical and cultural ties to Buddhism, India can play a lead role in shaping the discourse around Buddhist issues. There is much significance to India having hosted a two-day global Buddhist summit in New Delhi (April 20-21), which was organised by the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with the International Buddhist Confederation. The summit saw the participation of key figures from the global Buddhist community, including the Dalai Lama. It was at this summit that the…

Improve technology to detect IEDs IEDs are among the most potent tools deployed by the Maoists R.K. VIJ STATE OF PLAY Ten jawans and a civilian driver, who were returning in a van following an anti-Maoist operation, were killed in a blast caused by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada on April 26. The IED was planted beneath a metalled road. The was so forceful, it created a huge crater on the road. Though this attack, which according to the State police had been carried out by the proscribed Communist Party of India (Maoist), is under investigation, the…

The horizon for India beyond the G-20, SCO summits M.K. Narayanan is a former Director, Intelligence Bureau, a former National Security Adviser, and a former Governor of West Bengal India’s year-long presidency of the G-20, and leadership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), should not blind us to the persisting challenges the nation faces, due to a concatenation of circumstances. It must, hence, tone down the high expectations that are being generated of reaping a rich dividend from helming the two summits. Global peace, on which India’s Prime Minister had waxed eloquent at the last G-20 summit in Indonesia, is…

Valour and prestige — the world of special operations Air Vice Marshal Manmohan Bahadur VM (retired) is former Additional Director General, Centre for Air Power Studies Operation Kaveri, the Sudan rescue mission, is an example of why the ethos and the training that goes into the special operations of the Indian Air Force crew should not be diluted. The evacuation of 121 Indians from Wadi Seidna, north of Khartoum in Sudan, in the dead of night, using an Indian Air Force (IAF) C-130J Super Hercules, has been lauded all round. The IAF’s press release is an understatement of the stupendous…

Why are Blinkit workers protesting? At risk: A Blinket delivery agent on his way to deliver groceries in New Delhi in 2022. File Photo How did the strikes start? What is ‘platform work’? Do the new Labour Codes protect the rights of gig workers? Does the Code on Social Security, 2020 differentiate between employee and gig worker? Have there been petitions in courts to legally recognise gig work and workers? AARATRIKA BHAUMIK  EXPLAINER The story so far: The recent strike by Zomato-owned Blinkit delivery agents has once again brought to the forefront issues plaguing the gig economy in the country. The strikes…

Copyright infringement is not intended o IUCN Red List Status: • Black Rhino: Critically endangered. • White Rhino: Near Threatened. Researchers have created an embryo of the northern white rhino by using In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) process. • One-Horned Rhino: Vulnerable • Javan: Critically Endangered • Sumatran Rhino: Critically Endangered. It has gone extinct in Malaysia. • Only the Great One-Horned Rhino is found in India. • The Indian rhinoceros also called greater one-horned rhinoceros or great Indian rhinoceros is a rhinoceros species native to the Indian subcontinent. • It is the only large mammal species in Asia to be…

Copper plates bring into focus Shilabhattarika and her poetry The varaha seal of the Badami Chalukyan rulers. Special Arrangement SHOUMOJIT BANERJEE PUNE The reconstruction of history, particularly that of the ancient world where sources are few and far, is often likened to detective work. Researchers at the Pune-based Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute (BORI), which houses South Asia’s largest collection of manuscripts and rare texts, recently embarked on a mission after which they claim to have shed new light on Shilabhattarika — the celebrated Sanskrit poetess of ancient India by establishing her as a daughter of the famed Chalukyan emperor Pulakeshin…