Opinion

Dhanada K Mishra Odisha made news recently for an unusual final test to choose vice-chancellors for several universities in the state. The shortlisted candidates - all presumably highly qualified, experienced and senior academicians - were handed over a question paper as they were waiting presumably...

Sudha Devi Nayak ‘La Peste’ or The Plague is the story of Oran, a French prefecture in the Algerian coast, told through the lens of the doctor narrator, Bernard Rieux, an unbeautiful place, “Treeless, glamourless, soulless” where people are chiefly interested in matters mercenary, living...

Melvin Durai I was happy to hear that Ranjitsinh Disale, a primary school teacher in Maharashtra, has been awarded the 2020 Global Teacher Prize. The prize, sponsored by the Varkey Foundation in partnership with UNESCO, comes with enough money to change a teacher’s life: Rs...

Sharan Srinivas Autocratic leaders often seek new ways to undermine the right to protest, because they know protesting can be an extraordinarily powerful force for political and social change. Over the past decade, protests have toppled autocrats, forced governments and corporations to recognise the climate...

Ajit Ranade In the last week of November, the government confirmed that India was officially in a recession, possibly for the first time in modern history. The technical definition of a recession is when the economy contracts for two successive quarters, i.e. three month periods....

Kingshuk Nag After the State of Hyderabad was forced to merge with India on September 17, 1948, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru also restructured the dominions of the Nizam. In a couple of years, Hyderabad was merged with the Telugu speaking area of Andhra, that had...

Bhaskar Basu The unpredictable and unprecedented nature of the coronavirus pandemic has had a significant impact on not just our lives, life patterns, and socio-economic culture but also on different sports leagues followed across the world - from EPL in football to IPL in cricket....

Bharat Jhunjhunwala The president of the World Bank has said recently that the world economy has already entered into a recession that is likely to continue for many years. Another report said that the United States’ banks had already suffered a 30 per cent decline...

Erik Berglöf China is aiming to halt the rise in its carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. If it succeeds, the country will have gone, in less than 40 years, from being the world’s largest CO2 emitter to bringing...

Kaushik Basu Our recent experience with COVID-19 and the word ‘lockdown’ once again illustrates the power of language to influence our lives and wellbeing. The infinite variety of reality, and the finite number of words and phrases we have to describe it, creates an inescapable...