calender_icon.png 26 September, 2025 | 1:07 AM

Breaking News

Editorial

article_73447704.webp
With climate change a reality, sponge city concept may work

26-09-2025

When it did not stop raining even on the eve of Navratri in Mumbai, well into the third week of September, worry was writ large for many in the city. When it poured incessantly and voluminously to flood Kolkata on Mahalaya and after, the city struggled to stay afloat. Virtually every major and other city has seen intense rain, flash floods, cloudbursts and so on this season, bringing in untold devastation, adverse health and economic impacts, and misery to millions. Nearly every country has had unprecedented urban floods this year.

article_55090237.webp
An umpire who lived cricket and often acted beyond duty

26-09-2025

Umpire’ derives from the French noumpere (‘oumpere’ in Middle English). It means “without peer or equal”, which neatly describes umpire Harold Dennis Bird—‘Dickie’ was a nickname from school—who has died at 92. Cricket is a wide church welcoming characters of all hues, making national heroes of umpires and spectators too. The famous barracker Yabba (Stephen Gascoigne) has a statue at the Sydney Cricket Ground. There’s one of Bird at Barnsley, where he was born.

article_84739452.webp
Countdown to civic polls amid polarisation begins in Maha

25-09-2025

The Supreme Court ordered a few days ago that the process of civic polls for local self-government bodies in the state of Maharashtra should be completed by January 31, 2026. These polls were due over three years ago but got delayed due to various disputes and litigations that followed on the issue of reservation for contestants belonging to certain castes in various constituencies of municipal corporations and district councils, also known as Zilla Parishads.

article_65531399.webp
The RSS needs to rethink its vision of a ‘Hindu Rashtra’

25-09-2025

On August 26, 27, and 28, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat presented the history, philosophy, vision, and future direction of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)—a mammoth Hindu organisation dedicated to national development.

article_61087630.webp
Mighty America on back foot against Chinese aggression

24-09-2025

Despite its known economic, technological and military might, the US has ponderously transitioned over the years from its comfort zone to a state of benign dependency and now suddenly finds itself in a spot of vulnerability.

article_45517887.webp
Indian stability in the midst of the South Asian chaos

24-09-2025

Several political convulsions in our South Asian subcontinent over the past three years once again demonstrate the fragility of democratic systems.

article_80524906.webp
Manipur continues to burn despite Modi’s peace balm

23-09-2025

It has been more than a week since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s long-awaited visit to Manipur, seen as a tentative first step towards resolving the crisis that has engulfed the Northeastern state ever since an ethnic civil war tore it apart more than two years ago.

article_84705885.webp
Govt must clarify just how Swadeshi should Indians be?

23-09-2025

I am neither an enthusiastic supporter of Prime Minister Modi nor do I follow him blindly, but I keenly follow his politics since his days as the general secretary of the BJP. I know there is an army of admirers who think he is God’s gift to mankind and was born to make India great again; they vouch that he is the greatest orator India has ever seen.

article_32843395.webp
Can’t bet on gold to continue to rise at the same pace

22-09-2025

Global uncertainty caused by either war or any extreme policy, which can surround crude oil prices or tariffs, generally causes excess volatility in all markets. With a plethora of developments taking place in the current context, it is hard to conjecture whether currencies will decline or get stronger. The bond markets remain in flux as central banks evaluate the situation before taking a call on interest rates.

article_74413354.webp
Democracy cannot survive sans justice, accountability

22-09-2025

In India, democracy rests on two key principles: justice and accountability. Justice ensures fairness for all, as promised in the Constitution, while accountability holds powerful institutions—like courts and the Election Commission—answerable for their actions. These principles are deeply connected—without accountability, justice becomes uneven; without justice, accountability lacks meaning.

article_30394143.webp
When SL, India and Pakistan teamed up against the rest

20-09-2025

It is hard to believe with all the heat and dust thrown up by the ongoing Asia Cup cricket championship in Dubai, but it was less than three years after Independence and Partition, in August 1947, that India and Pakistan fielded a joint cricket team in Colombo, Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), in March 1950.

article_73972700.webp
Dhami tightens conversion laws amid natural calamities

20-09-2025

Uttarakhand has been battling its worst floods in a century. Tuesday morning saw its capital city, Dehradun, being battered by a cloudburst that has left over 18 dead and several missing. It has destroyed key roads and bridges, including the crucial link road to Mussorie, Maldevta, and Rishikesh, and floodwater and debris have subsumed several homes and business complexes. On Thursday morning, the district of Uttarkashi was hit by yet another cloudburst, destroying key assets in Chamoli.