Russia, Ukraine begin talks mediated by U.S. to end war

Three-way talks between Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S. opened in the UAE on Tuesday, as Washington made another push to end the war in Europe which started nearly five years ago.  

Caste and class

Exclusion of creamy laver is essential, but must be done consistently

If public resources are to dismantle both caste hierarchy and class inequality, OBC reservation should resist the notion that caste disad-vantage makes economic differences among OBC families irrelevant. The 'creamy layer' rules are responsible for identifying those OBC members who have advanced sufficiently to no longer require affirmative action. However, the government has implemented them inconsistently.

Transparency is essential to institutional credibility

The proposed amendments to the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010, have triggered strong reactions from civil society organisations, Opposition parties and Christian institutions. The concerns are not without substance. What it seeks is tighter regulation of foreign-funded organisations, including provisions concerning assets created or acquired through foreign contributions. 

Strategic autonomy must guide India's Starlink policy

The risks for India

India has very limited control over Starlink. The network could remain usable in an area where Indian authorities have ordered it switched off. Conversely, it could be disabled when India needs it most. India can licence and penalise Starlink, but SpaceX retains direct control over its satellites, software and terminal access.

Without rationale

India's federal structure could have benefited from the Kurian Committee

By abruptly disbanding the Justice Kurian Joseph Committee on Union-State Relations and handing over its task to the Tamil Nadu State Law Commission, the C. Joseph Vijay government appears to have succumbed to the political impulse to reverse earlier decisions rather than being guided by any compelling ra-tionale or necessity. This gains credence from the very grounds cited.

Opposition builds over third mega dam project in Arunachal Pradesh

Communities living down-stream of a hydropower project on the Dibang river have stepped up the heat on the governments of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, with the latter already burning due opposition to two other proposed mega dams.

The 2,880-megawatt Di-bang Multipurpose Project on the Dibang river, one of three that form the Brah-maputra in adjoining Assam, is located in Arunachal Pradesh's Lower Dibang Valley. Developed by NHPC Limited at an esti-mated cost of ₹31,875 crore, the project had been hanging fire until a re-newed push for its comple-tion commenced in March 2024.

John Harrison's The End of Everything wins the 2026 Booker Prize for fiction

British writer M. John Harrison won the Booker Prize for fiction on Monday for The End of Everything, a satirical dystopian novel whose themes of "catastrophe and apocalypse" chime with our uneasy times. It is the first work of science fiction to take the prestigious $67,000 liter-ary award, but 81-year-old Harrison said he doesn't want to be hemmed in by the sci-fi label.      

India's efforts to clean its air need not slow its economic growth

India ranked 176 out of 177 countries in the 2026 Environmental Performance Index (EPI), published by the Yale and Columbia Universities in the U.S. The index assesses 47 indicators across 12 categories. Of them, India performed the worst on air quality, where it ranked 175, yet it did considerably better on air pollution, ranking 88.

This contrast is illustrative because only the latter matters for India's health burden. The State of Global Air 2025 report estimated that more than 20 lakh deaths in India in 2023 could be attributed to air pollution.

Meson to muons: ultra-rare decay

Now, scientists at the European nuclear research facility CERN have reported evidence of an extremely rare phenomenon in which one kind of subatomic particle transforms into two other particles. The finding could offer a more precise way to test our understanding of how our universe and its particles work.