It’s best to steer clear of Bitcoins lest the bubble bursts
By Amit Kapoor It is impossible to make sense of the Bitcoin-mania that has been making waves of late. In just a span of one year, the crypto-currency has doubled four times. The price of…
Commentary
The Trump syndrome and its impact: A psychiatric probe (Book Review)
By Vikas Datta Title: Twilight of American Sanity; Author: Allen Frances; Publisher: William Morrow/Harper Collins: Pages: 336; Price: Rs 799 There are some times you can despair of the human race, or at least significant…
Bitcoin: Tread with caution
By Vatsal Srivastava George Soros, the legendary hedge manager, once said that in the financial markets, it doesnt matter whether one is right or wrong: What matters is how much money one makes when right…
‘Yeh mera deewanapan hai..’: Dilip Kumar’s incomparable acting, inspiring life
By Vikas Datta Debuting on screen in British India, appearing in some of Indian cinema’s greatest classics and still present — over eight decades later — in the hearts of a vast multitude of fans…
My Padmavati: Rajasthan’s shame and a community’s misplaced valour
By Rashmi Saksena My Padmavati is a four-year-old in rural India, possibly in the desert state of Rajasthan. She is lucky to be alive. She has escaped sex-selective abortion and female infanticide. But her fight…
Reading replays: How some books always remain on our mind
By Vikas Datta There are many habits of fervently compulsive readers that can bemuse people around them, but among the most puzzling for their parents and friends would be to see them unwilling to let…
Did Koyna quake set trend of opposing hydro projects?
By Arun Bapat December 11 is the 50th anniversary of the Koyna earthquake. The tremor claimed 199 lives and caused minor damage to the Koyna dam in Maharashtra and some houses in its vicinity –…
Three mosques: Muslim generosity would electrify Hindu masses
By Saeed Naqvi The 25th anniversary of the Babri Masjid demolition has rekindled debate: Why was it demolished, historical wrongs, Mandal Commission inviting a Mandir backlash, Hindu yearning for a Ram temple and so on….
Is the BJP nervous about Gujarat?
By Amulya Ganguli Normally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) shouldn’t have any worries about the election results in Gujarat. It is Narendra Modi’s home state and the party has been in power there for more…
Afforestation the key to clearing Delhi’s smog
By R. Gopalaswami Deep forests surrounding the city complemented by emission control measures provide the complete answer to Delhi’s air pollution. The city’s levels of air pollution are once again as dangerous as they are…
Road laying to be fast-tracked: Gadkari
Lucknow, Dec 8 (IANS) Union Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari on Friday made a strong pitch for fast-paced laying of roads, saying that if the six lakh villages in the country are linked…
India losing comparative advantage in leading export sectors
By Amit Kapoor & Chirag Yadav In a massive relief to Indian exporters, the government announced liberal incentives of Rs 8,450 crore ($1.3 billion) in its mid-term review of the five-year foreign trade policy (FTP)…
Things you can do at home, such as nuclear fission
By Nury Vittachi Sometimes I order weird stuff from Amazon and tick “same-day delivery” just to make Jeff Bezos swear. “@#$%! Someone wants the life-sized big foot statue! Get the extra-large drone!” We nobodies have…
Seeing through the smog: Role of subsidies in pushing for ‘clean’ or ‘dirty’ energy economy:
By Peter Wooders & Vibhuti Garg With a rising population and fast-growing economy, energy demand in India is increasing rapidly. Is the country embarking upon a clean energy or a fossil fuel-dependent approach to meet…
Bleak prospects for Indian economy for next few quarters
By Amit Kapoor The much-awaited second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) figures were released last week. It must have come as a relief to the Modi government that economic growth is finally on the upswing….
At 70, Indian Navy is self-reliant, shipshape
By Commodore Srikant Kesnur Navy Day this year is a good occasion to reflect on its journey and evaluate its progress over the last 70 years. The Indian Navy was an exceedingly small force at…
Mirror or game? A philosopher’s quest to gauge language’s reality and limits
By Vikas Datta One thing that exalts the human above all other sentient creatures is its capability for speech, facilitated by language that is a medium of communication, of expression, of representation and so on….
Raise a toast, Trump is all for this climate treaty
By Rajendra Shende George Bernard Shaw once said that “England and America are two countries separated by the same language”. When the UN conference on the Montreal Protocol on the substances that deplete the ozone…
BJP needs to rein in the Hindutva hotheads
By Amulya Ganguli The rise in the growth rate to the moderately satisfactory 6.3 per cent from the depressingly low 5.7 per cent is good news for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at a time…
If not now then when? Living the Great Indian Dream
By Saket Suman There’s talk that the country has lost track and is headed in a direction not envisaged by those who fought for our independence from colonial rule. Those growing up today are faced…