Worldcrunch
The leaders of Russia, India and China were all smiles as they posed for a photo on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit, with their thoughts on the “absent” Donald Trump. The battle for world order in the 21st century captured in a single photo.
India, which is one of the largest producers of cotton, has to now accept US cotton under geopolitical pressure and has to sacrifice her cotton farmers for potential gains with the Trump administration.
Narendra Modi has officially overtaken Indira Gandhi to become India’s second longest-serving prime minister. But comparisons with the celebrated leader fall short: Modi’s centralized rule lacks the decisive leadership, democratic instincts, and historic legacy she ultimately commanded.
Amid the India-Pakistan conflict in May, Hyderabad’s famous Karachi Bakery — named after the founder’s hometown, which is in present-day Pakistan — was vandalized. Why is this well-loved Indian chain being villainized?
While the party of India’s Prime Minister came on top on the general elections, it failed to win an outright majority at the lower house. This means Modi will have to form a coalition government for the first time and learn how to work with others.
It is hard to reconcile the long list of brutalities and a government validating hate toward its Muslim minority. But the leaders are not the country. Elections are when people get to choose new ones.
The diplomatic showdown between India and Canada continues to worsen, the latest sign of the rising power of former mid-level nations that increasingly are asserting themselves in the face of Western dominance.
The U.S. and Europe are seeking to rival China by launching a huge joint project. Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States will also play a key role – because the battle for world domination is not being fought on China’s doorstep, but in the Middle East.
The culture of Silicon Valley was once associated with social liberalism and tolerance. However, the tech community worldwide, from moguls such as Elon Musk or Peter Thiel, to IT professionals in Poland, and self-described OSINT users in India, is showing signs of a noted right-wing shift.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was received warmly in the U.S. and in France — visits which must have provoked some jealousy in Turkey, where President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who faces many of the same anti-democratic criticisms as Modi, can’t expect the same kind of red-carpet welcome in Washington.
India goes to the polls next year, with a united opposition hoping to unseat Prime Minister Modi after 10 years in power. Mallikarjun Kharge, who may be the best candidate, is from India’s “lowest” caste system.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s triumph during his state visit to the U.S. is part of a well-honed strategy of realpolitik and geo-economic opportunism. How the West responds says a lot about where the world is heading.
Female travel agents are luring financially weak women from villages to send them to the Gulf nations as domestic workers and caretakers where abuse is the norm!
Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India on this day in 2014, after his party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), won a majority in the Indian general election. What were Modi’s main promises during his election campaign? Narendra Modi campaigned on a platform of economic growth, job creation, and improving infrastructure in India. He […]
Bollywood film The Kerala Story has done huge numbers at the Indian box office after public support by Hindu nationalist parties. But the film is facing claims it is Islamophobic propaganda that peddles conspiracy theories about Muslims.
The Modi government’s attempts to censor the media and intimidate independent journalism pose a grave danger to Indian democracy.
Britain has a new prime minister of Indian origin, Rishi Sunak. In India, Muslims are regularly stigmatized and excluded from public life. Sunak taking the UK’s top job is a proud moment, but it should also be a moment for introspection.
Op-Ed INDIA — I don’t watch many Netflix programs, but a series recommended by my cousin has struck me like a bolt of lightning. Called How to Become a Tyrant, it presents what it calls “a playbook for absolute power.” Much of it is tongue-in-cheek, yet it’s based on the actual tactics and strategies used by Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin, Mao Zedong, Muammar Gaddafi, Kim Il-sung, Idi Amin and Saddam Hussein. So if you take it seriously, it tells you what you must do if you aspire to be India’s tanashah. And the remarkable thing is it feels uncannily like […]
The government of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi sets off youth groups to enforce lockdowns and wants to control the ‘demand’ for oxygen cylinders.
-Analysis- NEW DELHI — In a discussion on NDTV about the contents of the third tranche of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”s stimulus package for the economy, Yogendra Yadav, one of India’s most respected psephologists, called it “entertainment.” Yadav is a gentle human being who goes out of his way to avoid giving offense, above all on TV. So “entertainment” was the most civilized word he could think of. I will be a little more blunt. Not just the third tranche, but the entire “stimulus package” advertised by Modi on May 12 is a gigantic confidence trick being played upon a […]
The coronavirus crisis could reshape how the country’s leadership goes about its business.
Welcome to Monday, where Modi loses a key state after COVID backlash, a different cryptocurrency record is broken and the ancient Colosseum gets a high-tech remodeling. Warsaw-based daily Gazeta Wyborcza also looks at how Poland’s long-time right-wing leader Jarosław Kaczyńsk may be losing his grip on power. • Modi’s ruling party loses key state amid […]
Is this a movement of women from India’s liberal campuses against a new citizenship law targeting the country’s Muslim minority? Or does it run much deeper?
The Mahatma’s universalism is far from Modi sectarian-nationalist approach. But it’s more than just a matter of international branding for the Prime Minister.
It’s taken the powerful prime minister just 100 days into his second term to compromise the federation’s basic foundation.
There has been an obvious and unnerving crackdown on dissenting voices in the weeks since Narendra Modi began his new term as prime minister.
-Essay- NEW DELHI — I’m convinced Prime Minister Narendra Modi and I have one thing in common: We both practice our version of yoga regularly and desperately want to be yogis. Sure, the prime minister encouraged the United Nations to declare June 21 as International Yoga Day and millions of Indians watch videos of Modi’s animated self perfectly executing various asanas, while I haven’t even managed to convince my husband to join me in a surya namaskar (sun salutation). Still, I believe Modi and I are kindred yoga spirits. After perusing many videos and images of the prime minister doing […]
As India votes in national elections, manual scavengers are trying to overcome caste stigma and prejudice.
Political Scientist Soner Cagaptay once dubbed Recep Tayyip Erdogan the “inventor of 21st-century populism.” There may be some truth to that, especially given the way the Turkish president’s style of leadership has quickly spread in recent years. But as we progress further into the millennium, it’s also clear that populism has evolved. Those with a […]
The full plunge of Priyanka Gandhi into Indian politics, alongside brother Rahul, is a whole new challenge for President Narendra Modi ahead of this spring’s general elections.
In the West, the era of grand, strategic pacts between nation-states seems to have come and gone. But in Asia, the trend may just be catching on.
MUMBAI — They say that human memory tends to shut out trauma. But the pain caused by the attack 10 years ago on Mumbai will always be difficult to forget. What happened on November 26, 2008 was an act of pure terrorism: Defenseless civilians sought out and gunned down over three days in the glare of national television. For this reason, the “26/11” incident has been a watershed in India’s attitudes towards terrorism. It hardened the country’s attitude towards terrorists and militants of all stripes. Further, it has made any kind of a dialogue process with Islamabad difficult, given how […]
The current challenge in rural electrification is not just connecting households, but providing sufficient, affordable and high-quality supply.
-Analysis- BENGALURU — The patient was the Indian economy. Among the 176 countries that have been ranked by Transparency International on a scale from 100 (very clean) to zero (highly corrupt), India ranks in the second half of the list at 79, with illegal money of sizeable proportions. The central government, which was elected on the promise of a cleaner government, is worried about coming to power again. With the impending election two years away, it had to do something drastic: a much-dreaded surgery with uncertain consequences. That was the November 2016 decision of removing Rs 500 and Rs 1000 […]
For the first time since India established diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992, an Indian prime minister traveled to Israel. Narendra Modi’s historic three-day visit began today in Tel Aviv, where Benjamin Netanyahu personally welcomed him at Ben Gurion airport — a rare airport greeting from the Israeli prime minister. The airport pickup signifies the considerable elevation at which Indian-Israeli relations have been lifted to. The Asian giant has traditionally walked a tightrope between Israel and Muslim-majority nations like Saudi Arabia and Iran, which have supplied it oil. India has also long lent support to the Palestinian cause, particularly under […]
The western state of Maharashtra, home of Mumbai and the biggest regional economy of India, announced this month that it will waive farmer loans worth 1,140 billion rupees, or nearly $18 billion. The June 12 measure will leave only 800 billion rupees, or about $12 billion, in the state’s coffers until the end of the […]
India is a nation both eminently democratic and full of poor people. What can Mexicans learn from changes happening there?
-Analysis- It was just a passing reference at Monday’s White House briefing: Press Secretary Sean Spicer mentioned that U.S. President Donald Trump had called to congratulate Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his party’s recent victory in state assembly elections. After all, the Indian leader had plenty to celebrate. His Bharatiya Janata Party was able […]
India’s startling announcement last month to swap out most banknotes in circulation — possibly the biggest currency change in decades anywhere in the world — went largely unnoticed outside the country. It was Nov. 8 and most people were captivated by a little election taking place on the other side of the planet. But the […]
If foreign endorsements are any reflection of the quality of the U.S. presidential campaign, we are most certainly doomed. Democrat Bernie Sanders, who is facing a do-or-die party primary in California on June 7, got the helpful support of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The Latin American leader, himself facing angry calls for his ouster, has […]