- In the Indian Express, Meeran Chadha Borwanka explains why the appointment of Rakesh Asthana as new Delhi Police chief is brazen overreach by the Union government.
- During the pandemic, a new variant of capitalism has emerged, argues Larry Elliot in the Guardian.
- There is a strategic paralysis in Delhi with respect to Afghanistan, even as other strategic challenges are growing, writes Vivek Katju in the Hindustan Times.
- In Mint, Renu Yadav explains how India’s real estate law lets down home buyers.
- When democratically elected governments cease to be held accountable by a society weakened by poor health, low morale and joblessness, demagogues are prone to blindness and ineptitude. That is how democracies die, explains John Keane in the Indian Express.
- In Capital Daily, Tori Marlan writes about an Australian man who has gone for two decades without money.
- In the New Left Review, Cedric Durand asks how far has new American president Joe Biden broken with neoliberalism.
- China was behind India in the early 1950s. But, explains Adam Tooze in his newsletter, in less than three decades, it had raced ahead on human development. So much so that the World Bank in 1983, quite presciently, predicted the Chinese economic boom.
- As Bangladeshi actor Azmeri Haque Badhon introduced the jamdani sari to Cannes, in the Indian Express Paromita Chakrabarti looks at the garment’s history in South Asia.
- Why is English spelling so weird and unpredictable? Don’t blame the mix of languages; look to quirks of timing and technology, explains Arika Okrent in in the Aeon.
Reading
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1
Nine lakh people in Assam were denied Aadhaar for years. It turned out to be a mistake
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2
October nonfiction: A new book by Ramchandra Guha and five other works on India’s cultural legacy
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3
Human sacrifice, blood offerings, greed for gold: Why the 1970s Manwat murders continue to shock
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4
Ramachandra Guha: Indians must hold our government to account for aiding Israel’s murderous Gaza war
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5
As a fighter and a peace broker, an Indian played a memorable role in Indonesia’s freedom struggle
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6
‘Do we perceive the world or do we think it?’ Sundar Sarukkai on thinking in philosophy
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7
In a new book, Devdutt Pattanaik argues that the Harappan civilisation persists in our memories
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8
In Ladakh, a massive energy project is shrouded in mystery
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9
US President Joe Biden cautions Israel against attacking Iranian oil fields, nuclear sites
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10
Why Congress-ruled Himachal Pradesh is seeing a Hindutva surge