- India was once a rising global power. But now is it back to being another flailing Third World economy with a per capita income that is half of its tiny southern neighbour, Sri Lanka, says Shekhar Gupta in the Print.
- The question isn’t whether public sector banks should be big or small. It is: do we need public sector banks, writes D Subbarao in the Indian Express.
- For Narendra Modi, the Indian Space Research Organisation’s achievements are of the same order as miracles worked by India’s mythical ancients, writes Mukul Kesavan in the Telegraph.
- On Kashmir, New Delhi’s actions have been welcomed domestically, but Narendra Modi’s government will have a hard time selling its message abroad, argues Sadanand Dhume in the Atlantic.
- Can there sometimes be a link between environmentalism and racism? Elizabeth Chatterjee explores the question in the London Review of Books blog.
- Two centuries before Einstein, Hume recognised that universal time, independent of an observer’s viewpoint, doesn’t exist, writes Matias Slavov in Aeon.
- In the New York Times magazine, Ronen Bergman and Mark Mazzetti write about the secret history of the push to attack Iran amongst hawks in Israel and the United States.
- The political chaos in Britain is actually a sign that its unwritten constitution is working fine, argues Tom McTague in the Atlantic.
- Scientists use quantum mechanics all the time. But they still don’t understand it. Sean Carrol unwraps the conundrum in the New York Times.
- The warmer it gets, the more we use air conditioning. The more we use air conditioning, the warmer it gets. Is there any way out of this trap? Stephen Buranyi explores in the Guardian.
Reading
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1
A Hindu festival called Christmas: Encounters between a non-practising Hindu and Roman Catholicism
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2
‘Baby John’ review: What a way to end the year
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3
The best films we watched in 2024
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4
‘The Surti is a rangila’: In her memoir, a former IAS officer reflects on her posting in Surat
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5
An 83-year-old short story by Jorge Luis Borges portends a bleak future for the internet
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6
‘Fear, fear and only fear’: Muslims in Sambhal are on edge as government turns against them
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7
In Bangladesh, a concert shows how creative freedom could transform the beleaguered nation
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8
Bapsi Sidhwa, one of Pakistan’s most acclaimed writers, dies at 86
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9
How petha became a part of Indian Christmas
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10
‘Our shadows drag us back’: Poems by 2024 Sahitya Akademi Yuva Puraskar winner Ramesh Karthik Nayak