- In the Hindu, MK Narayan explains why India will have to tread carefully on the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month.
- In the Indian Express, Prabhat Patnaik reflects on how Gandhi’s inclusive nationalism was different from the nationalism of the West, which was imperialist and fuelled by the idea of “enemies within”.
- Soumya Kanti Ghosh, writing in Mint, welcomes the Reserve Bank of India’s rate cut but doubts it will spur demand.
- Himadri Bhattacharya, writing in the Hindu BusinessLine, echoes this concern – lower rates and fiscal stimulus alone will not be enough to spur growth.
- As the government mulls using facial recognition technology, Debkumar Mitra points out in the Economic Times that artificial intelligence is not free of bias.
- In the Guardian, Jonathan Freedland on how Brexit threatens a hard-won peace in Ireland.
- Also in the Guardian, Chika Ungiwe shifts focus from Greta Thunberg to the inspiring young climate activists in the developing world.
- Jane Mayer, writing for the New Yorker, investigates how a conservative dark money group created the discredited conspiracy theory about Democrat leader Joe Biden and Ukraine that might now lead to United President Donald Trump’s impeachment.
- Amid an international trend towards greater repression, Uzbekistan, under its new president, is slowly expanding freedoms, writes Navbahor Imamova in the Atlantic.
- Zadie Smith mounts a defence of fiction in the New York Review of Books.
Reading
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1
‘Send millions of Indian peasants to Brazil to eradicate poverty and starvation’
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2
Why is India’s middle class so silent about the slowing economy?
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3
Foxconn halts equipment, manpower from China to Indian iPhone factories
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4
‘A subject that is guaranteed to make you universally disliked’: Pankaj Mishra on writing about Gaza
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5
The murky, unregulated world of psychological counselling in India
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6
The close and steadfast friendship between Soumitra Chatterjee and Uttam Kumar
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7
The art of opium: How the intoxicating drug and its trade captivated artists
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8
Readers’ comments: TM Krishna’s concerns are valid but he misses uniqueness of Carnatic music
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9
The story of how one family from Maharashtra built a thriving Hindustani music scene in Kanpur
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10
Sunday book pick: Myths and truths of man in Iris Murdoch’s ungovernable novel ‘The Sea, The Sea’