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Book Excerpts

Amartya Sen & Jean Drèze are Left heroes but it would be wrong to call them simple statists

Amartya Sen’s emphatic plea for liberating Indian entrepreneurship has not received attention. Neither has Jean Drèze’s concerns over a hostile state.

Why the police class of 1983 was feared by Mumbai’s underworld

In the late 1980s, there was only one destination of choice for ambitious, young policemen: Mumbai. And 90 cadets from the infamous Nashik 1983 batch was posted there.

Expensive rabbits, men as Geishas, honeymoon fashion: Seeing Japan through Pico Iyer’s eyes

Author Pico Iyer spent 32 years in Japan. In his book, ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Japan’, he gives tiny insights into Japanese culture, observations, conversations and anecdotes.

How Arakan mosque symbolising Muslim-Buddhist unity was destroyed to rewrite Myanmar history

Habiburahman is a Rohingya who escaped detention, torture and persecution in Myanmar on a boat. He recounts how the Rohingya identity was erased.

Trying to define Bhagavadgita through narrow silos is a sterile attempt, at best

Books and papers are still being written on the Bhagavadgita, subjecting it to analysis and vivisection.

US idea that India and China must share blame for heating earth is environmental colonialism

US WRI data itself shows India and China cannot be held responsible even for a single kg of carbon dioxide or methane accumulating in the earth’s atmosphere.

Burma was once toast of the world. Now, it is on list of top 10 places to avoid

The cost of Burma, now Myanmar’s withdrawal from the world has been material and intellectual impoverishment on a scale unmatched in Asia.

India only cares about national interest. And Nepal has been at the receiving end of it

India finds its ‘national interest’ much more important than democracy or cordial relations with a neighbour like Nepal.

While Osama was trying to convince supporters he was alive, Zarqawi declared Islamic State

From Abbottabad, Osama bin Laden told his followers he was well, but privately was obsessed with his inability to rein in Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

‘Screw it, we’ll do it’: This is how Flipkart decided to sell phones online

Flipkart’s mobile phones category went live in early 2010. The first order came in shortly.

On Camera

The court is not Rahul Gandhi’s uncle. Its job is to protect rights, not preach

Which humanitarian crisis should be prioritised, which words are ‘simple’ enough to avoid hurt feelings, or who is a ‘true Indian’, are not questions warranting court input.

BJP MPs go full throttle against Trump even as govt hails enduring India-US ties amid tariff tension

New Delhi: While the Indian government has made a measured response to the 25 percent trade tariff imposed by Donald Trump, many in the BJP...

Trump feared India could arm BrahMos with nuclear warhead to target Pakistan in Op Sindoor—WSJ report

New Delhi: During Operation Sindoor, the United States which had received intelligence suggesting that India had launched BrahMos cruise missiles to strike targets inside...

Pakistan, Dhaka have played Washington well. Back home, Modi ecosystem has an inner conflict

To protect ourselves from Trumpian diplomacy, first we must introspect the bipolarity within our establishment discourse.