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The FinePrint

Suranjan Das, one of IAF’s first Experimental Test Pilots who evaluated all jets for 20 years

Suranjan Das trod a road not travelled by any IAF pilot. His contribution to HF-24 Marut, India’s first homegrown fighter aircraft, was immense.

‘Sold goats to buy him a phone’: How 31 youth from 1 Bihar village were nabbed for cybercrime

Amid the scrubby farmlands of Thalpos village in Nawada, dozens of youth used their smartphones to run a cybercrime enterprise until the police swooped in. What went wrong here?

One teaspoon twice a day — Indians opting for ‘urine therapy’ to ‘cure’ cancer, Covid

India is the land of gharelu nuskhe and DIY treatments. But some are going truly DIY by drinking their own urine. Move over gaumutra.

Robert Kennedy’s politics was almost Ambedkarite. The world needs leaders like him today

In the past, India had leaders who shared the many qualities of Kennedy – from B.R. Ambedkar, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, to P.V. Narasimha Rao.

Ode to a powerful beast – What flying the Chetak is like at the daunting heights of Himalayas

For six decades now, the Chetak has been the backbone of the rotary wing fleets of the three military Services, BSF, many state governments and private aviation companies.

The Hindu Right is turning against the US, but India needs to see reality over rhetoric

Until a few years ago, the Hindu Right was largely pro-US. Now, Joe Biden is seen as antagonistic — if not to India, then to the sort of India that Modi’s supporters want to create.

Defunct ATM cards, food shortages: Not just Ukraine, Indian students in Russia also hit by war

Indian students living in Russia are feeling the pinch of the international sanctions stemming from their host country’s invasion of Ukraine, but most are staying put.

Meena Kumari — the ‘ajeeb dastan’ Bollywood actor who never needed glycerin to shed tears

For someone who won seven trophies—Filmfare, BFJA, Shama-Sushma awards— choosing Meena Kumari's best five films was tough. But here's our pick.

Instead of obsessing about LAC wastelands, India must deal with the real threat — China

Fond dreams of capturing Aksai Chin need to be replaced with clear-eyed thinking on the borders India considers worth fighting for, and what is needed to defend them.

Russia may be firing hypersonic missiles in Ukraine, but there’s some hot air in the hype

Hypersonic missiles are all the buzz in defence technology, and India is developing them too, but is the bombastic rhetoric around their ‘invincibility’ justified?

On Camera

Postcards from Hyderabad—stories Europeans told about the city

For all their colonial underpinnings, postcards from Hyderabad also inadvertently preserve a trace of local memory: a glimpse of a street, a face, a forgotten name.

Navigating Trump’s tariffs is no child’s play. Indian toymakers are losing out on orders, enquiries

Indian toymakers are now exploring new markets, but they want govt to negotiate a trade deal with US soon, introduce incentives and subsidies to make the industry more competitive.

What is Project Sudarshan Chakra, announced by Modi from ramparts of Red Fort

The project is meant to be a ‘protective shield that will keep expanding’, the PM said. It is on the lines of the ‘Golden Dome’ announced by Trump, it is learnt.

War of IAF, PAF doctrines: As Pakistan obsesses over numbers, India embraces risk, wins

Now that both IAF and PAF have made formal claims of having shot down the other’s aircraft in the 87-hour war in May, we can ask a larger question: do such numbers really matter?