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The FinePrint

Ratnagiri to Ramanathapuram—engineers, teachers, fishermen are ASI’s unsung warriors

Without formal training or funding, they have braved rugged terrain, deciphered ancient scripts and uncovered hidden treasures — from the Sundarban to the Aravallis.

Mahayuti or MVA? Why each of the six parties want the other five down in Maharashtra polls

Mahayuti vs Maha Vikas Aghadi is the dominant theme in the Maharashtra Assembly election. Scratch the surface and you find how the six parties are ranged against each other.

Sanskrit to satellites, embassies in Delhi are using culture to show ties, get close to India

With major players engaged in ‘hard’ diplomacy, smaller embassies like Australia, Lithuania, Switzerland and others are rushing to fill the gaps with soft diplomacy.

Andhra Vedic institute’s time has come—IIT to DRDO and ISRO partnerships, govt grants

Established by Vedic scholar ABS Sastry in 1999, SRIVT in Guntur is now a recognised PhD centre for several IITs. Sastry says he is in talks with BITS to develop courses for future engineers and scientists.

Trump unpredictable, Modi dependable? On trade, it’s just the opposite

The Modi government must reflect on the reputation it is building for India. It is fueling a perception of unpredictability.

Why is it fashionable to deride historians? The answer lies outside academia

The inaccessible, ideologically motivated historian is a straw man, a largely artificial construct used to discredit history writing itself.

The Great Indian Sanitation Scam. General castes bag govt jobs, Valmikis do the work

Across India, proxy, ‘badli’, or ‘ewaj’ work is rampant in sanitation jobs. ‘They want our jobs but they don’t want to do our jobs.’

Rajasthan’s elderly are victims of ‘digital murder’. eKYC gaps leave lakhs without pension

Digital verification issues are excluding Rajasthan’s elderly and disabled from pensions, with lakhs incorrectly declared ‘dead’ or missing. There’s an embarrassing KYC-shaped hole in Digital India.

Jharkhand’s Adivasis, beyond poll maths. A long struggle for land & identity, a ‘disappearing’ people

'There will soon be a day when tribals are found only in museums,' says an Adivasi youth. As polls near, anxieties over an existential threat to tribal identity rears its head again.

After UPSC, India’s coaching industry has found a new gold rush—judicial services

With law schools churning out more graduates than ever, the competition to become a judge in India’s lower courts and tribunals has heated up. The coaching industry is cashing in.

On Camera

Can Syria’s tiny Druze minority survive West Asia’s new storms? There’s little hope

Indians see West Asia as one uninterrupted wash of Islam, but the reality is more complex. For the Druze, support from Israel—where they are a recognised minority—is now critical.

India-US set to ink mini trade deal soon, reach understanding on agricultural & dairy products

Mini deal will likely see no cut in 10% baseline tariff on Indian exports announced by Trump on 2 April, it is learnt, but additional 26% tariffs are set to be reduced.

Not just AK-203, India & Russia to jointly manufacture AK-19 and PPK-20 for domestic use and export 

India-Russia JV is also racing to deliver 7,000 more AK-203 assault rifles by 15 Aug. These are currently being made with 50% indigenisation and this will surge to 100% by 31 December.

Strategic partner one day, tactical nightmare the next: India’s learning Trumplomacy the hard way

Public, loud, upfront, filled with impropriety and high praise sometimes laced with insults. This is what we call Trumplomacy. But the larger objective is the same: American supremacy.