2019
India is hardly Israel: Balakot was a major strategic shift, but Israel’s defence culture differs markedly from ours
After the air strikes on Balakot which marked a major strategic shift in the Indian state’s response to terror, political comparisons with Israel have followed. For those advocating a more muscular response to cross-border terrorism, Israel has long been the holy grail. So, almost immediately after the Indian Air Force strikes on the Jaish-e-Muhammad training […..]
‘If global fight against AIDS, TB and malaria is going to be won, it has to be won in India’
Last month the government hosted a preparatory international meeting for the replenishment of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, which is seeking to raise $14 billion for funding health systems globally over the next three years. Peter Sands, Executive Director of the Global Fund,spoke to Nalin Mehta on the issue: What […..]
‘India choosing to benchmark itself on PISA a massive signal … it says India wants to be measured globally’
India recently announced that in 2021 it will be rejoining the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), which tests performance of 15-year-old schoolchildren in mathematics, science and reading. India withdrew from this global measurement system administered by Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2009. Junaid Ahmad, World Bank’s Country Director in India, spoke […..]
Crossing the Rubicon: IAF air strikes in Pakistan mark a paradigm shift in India’s strategic calculus
When Julius Caesar’s 13th Legion crossed the Rubicon river in northern Italy in 49BC, despite explicit orders not to do so from the Roman Senate, he crossed what was previously considered an unshakeable military and political red line. Caesar’s epigraphic words at that risky juncture – ‘alea iacta est’ (the die has been cast) – […..]
‘Rajya Sabha should act as a caution but not have ability to veto … Naveen Patnaik has cleverly played BJP and Congress in Odisha’
Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda was a four-time MP who served as member of several parliamentary standing committees before quitting Biju Janata Dal and his Lok Sabha seat of Kendrapara after differences with Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik. The author of ‘Lutyen’s Maverick’, he spoke to Nalin Mehta on ideas for reforming Parliament and prospects of forming a new party […..]
Easy to talk war on TV, but knee-jerk is not the answer
Not since Mumbai’s 26/11 has the nation been so united in its horror and anger at a terrorist attack as by the brutality at Pulwama. The sheer scale of the loss and the macabre images of destruction at the Pampore-Letapore section of the Srinagar-Jammu highway have so seared India’s collective consciousness that it simply cannot […..]
Mamata’s power play: SC order on CBI standoff in Bengal gives face saver to both BJP and Mamata
Not since when Delhi LG Najeeb Jung sent hot parathas to a protesting Arvind Kejriwal as the latter signed chief ministerial files on the street and huddled under a quilt outside Delhi’s Rail Bhavan in 2014, has a political dharna by a state chief minister garnered so much national air-time. Irrespective of which side of […..]
