The story in India in many ways is not that dramatically different from what we are seeing on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp around the world. Clearly there is a lot of appetite for the core premise of what these platforms offer. In the case of...
Party of Ram: BJP has won the culture war on Ram. Time now to focus on the economy
It’s the death of the republic, lamented one of the few liberals on my school alumni WhatsApp group. As the imagery of Prime Minister Narendra Modi presiding, like a Hindu suratrana, over the bhumi-pujan of the new Ram temple in Ayodhya beamed...
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Digital India, Google, Apple and the future
On a visit to India, Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella speaks exclusively to TOI Online’s Executive Editor, Nalin Mehta. Watch him talk about the future of technology, Digital India and, importantly, how Microsoft is different from Apple...
Nalin Mehta’s election travelogue series for Times Group
Election with Times, which was simulcast across TOI and Times Now and Mirror Now across several elections (Gujarat 2017, Karnataka 2018, Madhya Pradesh 2018, Chhattisgarh 2018, Rajasthan 2018, Lok Sabha 2019)
Dabang kaun: Being macho in UP
Machismo has always had political currency in UP, the original birthplace of terms like ‘dabang’, ‘bahubali’ and the utterly untranslatable ‘varchasv ki larhai’. It lies at the heart of Akhilesh Yadav’s 2017 makeover, as epitomised by his “let’s...
Don’t under-estimate BSP 3.0
The big elephant statues stand forlorn in the afternoon heat. It’s the height of the election campaign but there isn’t a soul out to see them or the huge four-sided Brahma-like statue of Mayawati that stands as the centerpiece of BSP’s imposing...
UP’s firewall seats
29 assembly constituencies have returned the same party to power through the 2002, 2007 and 2012. What is special about them is that they make up core party bastions that are yet to be breached and any change here in 2017 would reflect a wider...
BJP can make Ram Temple if it wins UP: Katiyar
BJP’s Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Katiyar is founder president of Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s youth wing, Bajrang Dal, and has been a long-time advocate of building a Ram temple in Ayodhya. He spoke to Nalin Mehta and Sanjeev Singh about BJP’s electoral...
Muslims in quandary over SP, BSP
Kalraj Mishra is Union cabinet minister for micro, small and medium enterprises and BJP MP from Deoria, Uttar Pradesh. With UP’s voters set to cast their votes in the state’s fourth phase of voting on February 23, he spoke to Nalin Mehta and...