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AUKUS Focus

AUKUS Focus

UK, US, and Australia have signed a submarine deal. But what is Australia's gamble here? Is this a need or a want for the country?

Sunak Strikes a Deal

Sunak Strikes a Deal

The Northern Ireland puzzle may have been put to rest momentarily with the Windsor Framework. Here's a look at what's at stake as news of the new deal breaks.

Thatcher For Today

Thatcher For Today

Margaret Thatcher’s economic policies may not have been as greatly hated by peers or deemed unsuitable for the time had her term been set in the current period. Here’s looking back at the Iron Lady’s days in power.

Choice and Life

Choice and Life

A democratic idea of choice gets pitted against a massive essence such as that of life in the debate over abortion rights

Watching from Afar

Watching from Afar

Europe is closely observing the American election this year. It does not take much to realize that the US-EU relation has been dwindling owing to Trump’s choice of adjectives for the region’s leaders and policies, and the overall lack of consensus over key issues like climate change and

Secularism, Politics, and Everything In-between

Secularism, Politics, and Everything In-between

France’s secularism, laicite as it’s called, prohibits the public expression of religion. Democratic rights also include that to blaspheme. So, it wasn’t out of context or an act of destruction when Samuel Paty displayed controversial cartoons to prove this point in his module on freedom of expression.

A Luck-Bound Deterrence

A Luck-Bound Deterrence

If the fiasco of Hiroshima and Nagasaki weren’t enough to steer the world’s attention towards the damage that nuclear weapons could do and the scale of such damage, the 45 years that followed should have served that purpose. The Cold War between the US and erstwhile-USSR (a term

Coups for the Monarchy

Coups for the Monarchy

Britain has a monarch. So does Thailand. But, there’s a key difference between the two which if ignored makes our reading of the two countries drastically misinformed. While the UK’s monarch, the Queen, is its titular head, in Thailand, the story is on the contrary. The latter’s

A Willingness to Return

A Willingness to Return

History lessons often pose students and inquisitive adults alike with a perennial question – ‘why are we learning details about events that happened centuries ago, ones that hold no significance today?’ The simplest answer to these questions goes somewhat along the lines of not repeating the same mistakes as before. We’

Double Whammy for Russia

Double Whammy for Russia

Alexei Navalny and Alexander Lukashenko – these men are at the centre of all focus that Russia receives today. Navalny is nothing like Lukashenko. The latter is an incumbent in his country while the first, an outlaw where he sought to emerge as a political opponent. Lukashenko is ‘friend’ to Putin

Far from Ataturk

Far from Ataturk

Turkey’s authoritarian trails had always been there – but, Erdoğan’s Turkey is not, in any measure, like Ataturk’s. This does not come as a shocking revelation today. If the latter’s reformism was pro-Europe and secular, the former upholds a revision of the country based on pan-Islamism. It’

The Gyeonggi Pay Model

The Gyeonggi Pay Model

If flattening the COVID-19 curve is our concern now, what will linger even beyond New Year’s Eve is another pro-longed struggle for economic recovery. Everybody agrees that an inclusive and sustainable solution must be brought to the fore. With millions losing their jobs and with it, their livelihoods, and

To Trust or Not to Trust

To Trust or Not to Trust

“To put it simply, companies that once were scrappy, underdog start-ups that challenged the status quo have become the kinds of monopolies we last saw in the era of oil barons and railroad tycoons” – this is how the U.S. House Judiciary Committee perceives Big Tech. The age of digital

Science is No Tool for Politics

Science is No Tool for Politics

Putin has gone on record to say that his close relatives, colleagues, and others have each gotten a dose of the Russian vaccine, Sputnik V. Named in commemoration of the country’s earlier win in a wholly different race, the vaccine was revealed to be successful on August 11. Nearly

Checkmate in the Indo-Pacific

Checkmate in the Indo-Pacific

China’s expansionism is no new news. It’s been taking advantage of the COVID-19 situation, having tackled it early on. While the other countries are still slowly traversing up the ladder to normalcy, encountering some falls along the way, the ‘Wolf-Warrior’ diplomats in Asia have been leaving no stone

A Murky Breakup on the Cards

A Murky Breakup on the Cards

The Britain-EU breakup may not be the only one that we would be fortunate enough to witness. It isn’t difficult to imagine a United Kingdom no longer ‘united’ – the signs are there, more than visible to us. Whether this would be for better or worse can be reserved for

Blow the Whistle Out Loud

Blow the Whistle Out Loud

A prodigious teen hacker who found himself in the midst of a fugitive life early on; a young man who wore multiple pantomimic attires to escape the paparazzi eyes that followed him in his fame; a ‘cypher-punk’ well hated by everybody in the political landscape – surely, describing Julian Assange is

What’s Brewing on our East?

What’s Brewing on our East?

The Armenia-Azerbaijan tug over the Nagorno-Karabakh region has been a periodic occurrence, yet it had never turned as grave as in the past few days. The small enclave between Armenia and Azerbaijan has become a geopolitical battleground not just for these countries, but also for Turkey and Russia. We cannot

Scarce Choice: No worthy candidates in this year’s US election

Scarce Choice: No worthy candidates in this year’s US election

On 30th of September, we saw the first Presidential debates happen – it was an hour and thirty-nine minutes long, but little was exchanged that proves one opponent worthy over the other. As is already being propagated in a meme-heavy manner, it was a show between sleaze and slumber. Given the

COVID-19 - Should you wear a mask?

COVID-19 - Should you wear a mask?

I never really intended to write this, but... once upon a time, I had a facebook friend. She seems to have unfriended me when we got into a kind of heated argument on Facebook in one of her public posts (see the original post here) over the effects and necessity

Universal Basic Income

Universal Basic Income

Why do we need a European Universal Basic Income? The landscape of jobs is shifting. More and more tasks can be done by robots leading to less positions in repetitive low skilled work sectors. At the same time most countries have increasing populations. While education is on a rise too,

Feel European

Feel European

It is rather important for Europeans to shift their mindset from a feeling of being German, Spanish, Danish, Dutch or similar to feeling European at first regard. Why is that? Europe often suffers from not identifying with Europe enough. In times of economical difficulties, this time around sparked by the

Europe needs founders

Europe needs founders

Europe needs founders. Why? Because founders hustle. They create businesses, income streams, jobs, taxes and strengthen the community by offering cultural workplace diversity. It is not to say that big companies are bad. Big companies have the power to change the economy, drive innovation forward, and generally do it even

AUKUS Focus

AUKUS Focus

UK, US, and Australia have signed a submarine deal. But what is Australia's gamble here? Is this a need or a want for the country?

Neom: Reality, Fantasy, and Tribal Lives

Neom: Reality, Fantasy, and Tribal Lives

Last week, a visit caused much controversy. While some admitted that such a meeting did take place, some others made their denial known. Was this denial categorical? Maybe not. The point of contention in the argument revolves around whether Benjamin Netanyahu was onboard the flight that took off for Neom

Where’s the Real, Where’s the Unreal?

Where’s the Real, Where’s the Unreal?

The votes might not be wholly counted until Friday. Major swing states like Pennsylvania are still left to be claimed as a victory ground for the Blues or the Reds. By the time you read this, perhaps there would be more clarity about who wins, without any weight being given

All’s Fair that Ends Well

All’s Fair that Ends Well

The Democrats of 2016 were characterized by complacency. They did not regard Donald J. Trump – business tycoon and a ‘brat’ of a man – as a worthwhile contender who could make it to the White House, let alone get a whole term as President. Hillary Clinton and her campaign managers were

Trials of Yesterday, Trials for Today!

Trials of Yesterday, Trials for Today!

“Inside the bar, it’s like the ‘60s never happened. Outside the bar, the ‘60s were being performed for anyone who looked out of the window.” The Trial of the Chicago 7 is being regarded as a true reflection not just of the past, but of the present state of

Puerility at its Best

Puerility at its Best

The final debate had Donald Trump making outlandish claims about a lot of things - the economy, his stature as an egalitarian leader, anti-discriminatory approaches, the handling of COVID-19, and much more. But this is nothing new. For one, he’s always been quite a man for exaggeration, loving every

An Ardern-uous Fight

An Ardern-uous Fight

Jacinda Ardern just sealed her victory and a second term as New Zealand’s Prime Minister. Well-wishers are terming it a win for socialism but above all, the election shows just how crucial the handling of COVID-19 is for political verdicts. Certainly, there are enough leaves in New Zealand’s

Breeding Ground for Conspiracies

Breeding Ground for Conspiracies

This is the Post-Truth era: we favour ‘projected’ realities to the real; the grand narratives to truth; and hyped rhetoric to informed speech. Therefore, there’s no surprise when conspiracy theorists like QAnon make an appearance. Premonitions about an ideological downslide did not occur to the past century's innovators who

The Balance-Act

The Balance-Act

She’s a four-time finalist for the Pulitzer; She’s won the Peabody Award in 2018 for the very series that’s now under the scanner – Rukmini Callimachi has just walked into a controversy that on-lookers in the field of journalism were perhaps hawking for. Feeding right into the mouths

An Attempt to Redefine the ‘Woman’

An Attempt to Redefine the ‘Woman’

The new conservative Christian woman – strong in her views, multi-tasker at home and at work – is on the rise. If Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a beloved icon for pop-culture and feminism alike, Amy Coney Barrett is now the symbol of ‘unflawed’ conservatism that the right had been yearning for. Femininity

A Troubled Strain of Self-Isolation

A Troubled Strain of Self-Isolation

The Nobel Prize for Peace was awarded to the UN World Food Programme (WFP) last week, acknowledging its work done in regions struck by conflict and disaster. The win most of all underscored the necessity for multilateralism in ridding the world of its social and economic troubles. Quite uncoincidentally the

The Oatly Story

The Oatly Story

Oatly has no marketing team. But its creative strategy has been a winner. Is it time to rethink its campaign?

The Efficient Worker

The Efficient Worker

From AI to Neurotech, tools are all over the place for monitoring worker efficiency. But, will employers gain anything except distrust through such surveillance?

The Open(AI) Talk.

The Open(AI) Talk.

While we had seen all kinds of chatbots help us out with queries, either as popups on websites, or chat interfaces on our mobile devices, ChatGPT is powered to do much more because of how it’s been fed vast data.

Saying Yes to a Shorter Workweek

Saying Yes to a Shorter Workweek

Has the pandemic taught us more about work-life balance than anything else ever did? Not just employees, but employers too hop onboard a productive, shorter workweek in what could possibly be a giant leap away from the ‘grind’.

The Catcher and the Mind

The Catcher and the Mind

If I had a penny for every time someone told me they disliked The Catcher in the Rye, I’d have a mansion overflowing with riches today – the monetary metaphor does little to prove my point, but I’m tired of having heard too many comments of discontentment regarding J.

Pride and Prejudice

Pride and Prejudice

This year was special as far as the Nobel Prize Announcements were concerned – many remarkable discoveries found acknowledgement and were considerably relevant particularly in the trying period that we’re going through. But it was unique because women won ‘big’ this year! There were three winners for science– two for

The state of African startups

The state of African startups

With more than 1.2 billion people spread across 54 countries, speaking an estimated 1,500 to 2,000 different languages, Africa is a fascinating continent. Doing business there is perhaps an even grander adventure than wandering a Moroccan souq, scaling the peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro, swimming with great white

How to make real money (as a tech company)

How to make real money (as a tech company)

A business is most profitable when focusing on the parts that actually make money. Everything else needed to run the company should have the best cost-performance ratio, and be easily usable with as little as possible manual maintenance. Of course, any company may have its own recipe for infrastructure, services