Author: Mohit Gupta
In Alipur, a small village about 70 kilometres from Bengaluru, life slowed to a halt this week. News of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s reported death in a United States and Israel airstrike on Tehran on February 28, 2026, travelled quickly through the Shia dominated settlement in Karnataka’s Chikkaballapur district. For many here, it felt less like international news and more like a personal loss. By early morning, shop shutters were down. Tea stalls that usually buzz with conversation stood silent. There was no official call for a bandh. People simply closed their businesses and gathered in small groups at street corners.…
Friday afternoon was moving along as usual in Kolkata when, for a few brief seconds, the ground began to tremble. A 4.9 magnitude earthquake was reported, with its epicentre in Bangladesh, and mild tremors were felt across Kolkata and parts of West Bengal. The shaking did not last long, but it was strong enough to make people pause and step out of their routines. In Salt Lake, a resident said, “At first I thought it was a truck passing. Then the cupboard started moving.” In Howrah, a young mother picked up her child and stepped away from the balcony area.…
A major controversy broke out in India’s legal and education circles this week after a new NCERT Class 8 Social Science textbook was found to contain a chapter called “Corruption in the Judiciary.” The Supreme Court acted very quickly, taking up the matter on its own on Wednesday and ordering a complete ban on the book by Thursday. All physical copies were ordered to be seized and digital versions were taken down immediately. The chapter talked about corruption, a huge number of pending cases, and a shortage of judges as serious problems in the Indian court system. It mentioned around…
Nobody quite expected the evening to start with a wardrobe surprise. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi landed in Israel on February 25, Benjamin Netanyahu didn’t just show up for dinner, he showed up wearing a Nehru jacket. Not a passing resemblance but a real thing. The internet reacted exactly the way the it does, in equal parts of amusement, approval, and argument. Netanyahu posted a video on X, writing in Hindi that he had chosen Indian attire as a gesture before their dinner. Modi responded quickly, calling it “truly splendid” and saying it reflected respect for India’s culture and traditions.…
Japan has announced that it will deploy surface-to-air missiles on Yonaguni Island, its westernmost territory, located roughly 110 kilometres from the coast of Taiwan, by March 2031. The government of Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has set this timeline as part of efforts to strengthen the country’s defence in the face of growing tensions in East Asia. This marks the first time Tokyo has put a clear deadline on the plan, which was first unveiled in 2022 as part of broader efforts to fortify its southwestern islands against potential threats. Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the missiles, likely medium-range systems capable…
Kerala Health Minister Veena George was injured on Wednesday afternoon during a protest at Kannur Railway Station, turning what was meant to be a routine travel plan into a political flashpoint. The incident happened around 3 p.m. near the ticket counter on the first platform. George had just inaugurated the International Ayurveda Research Centre (IARC) in Kalliad and arrived at the station to board the Vande Bharat Express to Thiruvananthapuram. But members of the Kerala Students Union (KSU) were already there, staging a black flag protest against her. What followed was tense and chaotic. As protesters raised slogans and tried…
On February 22, 2026, one of the biggest names in India’s Maoist movement finally gave up. Thippiri Tirupathi, who most people know as Devuji, walked out of the dense forests in Telangana and surrendered to the police. This is huge because Devuji wasn’t just any member. He was basically the top boss of the banned CPI (Maoist) party. He didn’t come alone either. He brought along senior leader Malla Raji Reddy and a few other followers. Devuji is 62 now and had a massive 1 crore bounty on his head. For decades he was the man behind the People’s Liberation…
The capital of Madhya Pradesh, Bhopal, has been left reeling following a bone-chilling act of juvenile brutality where a 16-year-old student was stabbed 27 times in a mere 30 seconds. The assault, which took place inside a snooker club in the Ganesh Chowk area on the night of February 15, is tagged by the police as revenge and carefully planned. Some time before the assault, the victim had apparently slapped the two accused during an earlier confrontation. That single act of anger cost him dearly. The CCTV footage, which the accused allegedly circulated on social media themselves, shows two minors…
On February 20, 2026, at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, India formally signed the Pax Silica Declaration, becoming the eleventh member of a powerful U.S. led coalition that is quietly redrawing the map of global technology power. The signing ceremony, held at Bharat Mandapam, brought together Union Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw, U.S. Ambassador Sergio Gor, and U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg. Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw sat alongside U.S. Ambassador Sergio Gor and Under Secretary of State Jacob Helberg to finalize an agreement that many here believe marks the end…
West Bengal is seeing something unusual at its Duare Sarkar camps. Young people are showing up in massive numbers, not for awareness, nor out of curiosity, but, to register for the Banglar Yuva Sathi scheme, and the turnout is telling a story the government may not want to hear. The scheme promises a monthly allowance of ₹1,500 to educated but unemployed youth. On paper, it looks like a compassionate safety netin reality, it is a band-aid on a wound that goes much deeper. Since the registration camps opened on February 15, officials have been stunned by the scale of the…