Following heavy criticism from educationists and historians for blurring the image of a figurine of a naked young woman in its history textbook for Class IX students, the Indian National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) was forced to backtrack. He agreed to replace the altered image of the iconic figurine with its “original version.” “The correction is being implemented immediately in the digital version of the textbook, while the revised printed editions will contain the original version of the image,” NCERT director Dinesh Saklani told news agency ANI. An autonomous body under the Federal Ministry of Education, NCERT…
Author: Frank M. Everett
Nice, a Mediterranean city in southeastern France, was chosen by the Indian Ministry of Education to host the Bharat Summit innovates from June 14 to 16. The event, organized for the first time outside India, brought together more than 120 Indian start-ups alongside French and European innovation players. Inaugurated one day before the start of the G7 summit in Evian, this gathering was also an opportunity for French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to meet. This was Modi’s eighth visit to France since taking office, highlighting the remarkable dynamics of France-India Partnership. The visit’s agenda –…
Mohammed Rizwan is angered by the rise in anti-Muslim crimes in India. “I can’t even post on social media now,” said the 21-year-old engineering student living in India’s West Bengal state. “It wasn’t like that before, I could call whoever I wanted.” Rizwan linked his own silence to the arrest of a local muslim who was arrested for “demonstrating on social media”. On May 4, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won one of the country’s most contentious political battles, in West Bengal. Modi’s victory was celebrated across the country, with his supporters calling it a “historic”…
Following the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, Central Asian states have carefully recalibrated their approaches to Afghanistan. If cooperation initially remained largely limited to bilateral economic and security issues, it has now entered a new stage of development. In August 2025Tashkent hosted a meeting of special representatives of Central Asian states for Afghanistan. This year, April 5, the first Afghanistan-Central Asia Consultative Dialogue took place in Kabul. This initiative emerged as a new regional format aimed at institutionalizing interaction between Afghanistan and Central Asian states. The platform effectively creates a new political and diplomatic space that brings Afghanistan and…
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 was met with draconian sanctions from the G7 and the EU. These sanctions have been in force for almost four years now, with surprisingly little impact on Russian crude exports by sea. New Chinese and African buyers have largely absorbed the diverted exports. Initially, Moscow’s oil revenues declined after the embargo was implemented. Exports to countries in the Price Cap Coalition, the group of countries that have aligned to restrict Russian oil on global markets, fell by 59.5 million tonnes. Yet despite this, exports to non-Price Cap Coalition countries increased by a staggering…
The Philippine government confirmed yesterday that a “mobile platform” placed by Chinese maritime forces on a disputed shoal in the South China Sea had been removed. The platform, which measured about six by six meters and appeared to be equipped with an antenna, was first spotted in satellite images taken on May 25, the National Task Force for the West Philippine Sea (NTF-WPS) said last week. The Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs later protested the platform’s “illegal presence,” saying that protecting Manila’s sovereignty and jurisdiction “remains a paramount consideration.” In a statement issued yesterday, the NTF-WPS confirmed that aerial and…
After a prolonged period of tension in bilateral relations for much of the last year, relations between India and Bangladesh appeared to be improving when both sides pledged in April to repair relations. However, the recent mistreatment of Zahed Ur Rahman, advisor to Bangladeshi Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, by Indian officials in New Delhi, which led the Bangladeshi government to summon India’s deputy high commissioner to formally lodge a protest, reveals how lingering mistrust continues to derail bilateral relations between the two neighbors. This is the second time that the Bangladesh Foreign Ministry has called upon the Indian mission in…
The Indian Air Force (IAF) has a 5G problem, not a telecom problem, but an aerospace problem. At the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg on June 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed to India to jointly produce the fifth generation SU-57 fighter jet (FGFA) without any “problems and limitations”. Russia’s latest reiteration of the SU-57 offer is significant beyond the crisis in the IAF, which is grappling with declining strength in its fighter squadrons and persistent delays in introducing new aircraft.. This comes at a time when the development of the Advanced Medium Combat Aircraft (AMCA), India’s fifth-generation fighter,…
Brunei is a showcase in the $3 trillion global oil market. The Southeast Asian country’s amber crudes are valued by refineries for their clarity and low sulfur content. A premium fuel like SLEB (Seria Light Export Blend) is sold in small quantities but generally costs more than Brent crude, the industry benchmark. Yet even Asia’s high-quality crudes were not immune to wild swings in the energy market in March and April, in response to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. The prices of “light sweet” crude from Brunei are indexed to that of Malaysian Mat, a regional benchmark. In…
The Philippine Senate removed an ally of former President Rodrigo Duterte as speaker of the chamber and elected a new leader, just weeks before the impeachment trial against Vice President Sara Duterte, the former president’s daughter, was scheduled to begin. During a special session yesterday, the 13 senators present voted to select Senator Sherwin “Win” Gatchalian as “Senate President,” after Senator Joel Villanueva, a member of the pro-Duterte majority, agreed to switch sides. Members of the pro-Dutertre opposition bloc were not present. The vote confirms the impeachment of Alan Peter Cayetano, the leader of the pro-Duterte camp in the Senate,…