India’s youth are growing up in an ecosystem defined by continuous stimulation and accelerated consumption of information. Attention is fragmented, patience for complexity is declining, and long-form engagement—essential for policy, administration, and strategic thinking—is increasingly marginal. This is not a cultural lament. It is a structural shift with direct consequences for how future administrators, policymakers, and institutional leaders are formed.
By engaging Jordan, Ethiopia and Oman, India demonstrated its capacity to operate across geopolitical divides while remaining anchored in Global South solidarity. These visits were not isolated diplomatic events but part of a sustained effort to reshape international engagement through inclusivity, responsibility, and shared growth. As global uncertainties persist, India’s outreach to West Asia and Africa strengthens its claim to leadership rooted in partnership and a collective vision for a more equitable world order.
The security situation deteriorated further in 2025. A terrorist attack on a Gilgit-Baltistan Scouts checkpost resulted in two fatalities and one injury, heightening tensions. Protests later resumed in Sost, disrupting trade between Pakistan and China via the Khunjerab Pass. The year culminated in two high-profile attacks on October 5, when unidentified gunmen ambushed Maulana Qazi Nisar Ahmed, Ameer of the Ahl-e-Sunnat wal Jamaat in Gilgit-Baltistan and Kohistan, near the police headquarters in Gilgit, injuring him and several others. On the same day, Malik Inayat-ur-Rehman, the Chief Court Judge of Gilgit-Baltistan, narrowly escaped an assassination attempt near the City Hospital.
In 2020, Nepal officially adopted a new map that shows Indian territories of Kalapani, Limpiyadhura, and Lipulekh as part of Nepal. Nepalese currency is being printed by a Chinese firm, a nearly USD 17 million contract to China Banknote Printing and Minting Corporation (CBPMC), utilizing advanced Chinese technology and lower costs, with the new bank notes featuring Nepal's new map that includes above-mentioned Indian territories.
The Bengaluru Antenna™, coined by me to define this strategic engagement, is both a metaphor and a practical roadmap. By leveraging Bengaluru’s deep-tech ecosystem and the UAE’s AI ambition, it transforms opportunity into action. The Bengaluru Tech Summit 2025 provides the perfect platform to bring this vision to life
Mass uprisings have become a fine-tuned instrument for destabilizing governments – and are likely to occur more frequently. Some hail them as an expression of “people’s power” and a revolutionary force for change. But sustained instability is not healthy for any nation. The only real safeguard is good governance: policies that promote social equity, protect livelihoods, and are seen as fair and transparent. If governments ignore the warning signs, they take a calculated risk – one that could end in their overthrow.
The burning of Kantipur TV points towards a troublesome point in Nepal’s history, where journalism has been vilified. Yes, some journalists do take shortcuts, and all legacy media is funded by businesses. But they’re also run by journalists who believe in truth-telling. Free and fair journalism is the foundation of democracy, and pulling down a media house like Kantipur TV signals the close of a period that trusted independent media.
By the end of the war, Pakistan had lost 3,800 personnel killed, over 400 tanks destroyed or captured, more than 40 aircraft shot down, and suffered a sharp drop in morale. The Indian Army captured the vital 2,637-meter (8,652-foot) high Haji Pir Pass, reached the outskirts of Lahore, captured Phillora, and created “Patton Nagar,” a graveyard of nearly 100 destroyed Pakistan's famed Patton tanks at Khem Karan.
This is aiming for a high moral ground, but Gandhian satyagraha will demand much more from India. It will challenge India on aligning with Israel while it bleeds Gaza. And it will raise many other difficult questions that if followed through will help India stand erect and tall in a world that still bows to Gandhi.
The transition to EVs also introduces geopolitical challenges, particularly concerning critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, and rare earth elements (REEs). China plays a dominant role in the global supply chain for these REEs, not only as a leading extractor but also as the largest processor and refiner. This centralized control gives China significant strategic leverage over countries that depend on these resources, including India.
Despite the public display of bonhomie at Tianjin, however, the SCO is ridden with major differences in harmonising national interests of member States, with some entering into active skirmishes, trade barriers or imbalances, equations with major powers and double standards on issues such as countering terrorism or protecting sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Most children are always afraid of failing exams. The pressures by parents to perform well in competitive exams create a sense of fear. Such accretion of fears at a young vulnerable age make the mind highly strung emotionally, and any trigger can snap it. So, saying that pressures of education, ragging, break-ups etc. lead to suicide is wrong. These kids were already prone to suicide – the trigger could be anything.
Yet, amid this global chess game, the Trump-Modi tweets reminded us of one undeniable fact: politics is now as much about social media bromance as it is about border disputes and trade wars.
Several countries have presence in Maharashtra. Some of the countries which have shown interest in recent years are Germany, Japan and South Korea whose leaders have taken great interest in establishing manufacturing centres in Maharashtra. The Pune industrial belt has drawn car manufacturers the world over, including Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and General Motors. It is often referred to as the ‘Detroit of India’
The combined effects of teacher shortages, contractualisation, and parallel schooling are devastating for India’s long-term competitiveness. It leads to poor learning outcomes, misaligned workforce skills where employers consistently complaining of skill shortages, because curricula lag hopelessly behind. No wonder that of the college educated youth in the age group 24 to 29, the unemployment rate is more than 30 percent.
Several Indian export firms have begun approaching Bangladeshi manufacturers to produce apparel jointly, underscoring Dhaka’s emerging advantage after US tariff hikes on India and China. Chinese investors, too, are showing interest in building garment factories in Bangladesh, drawn by its new trade advantage. Bangladesh, by capitalizing on India and China’s relative “disadvantage now has the opportunity to expand its export footprint.
In that, the failing health and education sectors in India are a symptom of a larger disease, of an imagined growth story and a fantasised giant economy that sees numbers but not the purpose, that has ignored those at the lower rungs of the ladder in the quest to shine in its fancy airports and bullet trains
However, execution will determine whether Modi’s second GST gamble succeeds. Missteps could mean fiscal slippage, strained centre–state relations and political blowback in a crucial election cycle. What is being promoted as a festive bonanza risks being remembered as another midnight reform whose lofty promise faltered in practice.
Clinging to the narrative of “strategic autonomy” while doubling down on a partner facing escalating global condemnation will not safeguard India’s sovereignty. Instead, it risks compromising India’s diplomatic standing and economic resilience.
