Private reading rooms/libraries

Empty Classrooms, Crowded Reading Rooms and a Growing Educational Concern

Across Kashmir, the image of crowded reading rooms alongside empty classrooms should compel us to reflect on the direction our education system is taking. Reading rooms may help students prepare for examinations, but schools and colleges prepare them for life. 

Reforming Higher Education in India: Institutions Should Have Freedom to Innovate While Remaining Accountable

The future of Indian higher education may depend not on greater central control, but on creating autonomous institutions operating within a strong framework of accountability.

BIMSTEC’s Strategic Challenge to Pakistan: Geopolitical Recasting or Regional Fracture?

Pakistan’s absence is not without costs. Diplomatic exclusion is only one facet of the spectre that looms over the country: limited transit access, reduced prospects for integration into Bay-centric supply networks and weakened soft-power influences across the Indian Ocean littoral.

Proxy Village Governance: The Pradhan Pati Problem in India's Democracy

It has been formally recognised in the Report of the Advisory Committee on Women Pradhans, Transforming Women’s Representation and Role in Panchayati Raj Institutions: Efforts to Eliminate Proxy Participation, which recorded that elected women representatives are often “represented by their husbands or male relatives” and recommended the imposition of stringent and exemplary penalties to curb such practices.

More on Education and Gen Z Voices

Brands must take a stand, not bow to bullies

None of the brands took a stand and instead bowed down to the demand of those who aggressively claimed to be offended

Raise self-esteem of girls, not age of marriage

It is important to raise the self-esteem of girls to help them make their own decisions rather than force them into a tyrannical legal system

Is a strong, 'muscular' India losing out on peace and harmony?

India is in a hurry to reach a mythical place of stardom and power, and in that rush we may not have the time to see the pain and the suffering caused by us in our midst

Understanding the road from Gujarat to India

If people don’t act now, ‘Akhand Bharat' will move toward balkanization because a modern secular State with freedom, justice, equity, and fraternity is under threat

Don't push Bangladesh beyond a point!

Push her to the edge, Sheikh Hasina will draw from her experience in successfully fending off US pressures and rally the Bengalis around her

Governance in Tamil Nadu: More politics than economics?

The DMK government has also taken steps to collect gold, silver and diamonds in possession of temples and melt the gold and silver to augment the state’s financial resource

US sanctions against Bangladesh are a cause for worry

The sanctions can cause severe economic damage to Bangladesh's development projects

Yearend reflection: Let’s love, not hate one another

Social cohesion within countries has been slowly eroding for some time; social media has accelerated that erosion

US sanctions on Bangladesh security officials are biased and motivated

Extrajudicial killings are taking place in many countries such as Pakistan but the US is directing its ire at Bangladesh

Rajaji: His support for free enterprise and opposition to state capitalism was proved right

It would be appropriate to celebrate the birthday of Rajaji - not just an independence activist, but a lawyer, writer and statesman - at least next year as a day of free enterprise

What causes the Eureka moment in the brain?

During relaxation of the brain or when one is not thinking about a problem, some other neural pathways are made and these may create the trigger resulting in the Eureka moment, writes Anil K. Rajvanshi for South Asia Monitor

Nagaland killings: CHRI urges speedy investigation and bringing the accused to trial

Welcoming the National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) notice to authorities seeking a detailed report on the recent killing of 14 civilians and one security personnel by the Indian Army, the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI) has also urged the apex rights body and the State government to set up the long-pending state human rights commission in Nagaland

India may have to do balancing act at Summit for Democracy

The summit could change South Asian dynamics considering how it draws a line between China, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on one side and India, Pakistan and Nepal on another, writes Divyanshu Jindal for South Asia Monitor

Stifling legitimate protests in Balochistan may spark violence

In a shocking move, Balochistan Governor Syed Zahoor Agha issued a Criminal Law Balochistan Amendment Ordinance which bans meetings, rallies and sit-ins on national highways to ensure free movement of people

World needs spirituality now more than ever

All over the world we are witnessing the rise of dictators, strong-arm rulers and corrupt leaders