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

Gogi Thapa: The sporting naval doctor who earned his wings

Surgeon-Captain  DK (‘Gogi’)  Thapa who passed away in Mumbai  on Feb 13 was a rare combination of medical doctor and naval-aviator who carved an extraordinary professional trajectory in his inimitable, understated and gentle manner. He was 88 years

National issues were compromised in Delhi elections

The popular mandate in elections is always supreme in a democracy and must be respected in all circumstances

How forceful exhalation helps tone body and mind

Kapalbhati is a part of Pranayam kriya that has been in vogue ancient India where one forcefully exhales rapidly and in short bursts. Practitioners of yoga say it helps in cleaning the lungs and in exercising the abdomen muscles. It is therefore recommended for reducing tummy fat. This exhalation exercise can be practiced by either sitting cross-legged on the floor or even in a chair.  The air is exhaled forcibly and in short bursts.  This process is further helped by thinking that by exhaling this air one is cleaning the brain of its pollutants.  The reflex action of this forceful exhalation then tones the abdomen muscles and also cleans the lungs.

Yoga a non-religious and scientific tool to enhance human wellbeing: Indian Yoga Association

The second governing council meet of the Indian Yoga Association (IYA) was held at the Isha Yoga Center in Coimbatore February 10, 2020. Sadhguru, Founder, Isha Foundation, welcomed the IYA Chairman, Swami Ramdev and other members of the governing council to the Yoga Center located at the foothills of the picturesque Velliangiri Mountain range, on the outskirts of Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu.

The perennial shortage of judges in India: Why can't their appointments be hastened?

There is a perpetual shortage of judges in India, particularly at higher levels of the judiciary, like the high courts & the Supreme Court, leading to endless delay in disposal of cases and, thus, endless misery to litigants

India using railways to further diplomatic connections

Railways across the world have undergone a tremendous transition from an instrument of colonial exploitation to a tool of diplomatic influence, emerging as a substitute to military coercion and a more effective means of asserting influence over regions

Shaheen Bagh: A corner of Delhi but a battle for the Idea of India

The Shaheen Bagh protests in the eastern periphery of Delhi has become a kind of mecca for many anti-CAA (Citizen Amendment Act) supporters

Why did Gen Rawat become India's first CDS? No end to speculation

The appointment of Indian Army chief, General Bipin Rawat, as the country’s first  Chief of Defence Staff (CDS)  was more than expected

Atmosphere of fear has stalled India’s economy

Creation of wealth is a creative process and is always spearheaded by citizens who feel safe and live without fear in the country, writes Anil K. Rajvanshi for South Asia Monitor

The changing Bangladesh that Indians don't like to know

An exasperated and anguished Syed Muazzem Ali, the outgoing Bangladesh High Commissioner to India, said “you people (the Indian media) have no interest in Bangladesh.”

Lessons in democratic decision making – the Gandhian way

So at the start of his 150th birth anniversary let us all remember Gandhi and try to follow his path of democratic style of functioning - taking everybody together and his appeal to higher emotions in all of us so that we show love and peace for our fellow countrymen, writes Anil K Rajvanshi

How earth's gravimagnetic field affects human mind

There is an interesting story in the Indian epic Ramayana about Shravan Kumar who carried his aged and blind parents in two baskets hanging on his shoulders, taking them to various holy places for pilgrimage, writes Anil K. Rajvanshi