Vendors selling Nepal flags outside the Tribhuvan University cricket ground. Photo by Pragyan Srivastava

Is Cricket and Nepal Premier League Powering a New Sports Economy?

The Nepal Premier League has undeniably changed the atmosphere in this Himalayan nation. It has brought light to Kirtipur nightlife, sponsors to scoreboards, and pride to fans starved of large-scale sporting events. It has also created pockets of income, moments of possibility, and glimpses of what a sports economy could look like.

Romance of Innovation: How to Live a Meaningful Life in Rural India

It is a matter of shame for all of us that 78 years after independence we still have a major portion of our rural population living in primitive conditions. They lack electricity, clean cooking fuel, potable water and toilets in their homes. Somehow modern technology has not touched their lives.

Snowfall in Kashmir: Beauty, Burden And The Test Of Our Humanity

The biggest victims of heavy snowfall are often invisible in public conversations.They are the daily wage workers. laborers, construction workers, street vendors, load carriers, and small service providers who depend on daily earnings to feed their families.When snow blocks roads and markets shut down, their income stops immediately. There is no work from home for a daily wager. No paid leave. No savings cushion for many. Each snowbound day means an empty kitchen, anxious parents, and children who may go to bed hungry. Winter for them is not scenic; it is a season of survival.

India’s 77th Republic Day Parade: Blend Of Tradition And Modernisation

Breaking from the tradition of only marching columns, the Indian Army showcased a "phased battle array" for the first time, mirroring real combat-zone deployment. This included a sequence of new military, technological, and specialized units, highlighting the country's defence self-reliance and modernization. 

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How a South Asian film festival grew to an Oscar-qualifying cinema platform

And now Rita’s idea for a Tasveer Art Center, a progressive, secular, and inclusive safe place that would house a state-of-the-art auditorium, filmmaker's studio, art gallery, and a hall to hold up to 300 people among other cutting-edge facilities, is her latest dream project.

Ashrams for education: Remembering Gandhi, Tagore and their holistic approach to learning

As we think of the relevance of ashram ideals in the thought of both Tagore and Gandhi, we realise that they were ecologically inspired. Gandhi Jayanti 2023 may help us consider the importance of an education engaging with our natural environment.

King Khan opens up a bold new space for Bollywood

The industry prefers a winning formula to creative exploration, particularly in big-budget films populated by rocking stars with fancy fees. Will that change from hereon with the success of ‘Jawan’? We have on offer a new path for Bollywood, a path that can use its huge and unrivalled soft power to drive home some significant messages of the kind and in a way it has rarely attempted in a big-budget extravaganza.

When the music died: Afghanistan’s performing arts fall silent under Taliban rule

The famed Afghanistan National Institute of Music, the country’s only music school, had to shut down its campus in Kabul after the Taliban's crackdown. It has temporarily relocated to Lisbon, Portugal, where 273 students, faculty members and staff have been granted asylum.

Audacity to play: The remarkable story of women’s cricket in Pakistan

That the writer is Indian and male makes this book all the more remarkable. Puthran has captured not just the state of the sport in Pakistan but also the social, political, religious and administrative challenges women cricketers here face at every step. 

Empowering youth for carbon neutrality: Making campuses living laboratories for Net Zero

India's pledge to attain Net-Zero carbon emissions by 2070, articulated by PM Modi at COP26 in Glasgow, UK  underscores the nation's determination to combat climate change. In this context, higher education institutions take center stage for moulding future-ready policymakers.

A Bollywood film and a tragic tale: Poor road safety awareness remains region's blight

In India alone, some 150,000 people lose their lives to road crashes every year, with more than five times that number injured or maimed for life. Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka have equally dismal or worse statistics in the matter of road safety.

Mantra of happiness: Live in the moment

Too much planning brings misery because we cannot predict the forces of the future and hence have no control over them. This obviously leads us to worry about the outcome. We should therefore follow the American maxim; “We will cross the bridge when we come to it”.

“Oppenheimer” and the Bhagavad Gita: How the Hindu scripture became the American physicist's moral compass

There was something profoundly moving to note that a deep philosophical insight given by Krishna Dvaipayana better known as Ved-Vyasa, the creator of the Gita and the Mahabharat, many millennia ago, should come to underpin the most defining event of the 20th century and beyond.

When folk culture gets commercialised, the visual language of nature gets lost

What we see in the problematic use of folk culture in Modern Indian art is the way the celebration of nature has been privatised and turned into a consumer item that becomes a part of the art industry. 

Partition stories and intertwined histories: Beyond religious hatred and political rivalries

The nation-states of Pakistan, India and Bangladesh categorise their citizens by nationality alone, with no room for emotion or relationship. People are separated from each other through violent narratives and intractable borders.

Why India's federal system holds over Pakistan's

The elite in Pakistan was not committed to pre-independence reorganization, and the lack of this linguistic federal adjustment created tensions that India survived.

Was Oppenheimer's Gita quote accurate?

In Gita (Chapter 11, Verse 32) Lord Krishna says that “I am the "Kal" (Mighty Time) – destroyer of the world”.  Oppenheimer said “I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds”, and this is extensively quoted.

Is reading your mind now going to be a reality? Breakthrough device by Indian American student

The creation of the device has opened exciting possibilities in the field of brain-computer interface technology.

Cinema that defies norms and transcends borders in South Asia

The discussion highlighted how Pakistani movie and theatregoers lament the banning of Indian films in Pakistan and Indian audiences clamour for Pakistani dramas. Commonalities of language, music and culture developed over thousands of years cannot be erased, as elements in both countries are trying to do, rewriting history and marginalising ‘the other’.