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Indian foreign policy makers have at last showing some mature understanding of the geopolitics of the post-Trump.2 months if the external affairs minister Dr. S Jaishankar's observations at the concluding session of Kautilya Economic Conclave in New Delhi on Sunday, are any indication. The minister was quite candid in explaining the complexity of India's tasks in relations management with big powers like USA, China and Russia and what is the best option for India in meeting that big challenge keeping its national interests in mind.

Centenary celebration of RSS has many critical dimensions. While it witnessed a saffron effort to legalise and decriminalise and project the Hindu militant organisation RSS as an organisation truly committed to cultural revival, it also echoed the psychological and philosophical upheaval that Gen-Z triggered in Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, which of course has been a matter of “deep concern” for India.

Bihar is going according to plan for the BJP. The party wants verification of burqa-clad voters for the Bihar election. The demand has been made by party leader Dilip Jaiswal, sparking a row, The RJD has retaliated, labelling the demand as "BJP resorting to the politics of hatred". Importantly, BJP's partner in politics of hatred, JDU, has distanced itself from Jaiswal’s 'burqa statement'. Politics is, indeed, taking the expected twists and turns in Bihar. Chances for the NDA to screw-up might have just got a leg-up. Question boils down to is Bihar going according to plan for JDU and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar?

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala has blazed yet another trail by approving an environmental, social and governance (ESG) policy to implement a governance framework for investments in the State.

On October 2 this year, coinciding with Vijaya Dashami, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) celebrated its 100th anniversary, having been founded by Dr Keshav Baliram Hedgewar in Nagpur.

It was a week of contradictions for India’s image on the world stage, marked by a curious interplay of critique, affirmation, and manoeuvring. Rahul Gandhi, in his address at Columbia University, painted a picture of India that was dark and distressing, describing the country’s democratic decline in sweeping terms. At the same time, Chief Justice B. R. Gavai, in a lecture in Mauritius, presented the resilience of Indian democracy through the prism of the judiciary’s role in upholding the rule of law. Adding to the mix was Russian President Vladimir Putin’s subtle promise that Moscow would step in to compensate India for the commercial disruptions caused by Donald Trump’s tariff whims, signalling both Russia’s willingness to deepen ties with India and the increasing geopolitical weight New Delhi carries. Together, these developments underscore the complexity of India’s present moment.

In politically tense Bihar on the eve of assembly elections by early next month, all eyes are set on the hearing in the Supreme Court on October 7 on the fate of the special intensive revision (SIR) of the electoral rolls. The full three member election commission led by the chief election commissioner Gyanesh Kumar is having talks in Patna on October 4 and 5 about the finalization of the poll process. The poll schedule is expected next week after the visit of the ECI team. Home Minister Amit Shah is also expected to visit Bihar next week for two days.

Slowly but surely, joblessness has been emerging as a serious political issue in India, with a dimension that has never been witnessed. Bihar, which is scheduled for poll in November 2025, is witnessing it, and PM Narendra Modi is seen trying to dilute its adverse impact on the NDA government in the state. Schemes worth thousands of crores have already been announced to woo the jobless youth and women, and many may be coming before the announcement of election.

The leaderships of Shia-dominated Kargil and Buddhist-dominated Leh district usually don’t have much in common. However, nowadays, the Leh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA) have joined hands. They are supporting one another against what is perceived by most of the leaders of these two conglomerates as a common adversary, the Central government. Right from 1947 till 2025, the present era, the two districts have existed as distinctly different regions, in ethos and in politics.

Communal violence has been the bane of Indian politics. It has been over a century old. The violence is generally a planned one; according to most scholars of this phenomenon. This violence is followed by rise of communal polarization. The scholars have also opined that “riots produce ethnic polarization that benefits ethno-religious parties at the expense of the Congress”. They maintain that while the Hindu-Muslim riots are electorally costly for the Congress, these riots in effect strengthen the “ethno-religious parties at the expense of multi-ethnic ones like the Congress”. True to this observation more and more pretexts are generated to instigate violence and to reap its electoral benefits.