Author: xorance@gmail.com

India’s trade playbook is working strongly, steadily and at scale. Its new trade architecture resembles a newly built expressway, anchored in strategic trade agreements that will enable faster, more predictable movement for trade. After concluding a major free trade agreement with the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom and other partners, India has now secured a consequential trade deal with the United States.The road to this deal was neither short nor simple. Shaped through a demanding and intricate process, the deal stands as a testament to the strength, steadiness and foresight of Indian negotiators. After nearly a year of sustained…

US President Donald Trump’s offer to India to become a member of the Gaza Peace Board has as yet elicited no formal response. Since there are several countries on the offer list, the absence of an immediate Indian response has prompted speculation. It is not a binary choice; several factors are at play while analysing the invitation and any eventual decision on it.India is rightly not indicating any urgency in taking a decision on the invitation, which was reportedly conveyed through a formal letter from the US President on January 18. With the kind of churn in international geopolitics and…

Congress MPs Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi with suspended Opposition MPs during a protest at Mahatma Gandhi statue during the Winter session of Parliament, in New Delhi Hundred MPs from the Lok Sabha and 46 MPs from the Rajya Sabha have been suspended during the ongoing winter session of Parliament. This is the highest number of MPs suspended in a single session in the history of Parliament. The record number was due to the Opposition’s demand for a statement from the Home Minister over the security breach in Parliament. Commenting on the suspensions, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge accused the government of attacking Parliament and democracy.The highest number…

At the interbank foreign exchange market, the rupee opened at 90.52 against the U.S. dollar, then gained some ground to 90.40, registering a gain of 7 paise over its previous close. | Photo Credit: Reuters The rupee traded in a narrow range and gained 7 paise to 90.40 against the U.S. dollar in early trade on Thursday (February 5, 2026), amid corporate dollar demand and as investors are awaiting for confirmation on the India-U.S. trade deal.Forex traders said market participants are now shifting focus from celebration to verification as no official documents have been released, and neither side has formally…

What is the least that can be said about US President Donald J. Trump? For there is no end to the most that can be said in this regard. Ranging from the “Donroe Doctrine” to “Tantrumps”, not only has Trumpism contributed scores of new words to English vocabulary, but his actions have lent new meanings to the global language of realpolitik and diplomacy.The least that can be said about him is that he has baffled and flummoxed both his admirers and adversaries. This has given him an unfair agenda-setting advantage wherever he goes. Including Davos, where he deftly dialed back…

(L to R) Meenakshi Meyyappan; Khan Rafiq Waza; Ummi Abdulla; Jane DSouza. At a time when the country’s contemporary foodscape is transforming rapidly — influenced by foreign cuisines and experiments, see-sawing between isms and social media fads — we remember the custodians who are the repositories of traditional food knowledge.The names of India’s many regional dishes — from Kanyakumari’s kaya kozhakattai to the tabak maaz of Kashmiri wazwan and the wu san tikye of the Singpho people in Arunachal Pradesh — may be familiar, but the keepers of these heirloom recipes, often elders in the family or a community leader, are only known to the locals. “If in…

The 16th Finance Commission (FC)’s vertical devolution recommendations prioritise the needs of the Centre over the realities of States. By merely acknowledging, rather than heeding, States’ fiscal pressures, the FC has taken a distinctly conservative stance.To grasp the underlying tensions, we must first look deeper into the structural issues. The 16th FC has maintained the vertical devolution rate at 41%, representing the States’ share of the divisible pool. Crucially, this divisible pool excludes cesses, surcharges, and collection costs, meaning its total volume is dictated by the Centre’s tax strategy. By favouring cesses and surcharges over standard tax instruments, the Centre…

Netherlands Cricket Board (KNCB) member Rashid Shah. File | Photo Credit: PTI The International Cricket Council’s existing commercial model that distributes the majority of the revenue to the Test-playing nations is counter-productive for associate members like the Netherlands, its board member Rashid Shah told PTI. Roughly 40% of ICC’s revenue, an estimated $231 million per year, will go to India in the 2024–2027 cycle, with the cricketing powerhouse generating the majority of the global body’s revenues driven by media rights. Shah, however, also praised the BCCI’s achievements and its massive contribution to the growth and global expansion of cricket. Out…

When Donald Trump returned to the political centre of the global attention as the 47th US president, many observers framed his worldview as erratic, isolationist, or impulsive. Yet this interpretation misses something fundamental.Trump’s foreign policy, both in his first term and in the worldview he continues to articulate during this term, is not a random destruction of the world order. It is an attempt to replace a failing system with a new one, one in which American dominance is no longer hidden behind rules, institutions, or moral language but is asserted openly through leverage, coercion, and civilisational control.STORY CONTINUES BELOW…

About a week ago, a Qatar court commuted the death sentences of eight former Indian Navy personnel. The former Navy officers, employed by a Doha-based company, were arrested in August 2022 allegedly for espionage. This has brought to attention the issue of Indians incarcerated in jails abroad and the steps taken by the government to assist them in their legal battle.Cases involving Indian prisoners in jails abroad, such as the one in Qatar, in which information about the charges has not been disclosed to the public so far, are rare. In countries such as Canada and the U.K., details about…