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India and Pakistan exchanged lists of civil prisoners, fishermen, and nuclear installations on January 1, 2026, in line with established bilateral agreements aimed at fostering transparency and humanitarian engagement between the two countries.  The twin exchanges, conducted simultaneously through diplomatic channels in New Delhi and Islamabad, come amid a largely adversarial bilateral relationship shaped by decades of historical and geopolitical tensions since the 1947 partition. Representational Image: Attari–Wagah Retreat Ceremony. Via: Krishna Rao K As part of the Agreement on Consular Access signed on May 21, 2008, India shared details of 391 civil prisoners and 33 fishermen believed to be Pakistani in its custody, while Pakistan handed over a list containing details of 58 civil prisoners and 199 fishermen believed to be Indian.  The agreement mandates such exchanges on January 1 and July 1 every year and ensures reciprocal consular access, early repatriation upon...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman The first quarter of the 21st century is ending with an inward silence that cannot be hidden despite tourists thronging major hotspots. This is a moment that is ripe for reflection, when the land of over a billion should pause, even if briefly, to glance over its shoulder before looking ahead again. Representational Image: INSV Kaundinya on her maiden voyage from Porbandar to Muscat. Via: PM NaMo In these twenty-five years, India has become compressed, elastic and restless. The republic that once imagined itself as a socialist, secular, democratic experiment is now often narrated through a different grammar of scale, speed, and spectacle. The people have changed, politics has consolidated, and the idea of governance has been rewired. India now stands at global forums with postures of pride and of paradox. The arrival of Narendra Modi in 2014 was a culmination of accumulated frustrations, deferred dreams and a desire...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman There is no neat way to say this: the Great Indian Dream is dying. And it’s not being killed in faraway conflict zones, or in newsrooms that peddle noise instead of truth. It is being murdered in back offices of publishing houses and literary circuits, where contracts are torn with a smile, where deadlines are missed with impunity, where one writer's labour of years is discarded over silence, and where reputations are butchered so that the powerful remain unbothered. The very spaces meant to champion creativity are the first to abandon those who try to speak freely, those who refuse to bend, those who dare to write with sincerity. Representational Image: The 1st stamp of independent India shows the Indian Flag, released on 21Nov1947. I have lived through this. I have worked on a book that came from lived experience, research, pain, and a rare kind of stubborn hope. And I have watched that book — like countless others...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman In Bihar’s never-ending political circus, the 2025 Assembly elections have descended into a theatre of implosion, betrayal, and tactical demolition. What was initially thought of as a contest over vision, governance, and employment has degenerated into a free-for-all -- dominated by muscle power, money, and managed failures. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar. Pic via the former. Let’s not sugarcoat it. The BJP has outsmarted, out-organised, and outmanoeuvred every other party in this election. But its biggest victory is not at the polling booths. It is in the boardrooms of Bihar’s collapsing political alliances -- especially the JDU. With surgical precision, BJP has allowed Nitish Kumar’s party to rot from within, offering just enough rope for it to hang itself. From baffling ticket distributions to social media optics that never translated on the ground, the JDU looks more like a party planning for...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi on Sunday addressed a press conference in New Delhi where both male and female journalists were present. This is a marked departure from the earlier controversy that erupted over the exclusion of women reporters from a similar event. Speaking at the presser, Muttaqi addressed the backlash over the earlier incident, saying the exclusion of women was not deliberate but rather a result of logistical constraints.  Women journalists at Taliban Presser. Image Via: Dr Pooja Tripathi “Regarding the press conference, it was due to the short notice. The participation list was prepared with specific journalists, and it was neither a technical issue nor any deliberate exclusion. It was not intended,” he said. The clarification came after significant condemnation from opposition leaders, press freedom bodies, and civil society.  The Editors Guild of India and the Indian Women Pre...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman A press conference by Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in New Delhi on Friday is drawing sharp scrutiny for barring women journalists, who were not permitted to attend the event, held at the Afghan Embassy just hours after Muttaqi met with India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar.  The media interaction was restricted to a select group of male reporters.  Image Source: Hafiz Zia Ahmed This has triggered political backlash and raised uncomfortable questions about India’s diplomatic posture toward the Taliban regime. The media interaction was restricted to a select group of male reporters, in apparent adherence to the Taliban’s gender-exclusionary norms. People familiar with the matter said the list of invitees was prepared by Taliban officials, and not by Indian authorities.  According to some sources, the Indian side had suggested that women reporters also be included, but the recommendation was not heeded. The exclusion has spa...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman Mahatma Gandhi’s The Story of My Experiments with Truth is not the story of a perfect man as political heavyweights present themselves to be -- and that is perhaps precisely why it endures still today. It is a book filled with self-doubt, failures, confessions, and contradictions. But it remains one of the most powerful examples of a life devoted to truth, however painful, however incomplete that pursuit may be. Gandhi was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize a few days before he was assassinated. There’s something profoundly disarming about the way Gandhi presents himself. He does not hide behind legacy, myth, or moral superiority. He does not edit out the parts of himself that might be mocked or misunderstood. Instead, he offers his life as a series of experiments -- some noble, some naive, but all of them are deeply personal. The tone is intimate, often vulnerable.  You feel, as a reader, that you are being let in...

Conflicting battlefield claims over Kupyansk have escalated into a war of narratives, as Russia asserted that its forces had broken into the eastern Ukrainian city, while Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelensky insisted that tough fighting continues within the city limits, with Ukrainian forces actively engaged in clearing operations. Image Source: GeromanAT on X Russian military channels claimed on Saturday that its troops had reached central Kupyansk, a city in Kharkiv Oblast less than 100 kilometres from the regional capital. Russian units reportedly advanced from the south, opening direct routes toward Volchansk and Chuhuiv.  Ukrainian authorities, however, categorically denied the reports. President Zelensky confirmed that combat was underway inside the city and described the operation as a controlled effort to eliminate Russian sabotage groups. “There are tough actions inside Kupyansk. Our forces are conducting a cleanup. We believe the Russians will be destroyed there,” Zele...

NATO’s eastern flank is under acute military and diplomatic stress following a high-risk violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets and an overnight missile and drone blitz on Ukraine that brought the war to the doorstep of allied territory. Estonia has officially invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty, a rarely used mechanism that compels formal consultation among member states, after three Russian MiG-31 aircraft entered its airspace without clearance.  Estonia has officially invoked Article 4 of the NATO treaty. The jets flew over the Gulf of Finland with transponders turned off and no filed flight plans--an act Estonia’s foreign ministry called “brazen” and “unprecedented.” The incursion lasted 12 minutes. NATO responded with force posture adjustments, scrambling Italian F-35s stationed in Estonia alongside Swedish and Finnish aircraft operating under the alliance’s Eastern Sentry mission.  Moscow has denied any violation, insisting its aircraft remained in int...

The Indian government on Saturday issued an official statement in response to President Donald Trump’s proclamation imposing a $100,000 annual surcharge on H-1B visas, calling the development one with far-reaching implications for families, innovation, and bilateral trade.  The statement, issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, said the new measure is being examined by all stakeholders, including Indian industry, and acknowledged early assessments that suggest serious humanitarian and economic disruption. All new and renewal petitions for H-1B visas must be accompanied by a $100,000 payment The move, signed into effect by President Trump, mandates that all new and renewal petitions for H-1B visas must be accompanied by a $100,000 payment. This comes on top of the $6,000–$10,000 companies already spend per worker in legal and filing fees. In its statement, India flagged the cost burden and the fallout on families, saying the measure is “likely to have humanitarian consequences b...

✍️ Written by Saket Suman Saudi Arabia and Pakistan on September 17 formally inked a Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement , committing that any aggression against one will be treated as aggression against both.  The accord, signed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in Riyadh, pledges joint deterrence, enhanced military cooperation, and cemented defense ties. Mohammed bin Salman receives Shehbaz Sharif For India, the deal registers as more than a diplomatic development--it alters the security calculus along its western front. India has long accused Pakistan of supporting terrorist networks whose actions sow violence across India's Kashmir and elsewhere.  Earlier this year, India launched Operation Sindoor , targeting nine terror infrastructure sites across Pakistan and illegally Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, including camps of Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, following the Pahalgam attack that killed 26...