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Mani Sankar Mukherjee, the celebrated Bengali writer known by his pen name Sankar, passed away on February 20, 2026, at the age of 92 after being admitted to a Kolkata hospital for age-related ailments. He had been undergoing treatment for some time and died at the hospital. He is survived by his two daughters. Indian PM and WB CM have expressed their condolences. Image Via: ImageCraft26 Born on December 7, 1933, Sankar grew up in Debdoot Sheet Nagar in Howrah, West Bengal. The son of Avaya Mukherjee, he lost his father as a teenager and began working as a clerk to Noel Frederick Barwell, the last British barrister of the Calcutta High Court. While working, he enrolled at Surendranath College, then known as Ripon College, in Calcutta.  In 1962, on a rain-soaked day at the crossing of Central Avenue and Dalhousie in central Kolkata, Sankar conceived Chowringhee, a novel set in an opulent hotel he called Shahjahan. The book became a bestseller and was adapted into a film in 1968. His...

A group of young men said to be linked to the Indian Youth Congress, a major wing of the Indian National Congress which is India's primary Opposition Party, staged a brief shirtless protest inside New Delhi’s Bharat Mandapam on February 20, 2026. They disrupted proceedings at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, a high-profile event that is being attended by global technology leaders and government officials.  Shirtless Protest Snap; Via: TheIndeWire on X Police authorities have been reported saying that around 10 to 15 protesters entered Hall No. 5, which is an exhibition and conference space within the venue, using valid entry passes or QR codes.  They then began removing their shirts and chanting slogans targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government. जब विदेश नीति में झुकाव, कॉरपोरेट दबाव और चुप्पी हावी हो… तो साफ है, PM मोदी COMPROMISED हैं!! 🔥 इसी सच्चाई को बेनकाब करने भारतीय युवा कांग्रेस के जाबांज कार्यकर्ता AI Summit पहुँचे और “Compromised PM” के खिलाफ विरोध प...

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested on Thursday morning on suspicion of misconduct in public office as part of an investigation by Thames Valley Police into allegations linked to his past dealings with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in an unprecedented development involving a senior member of Britain’s royal family. Almost tweleve hours after his arrest, the authorities said they had released ex-Prince Andrew "under investigation." The probe centers on allegations he shared confidential material with Jeffrey Epstein; Via: Meidas Touch Police said that at approximately 8am (GMT) on February 19 they arrested “a man in his sixties from Norfolk on suspicion of misconduct in public office” and carried out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk.  Photographs showed unmarked police vehicles and plainclothes officers at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate in Norfolk, as well as searches at his former residence at Royal Lodge in Windsor. Mountbatten-Windsor wa...

Iran held annual military drills with Russia this week in the Gulf of Oman and the Indian Ocean as a second U.S. aircraft carrier moved closer to the Middle East, with both Washington and Tehran signaling readiness for conflict if long-stalled talks over Iran’s nuclear program collapse. U.S. President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he believes “10 to 15 days” is “enough time” for Iran to reach a deal, while warning that failure to secure what he called a “meaningful deal” would bring consequences. “It’s proven to be, over the years, not easy to make a meaningful deal with Iran, and we have to make a meaningful deal. Otherwise, bad things happen,” Trump said. U.S. Navy Carrier Air Wing 8 aircraft fly in formation; Via: US Navy The drills came amid mounting U.S. military deployments and heightened rhetoric across the region. The USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier was near the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea, bolstering Trump’s ability to conduct a strike should he decide to do so, th...

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 17 welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron to India for an official visit from February 17 to 19, 2026, saying the trip would take bilateral relations to “new heights”, as India and France announced they were upgrading ties to a “Special Global Strategic Partnership” and jointly launched the 2026 India–France Year of Innovation alongside a slate of outcomes spanning defence co-production, critical technologies, health, education, climate cooperation and connectivity. French President with Indian Prime Minister; Via the former. In posts on X, Modi said India looked forward to “advancing our bilateral ties to new heights” and expressed confidence that discussions would strengthen cooperation across sectors and contribute to global progress, adding that engagements in Mumbai and later in Delhi would provide fresh momentum to the strategic partnership.  The visit included participation in the Artificial Intelligence Impact Summit 2026...

Concerns relating to journalistic attribution and factual inaccuracy arise from a “Special Report” published on February 16, 2026, by The Pioneer , titled “ Indian girl was victim of Epstein, files reveal .” The report cites emails from the recently released Jeffrey Epstein files but does not acknowledge the unearthing of each of the cited documents by another journalist, nor does it adequately distinguish between documented facts and inferred claims. The report cites a set of emails from the recently released Jeffrey Epstein files, part of a disclosure involving more than three million emails made public by the United States Department of Justice . However, all the specific emails referenced in The Pioneer ’s report had already been unearthed a day earlier on X (formerly Twitter) by Saket Suman, editor of IndianRepublic.in , who independently unearthed and contextualised those documents after days of forensic examination of the files. Image Source: Tanmoyofc on X Public interaction ...

India’s Parliament saw a fresh political clash on Wednesday, February 11, after Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi used the Lok Sabha debate on the Union Budget 2026–27 to attack the India–US interim trade deal and allege that it compromises India’s interests on data, energy security and farming. This prompted the government to accuse him of making unsubstantiated claims and to signal action to remove or expunge parts of his remarks from the House record. Image Source: Who_Care on X Speaking during the Budget discussion, Rahul Gandhi argued that India is entering an era of heightened geopolitical conflict and “energy and financial weaponisation,” and said the country’s core strengths—its people, the data they generate, food supply and energy—must be protected.  He alleged that the interim deal represented a “wholesale surrender,” claiming it involved “free data flow” to the United States, no data localisation, limits on digital taxation, and no requirement for source code disclo...

Opposition parties led by the Congress on Tuesday submitted a formal notice seeking the removal of Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla , escalating an ongoing confrontation with the government over the conduct of parliamentary proceedings during the Budget Session. The Lok Sabha was adjourned till 2 p.m. amid continued disruptions. Representational Collage, Via: Alok Sharma Chief Whip of the Congress in the Lok Sabha Kodikunnil Suresh and party Whip Mohammed Jawed Ahmed handed over the notice to Lok Sabha Secretary-General Utpal Kumar Singh, sources confirmed. The motion has been moved under Article 94(c) of the Constitution, which allows a resolution for the removal of the Speaker to be submitted with a mandatory 14-day notice period. Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi said the notice was submitted at 1:14 p.m. and accused the Speaker of conducting House business in a “blatantly partisan manner.”  He said Opposition parties had repeatedly raised concerns that the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok...

Indian authorities have launched an investigation into the alleged leak and unauthorised circulation of an unpublished memoir by former Indian Army chief General Manoj Mukund Naravane, after digital copies of the book were found circulating online. Image Source: Arvind Gunasekar The Special Cell of the Delhi Police has registered a case to probe the source and dissemination of the leaked material. The investigation is examining whether there was a breach involving the unauthorised publication, duplication or circulation of a pre-print copy of Four Stars of Destiny , which has not yet been released. Amid the inquiry, Penguin Random House India issued a formal statement asserting its exclusive publishing rights over the book and clarifying that the memoir has not gone into publication. The publisher stated that “no copies of the book — in print or digital form — have been published, distributed, sold, or otherwise made available to the public by Penguin Random House India.” The statement...