Islamabad turns into fortress for peace talks between Iran and US

Pakistan's Interior minister Mohsin Naqvi on Friday reviewed the security arrangements in Islamabad ahead of the arrival of the Iranian and US delegations for peace talks aimed to end the conflict in West Asia.

The US and Iran agreed to a two-week conditional ceasefire on Wednesday, followed by a face-to-face meeting in Islamabad to settle the differences and convert the ongoing truce into a lasting peace

Artemis II returns today: Pacific splashdown to cap NASA's lunar comeback

Their Dramatic grand finale fast approaching, Artemis II's astronauts aimed for a splashdown in the Pacific on Friday to close out humanity's first voyage to the moon in more than half a century.

The tension in Mission Control mounted as the miles melted away between the four returning astronauts and Earth.

Trump's Gaza board faces cash crunch

Donald Trump's Board of Peace has received only a tiny fraction of the $17 billion pledged for Gaza, preventing the US president from pushing ahead with his plan for the shattered Palestinian enclave's future.

Rubio set to visit India next month as Washington, Delhi reset ties

Signalling Incremental progress in bilateral ties between India and the US, Secretary of State Marco Rubio is likely to visit India for the meeting of Quad Foreign Ministers in the latter half of May. 

A modest plea for constitutional morality

In a case like Sabarimala, it invites us to ask: How are liberty and equality to be reconciled with the autonomy of institutions? When does a practice so burden the standing of members that their civic equality is compromised? 

A new measure reframes heat crisis

The Onset of climate change has fundamentally transformed the understanding of heat stress on humans. People in most parts of the world are not only experiencing warmer weather, but the rise in temperatures is also accompanied by changing moisture patterns. Humans are resilient to high temperatures, provided sweat can evaporate. However, when the air is saturated with moisture, sweat lingers on the skin, and the body's thermoregulatory system is put under duress. 

The strait of high stakes, where law and leverage collide

The Strait of Hormuz is, today, the epicentre of a global economic and maritime crisis. Following the unprovoked US-Israeli attack on Iran on February 28, the waterway now has the status of a "war zone", placing severe restrictions on the passage of global shipping. Impacting nearly 20 per cent of the world's oil and 25 per cent of LNG trade, this is the most significant disruption to global energy supply since the 1970s. 

On women's representation, India's overdue correction

Next Week, Parliament will take up the Women's Reservation Bill in a special session, a historic step by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Despite efforts, we failed to provide proper representation to women in Indian legislatures in the past 75 years. At the time of our Constitution-making, there were suggestions that, just like the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, women, too, should be given a quota in our legislatures. 

Through Phule's eyes, connecting the inequality dots

The enduring relevance of Jyotirao Phule does not lie in ceremonial remembrance but in the clarity with which he understood Indian society. He saw, long be-fore others, that inequality here is structured through the combined force of class exploitation, caste hierarchy and patriarchy. These are not separate problems. They are intertwined systems that sustain each other.

Gaganyaan-1 crew module splashes down in air drop test successfully

In yet another step towards the upcoming Gaganyaan mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday successfully conducted the air drop test involving the crew module, at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota. The crew module is the specially designed, pressurised capsule positioned at the uppermost area of the spacecraft which houses the astronauts. 

A guiding light for generations: PM pays tribute to Phule on birth anniversary

Paying tribute to social reformer Jyotirao Phule on his birth anniversary, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was an example of how social change could happen within society and did not have to wait for a change from outside

'Difficult to replace the Gulf as a supply source'

The production cost of oil and gas in the Gulf is the lowest in the world. For consuming countries, sourcing supplies will remain a challenge

Global concerns vs national interest: Why India lost interest in hosting COP33

IT was in December 2023, during COP28 in Dubai, that Prime Minister Narendra Modi offered to host the 2028 edition of the annual climate summit in India.

A public and explicit offer to host a COP meeting, five years in advance, and that too from a head of state, was extremely rare. It was a clear indication that India was looking to play a more active and leading role in international climate affairs. The offer had come just a few months after a successful G20 meeting in New Delhi whose final out-come had important decisions on climate.

ONGC chief: Notion of easy access to Gulf energy hit

The West Asia war and the halt in vessel movements through the critical chokepoint of the Strait of Hormuz have put a question mark on certain long-held assumptions in the energy sector, like the reliability of Gulf energy for India, and the country must act to quickly diversify its energy sources, meaningfully expand strategic oil and gas reserves, and chase "each and every drop of oil, gas, and coal" that can be produced domestically, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) Chair-man and CEO Arun Kumar Singh said on Friday.