A dangerous march towards a Himalayan ecocide

In 2025, which saw nearly 331 days of near-continuous climate impacts, the human cost was staggering: over 4,000 deaths attributed to climate-induced disasters in 2025 alone, with Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand bearing the heaviest toll. Towns such as Dharali, Harsil, Uttarkashi, Chamoli, Kullu, Mandi and Kishtwar were ravaged by sudden cloudbursts, landslides, and avalanches that morphed into deadly flash floods, obliterating lives and livelihoods. 

In the ecologically vulnerable Himalayas, disaster resilience must take precedence over disaster-prone projects and infrastructure.

BRICS India summit needs a green and resilient agenda

The next BRICS Summit will be held in India this year. Having hosted the G-20 (2023), infrastructure and organisational processes are in place, but India must quickly hone in on the Summit's focus. This should obviously resonate with India and BRICS, but critically be an issue that is of vital importance for the Global South.

Given its vastly increased vulnerabilities to climate change, resilience is a top priority for the South, and also underscores India's and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's global leadership on an inclusive green agenda.

Does Trump's Greenland plan signal the end of NATO?

The U.S. is needed not only because of its military capabilities, but also because Europe has had the luxury of neglecting its own defence for decades. Also, without the U.S., the divisions in Europe will sharpen further.

The limits of household stability

India's growth rests on aggregate comfort, but a closer look shows households saving less, borrowing more, and quietly absorbing economic risks once shared more broadly.

Household debt is not yet a crisis, but uneven income growth, rising liabilities, and volatile net financial savings point to a growing fragility beneath stable consumption. 

As fiscal policy prioritises investment and discipline, risk is being reallocated to households, making the balance between growth, demand, and household stability central before Budget 2026.

Officials 'coercing' us to surrender land: tribals

With some sections of the *92,000-crore Great Nicobar Island mega-infrastructure project "nearing approval", members of the Tribal Council in Little and Great Nicobar on Thursday alleged that they are being pressured by the district administration to "surrender our ancestral lands" to make way for the project.

Parts of the project in Galathea Bay, Pemmaya Bay, and Nanjappa Bay re-quire the diversion of for-est lands on which the indigenous Nicobarese people had been living before the 2004 tsunami. 

Net FDI negative for fourth month in a row in Nov. 2025

Net foreign portfolio investments have also been negative so far in the financial year 2025-26, with uncertainty over the India-U.S. trade deal and the weakening rupee affecting investor confidence