In the New Year’s first week, as T.S. Tirumurti, India’s ambassador to the UN, prepared to take his seat in the UN Security Council for a two-year tenure as non-permanent member, another kind of global security was being concurrently consolidated by India. Dr. V.G. Somani, the country’s drugs controller general, announced approval for two vaccines made in India for “restricted use in emergency situation.” This has triggered “the world’s biggest vaccination programme”, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi read more

Since 8 January 2021, when Twitter banned former U.S. President Donald Trump, the might of social media platforms has been on full display. Twitter was followed by Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat in suspending Trump’s accounts, and Parler, the equivalent of Twitter but without the content restrictions, was chastised by its hosting servers including Amazon, Google and Apple for not self-regulating content read more

The virtual Panel Discussion (14 January 2021) on “G20’s Future: Italy, Indonesia, India” was designed to raise awareness about the Italian presidency and its possible synergy with the two subsequent presidencies. It revolved around three key themes: macro view of the G20’s role; sectoral questions ranging from health to economy, sustainable development and more; and specific country perspectives of the present and future Chairs read more

Kamala Harris spoke movingly of her discussions with her grandfather P.V.Gopalan as they walked along the beach at Chennai. It now appears that her running-mate Joe Biden may also have ancestors who strolled along the same stretch of sand two centuries before. Joe Biden first made the claim of an Indian connection in 2013. Two years later he elaborated that he was descended from George Biden, his “great, great, great, great, read more