The dreary, cold months from December to February may prove to be the undoing of many a nation as they grapple with sky-high fuel prices - a result of the Ukraine conflict and the pandemic. Many - Europe, South Korea, Japan, and China - will still pull through on the strength of their wealth or because of strong storage infrastructure. But India will have its back to the wall. Signs of liquefied natural gas (LNG) rates hitting new records this winter are already evident.
The poster also reads, 'People who are pretending and conning others shouldn't forget the day they bowed their heads in front of Balasaheb.'
'Tehran,' Foreign Minister Zarif said, 'had expected the Modi government to be "more resilient" in the face of Washington's bullying,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Those (Russian) fighter jets just drop bombs and fly away.' 'How will they know if a bus is carrying Indian students?'
'What matters is that India's perspective on global issues -- climate change, intellectual property, free trade, trade routes being kept free, digital technology -- are listened to with respect,' says Ambassador B S Prakash.
While China's nationalistic tabloid Global Times said India should be taught a 'bitter lesson', another official newspaper, China Daily, said India should look in the mirror.
Kapil Dev's historic World Cup win wasn't the only highlight of 1983. Sukanya Verma looks back how the year treated Bollywood.
'One must remember that a dragon has a forked tongue,' warns Vivek Gumaste.
''I had no idea that my life would turn into a horror show.' 'I was stuck as the Russians kept bombing Kyiv non-stop.'
'The change of vocabulary in the India-US conversation was significant and refreshing.' 'It matched the styles of Trump and Modi.' 'The differences were not papered over, but there was determination to resolve them in the days ahead,' says Ambassador T P Sreenivasan.
'We are witnessing a spectacle of breathtakingly creative diplomacy at work, riveted on the firm foundations of the country's strategic autonomy,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Happy End' is a photo-project of 15 airplanes that had forced landings but all on board survived and were rescued.
Although the India-Japan relationship has its own driving forces in terms of robust economic ties and shared values, China is the elephant in the room in the strategic parleys between the two countries, says Rup Narayan Das.
India's commitment to an open and plural security architecture attests to the fact that Asia's transition is a dynamic of both power & identity, says Zorawar Daulet Singh
'Religion is being deprived of its spirituality and is being used for strife and war.' 'The task right now is to keep raising a voice in favour of the 'Real Hindustan', its democracy, its composite culture, its people and their welfare.'
India's low passion, very cautious, relationship with Iran of the last 36 years awaits transformation, says Lieutenant General Syed Ata Hasnain (retd). Prime Minister Modi's visit cannot be a negotiating event; it is a symbolic one to strengthen the politico-diplomatic relationship.
'1998-1999 was the only year in the last quarter century that India had net-negative foreign investment.' 'Foreign money ran away from India that year because capital is a coward and does not like uncertainty of the sort produced by such casual treatment of a destructive technology,' says Aakar Patel.
'We can expect heightened belligerence from China.'
But why is everyone getting so het up over what, after all, is a mere film? If you don't like it, don't watch it. Why create a public spectacle over it? asks Virendra Kapoor.
Shed suspicion and manage differences to improve Sino-Indian ties, says Chinese Foreign Minister.
'He destroyed many of our tanks, and finally, it was just the two of us left facing each other with our tanks just 200 m apart.' A tale of valour excerpted from Rachna Bisht Rawat's 1971: Charge Of The Gorkhas And Other Stories.
'Captain Haneef-ud-din, pulling his sinewy body forward, crawled, rifle in hand, in the snow on 6 June 1999. He died on this craggy mountainside exactly two years after he had passed out of the IMA...'
'Sholay wallah kahani hai: 'Gabbar Singh aayega, Gabbar Singh aayega.' 'But what is inside Gabbar Singh nobody knows.'
'It was India's good fortune to have a Vajpayee lead the government at this crucial moment in history.' 'By taking the N-decision he saved future generations of Indians from being 'Kosovoed' or 'Iraqed',' says Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
There is a vocal constituency of educated, well-to-do, articulate Indian elites who would rather go with the idea that too much democracy is a liability. That India needs a spell of benevolent dictatorship. Of course, they have never lived under one, points out Shekhar Gupta.
'There appears to be greater convergence of interests between China and the US in the Afghan-Pakistan theatre than between India and the US. This is hardly a recipe for a super-alliance,' says former foreign secretary Ambassador Shyam Saran.
"We've been told every time that... (the phone call) will happen, it's technical reasons or whatever. But frankly, people don't believe it," he said. "If a phone call is a concession, if a security relationship is a concession, Pakistan has options," he added, refusing to elaborate.
Oxygen levels have dropped to 15 per cent and more rain is expected over the weekend, making the rescue efforts only that much more difficult.
Contradicting perceived proximity to the Soviet Union in the Cold War era, India under the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had toyed with the idea of supporting anti-Russian civilian groups in Pakistan if the then Zia regime was thrown out by Moscow, a recent declassified Central Investigation Agency document has claimed.
Every country is a free trader when it sees advantage, and a trade warrior when it does not, says T N Ninan.
'We know, from our experience of this virus, that there's something known as long COVID-19, where you have this persistent fatigue and some people have lost their neurological acuteness and they are not as sharp as they used to be.'
'It was Dhanush's idea to have the meditation beats when we first see him as a character.' 'So giving him a flavour made him very unique.'
The relations between Pakistan and the US nosedived this January after US President Donald Trump accused Islamabad of giving nothing to Washington but "lies and deceit" and providing "safe haven" to terrorists.
A look at the top tweets from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
From the drones show to projection mapping show, this year's ceremony also presented quite a few firsts.
'There is a compulsion to look hard, decisive, and risk-taking; start something; and then conclude it in a way you can claim victory.' 'That is not such an easy option against China,' notes Shekhar Gupta.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to make efforts to put India-China ties in the "right direction" and to "respect and accommodate" each other's concerns to avoid "impedance" relations, a top Chinese diplomat said on Tuesday.
Narrowing of differences on competing territorial claims along the un-demarcated LAC might take weeks, if not months, of hard-nosed negotiations. Without some give and take on both sides, the impasse will be hard to resolve, observes Virendra Kapoor.
'It is time India withdraws the complaint from the UN and fully integrates the state of J&K into the Indian Union,' recommends Colonel Anil A Athale (retd).
'It would not be incorrect to say that the Chinese-Pakistani strategy of containing India began in the aftermath of the 1965 war.'
