Sarfaraz Khan has been recalled to India's Test squad for the two-match away series against Sri Lanka, starting August 15, following an injury to Sai Sudharsan. This recall comes after two years of consistent performance and a significant physical transformation, including shedding 17kg.
Dharmendra Pradhan's resignation is significant because it punctures, however slightly, the perception that the Modi government never retreats under pressure. Every long-serving government eventually reaches a point where every institutional failure is identified with the leader himself. Removing the minister may have prevented that political burden from falling directly on Modi. Whether it also resolves the underlying crisis is another matter, notes Ramesh Menon.
Hindustan Unilever (HUL) has topped the Perpetual Capital Hurun India Impact 50 - 2026 list with 53.9 points (on the scale of 0-100), reflecting a strong performance across key sustainable development goals (SDGs), including climate, water, circularity, gender and biodiversity.
Kerala's 2026 assembly election will see a three-cornered contest where religion and communalism have emerged as central themes for the first time, challenging the state's long-celebrated secular fabric.
The LPG squeeze on India's restaurant sector is the quotidian face of a deeper crisis.
India has secured the second position, contributing 36 per cent of the total brand value, a significant achievement fuelled by a 14 per cent increase in brand value, according to Brand Finance 2025 ranking. India follows the US, which maintains its dominant position in IT services brand value, holding 40 per cent of the total brand value.
India has for the first time secured a place among the top 100 out of 167 countries ranked for their progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), according to a report published on Tuesday. According to the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network's 10th and latest Sustainable Development Report (SDR), India ranks 99th on the 2025 SDG Index with a score of 67, while China ranks 49th with 74.4 and the US 44th with 75.2 points.
Shreyas Iyer has overcome perceptions about his batting abilities and a difficult period in his career to establish himself as a key player in India's ODI team.
Over the years, India has enjoyed bipartisan support in the US and this asset must be kept intact and nurtured through across the board political and civil society engagement, suggests former foreign secretary Shyam Saran.
...the BJP's template of operation was different or if the Centre and the state were ruled by dissimilar parties? asks Shyam G Menon.
Opportunity for India to take leadership in economic diplomacy.
Though the lies hardly go beyond extramarital affairs and conception problems, they are laid out by arresting storytellers who raise the stakes while speaking in tongues not wiped clean to make progressive points (No Made in Heaven-type diddling, here), notes Sreehari Nair.
Our precipitous decline is being noticed and recorded abroad with alarm. It is strange that within India we are carrying on as if it is business as usual, observes Aakar Patel.
'Not one single country, anywhere in the world, is corruption-free,' the report said.
A new Congress leader may make an electoral impact by his very presence. Congress voters who had moved away from the party, after being influenced by the BJP's 'family rule' campaign, can now return with a certain moral satisfaction, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
'It's also a movie-crazed kid's idea of a great time,' discovers Sreehari Nair.
Switzerland has been named the happiest country in the world.
Under its Turnaround 2.0 programme, Tata Motors will work to improve its sales capabilities -- "as the product itself is not enough" -- use experiential marketing to excite the market and cut costs to make its offerings more competitive.
Australia batsman Phillip Hughes remained in critical condition in a Sydney hospital on Tuesday after undergoing emergency surgery for a sickening head injury sustained when struck by a ball during a domestic match.
With Joji, Dileesh Pothan has found a way, once more, to use everything he has learnt to further push the boundaries of his art, observes Sreehari Nair.
'I give Modi full credit, for brilliantly using his personal diplomacy, his personal stature, to accomplish his goals...'
'At a time when sports leagues are often smothered by the allure of spurious glamour, it is easy to forget what makes them so exciting in the first place: The sport itself.' 'At its core, the PKL has a fast-paced, engaging sport working for it.' 'Simply put, kabaddi, with its end-to-end action and oscillating fortunes, is almost never dull to watch,' says Dhruv Munjal.
'The man who never knows when he is beaten deserved, on the day he played what will be his last World Cup game, mates who were not beaten in the mind before they were beaten on the field.' Prem Panicker salutes 'India's best one day captain by a long margin who led superbly throughout the tournament.'
Four days after a scuffle between intoxicated young men on Diwali night in Trilokpuri's Block 20 spiralled into a diffused communal riot that resulted in scores of injuries, dozens of arrests, and the incineration of at least one Muslim-owned shop, the violence appears to have abated but tension and suspicion persist.
'We don't have to be the world's policeman. We don't have to impose our values. But we need to lead and when we pull back as we've done, you begin to see exactly what happens -- the voids are filled by threats of terror that countries have to suffer with, including India.'
'It is ironic that the guy who set the standard of stardom was forgotten. It was his death that made us remember him again.'
'Modi is likely to make more announcements to win or retain popularity, and put himself at the centre of things even more than now,' says T N Ninan.
It is a dark legacy bequeathed by Nehru to India. In its DNA lies the subconscious fount of India's schizophrenic geopolitics that forsook in one sweep all its historically-entrenched strategic interests in Tibet in favour of China, says R N Ravi, on the 60th anniversary of the Panchsheel Agreement.
'The US wants Modi to succeed because we want India to succeed. For our part, when India thinks of its partners in the world, we want it to think of the US first. That means positioning our country as the preferred provider of the key inputs that can help to propel India's rise.' 'The meeting between Modi and Obama is, and must be, an opportunity for true strategic dialogue -- not a scripted exchange of talking points, but an open discussion of the big questions. What kind of world do we want to live in? What are our true priorities? And most importantly, why does this partnership still matter?'
Chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian discusses the Budget, goods and services tax, Centre-state relationship and larger issues facing the economy
'Diplomatic engagement will continue even as India keeps all its options open with respect to discretely targeting the Pakistani military and its terrorist proxies.'
