LIAM ROGERS WRITES — On June 30, 2020, the 14th corps. commander Lt-General Harinder Singh (of India) and South Xinjiang Military District chief Major General Lui Lin (of China) launched a third round of de-escalation meetings while The Indian Times reported that India will, among other things, be pushing for…
Full Article SINO-INDO RELATIONS: PAKISTAN’S COMPLICATED INVOLVEMENT
ASSOCIATE EDITOR ZHI JIAO DANIELLE GOH WRITES – When Albert Einstein warned about the danger of nuclear weapons, he famously said: “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.” Recently, tensions between Chinese and Indian…
Full Article CHINA AND INDIA: THE STICKS AND STONES WAR
ANNALISA DEL VECCHIO WRITES – Would it be right to describe the visibility of the Himalayas for the first time in thirty years as a good thing? Yes, in a way. The snow-covered peaks have been obscured by air pollution for decades, but the coronavirus pandemic has helped reduce pollution…
Full Article CORONAVIRUS CHRONICLES: CLEAN THE AIR, FLATTEN THE CURVE
Picture from “Four men have been executed over rape and murder. It’s no victory for women.” by Sud (2020), showing a recent gunning down of four sexual violence offenders in Delhi, India. KHALID ALGHUNAIM WRITES – The current state of sexual abuse in India is not just shameful but deeply…
Full Article INDIA: A COUNTRY BATTERED BY SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN
SARA ALTUWAIJRI WRITES- At the very end of 2019, India’s Parliament issued a new Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) granting citizenship to refugees who entered the country prior to December 31 of 2014. This act covered refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, and Sri Lanka, among other countries. CAA was supposedly…
Full Article INDIA: DOES CITIZENSHIP ACT AMENDMENT TARGET MUSLIMS?
DIEGO GARCIA WRITES– Rakesh Sharma, a former space traveler, and India’s first astronaut, stated at a conference on April 5th, 2019, “The Indian programme has advanced both in space science and space applications, and has developed unique low-cost space technologies”. As India continues to position itself as an important…
Full Article India: The Next Leader in the Space Race
DIEGO GARCIA WRITES– Bangladesh, a small country with a GDP of 250 billion (2017), is rapidly industrializing— giving stiff competition to two Asian giants: China and India. Even though most of our apparel is made in China, Bangladesh does not fall far behind; in 2017 it was the world’s second-largest…
Full Article WORLD: Who is China and India’s New Industrial Rival?
PAULA MARKOW WRITES– Outfest Fusion, a film festival that showcases the LGBTQ community, ran from March 1 to 5 at the Chinese Theatre, offering an array of short films. One segment that caught my attention was a series of shorts about the LGBT community in India. The first short, Yaman,…
Full Article LGBTQ: The Indian Films From Outfest You Need to See
Despite the positive effects of online social communities, easy access has led to a spread of so-called “fake news,” where false stories are forwarded among family members and friends. To manage such abuse, WhatsApp, a messaging platform, has launched a campaign in India to filter out such messages by deleting…
Full Article India: WhatsApp’s Fight Against Fake News in India
(Certain names in the story have been shortened to protect the person’s identity.) AASHNA MALPANI WRITES– I hear a piercing wail in the background. My source puts the phone on hold for a minute, then returns with apologies: “Sometimes I wish I never had him.” She sounds exasperated, complaining about…
Full Article INDIA: Postpartum Depression, Women, and the Indian Society in Between
OLIVIA AMEZCUA WRITES — The smog that has been polluting New Delhi for decades has reached a new intensity, according to recent reports, with pollution levels 20 times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit. In fact, the New Delhi Air Quality Index hit an all-time high reading of 999. Last…
Full Article India: Choked by Smog
SAUD AL RASHED WRITES – Social media is a relatively new phenomenon, and, due to the fact that it is relatively new, it is not very clear how it should be handled. The matter is complicated by the fact that social media platforms are evolving every day -and sometimes things…
Full Article INDIA: THE NEW, RAZOR-FAST TECHNOLOGY OF HATRED AND THE URGENT NEED TO DULL THE EDGES
YOUSEF AL HOMAIDHI WRITES — Aadhar is an ambitious project started by the Government of India which functions under the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) and came into existence in 2009. Aadhar is a 12-digit unique identification number that is given to each and every citizen by UIDAI. It…
Full Article INDIA: NOT UNLIKE FACEBOOK, WILL ‘AADHAR’ PROVE A BOON OR A CURSE?
FASSA SAR WRITES – Amazon and Netflix are now battling it out to gain the eyeballs of millions of Indian television viewers. These two company giants are moving away from the traditional Hollywood strategy where television and film are created for American audiences with the hope they catch some international…
Full Article FILM: AMAZON AND NETFLIX TURN INDIA INTO A HUGE CREATIVE OPPORTUNITY FOR ITS BEST YOUNG TV AND MOVIE TALENTS
DIANA JABLONSKI WRITES – Riots and protesting broke out in India last month against the release of the controversial Bollywood film “Padmaavat.” Protesters have filled streets, vandalized cinemas, ransacked shops, burned vehicles, and called for the film’s ban. In fact, protests started a year before the film’s release, with vandals…
Full Article INDIA: PADMAAVAT FILM LEADS TO CONTROVERSY REGARDING RELIGION