India

Hamlet’s existential dilemma — ‘To be or not to be?’ — is finding an echo in Indian schools: To ban or not to ban smartphones in classrooms.With Himachal Pradesh chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu announcing a ban on the use of mobile phones by students in all govt and private schools from March, and his…

The Times of India’s ‘Let’s D-Stress’ campaign aims to initiate a nationwide conversation around digital stress, its consequences, and practical ways to address it. The objective of the initiative is to turn awareness of digital behaviour into action, leveraging science and technology to help individuals reclaim attention, productivity, and mental wellbeing in an increasingly distracted…

NEW DELHI: In order to end unnecessary delay in assessing projects for environmental clearances (EC), the Union environment ministry has proposed to set up a central body — Standing Committee on Environment Impact Appraisal (SCEIA) — for each State/UT, which will appraise projects when state-level panels are non-functional. The idea behind the proposal is to…

NEW DELHI: From states as afar as Bihar and Uttarakhand, home minister Amit Shah is leading BJP’s push to put the issue of infiltrators on the front burner with an eye on not only the upcoming assembly elections, especially in West Bengal and Assam where it has a certain resonance, but also on shaping the…

Noted Leftist historian K N Panikkar, who critiqued colonial historiography’s simplistic view of culture and highlighted how indigenous intellectuals offered an alternative paradigm of modernity, passed away at a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. He would have turned 90 next month.Panikkar, affectionately called KN by his colleagues, belonged to a select group of historians…

Urges Experts, Policymakers To Work On New Training Models NEW DELHI: PM Narendra Modi on Monday highlighted the growing importance of the care economy and telemedicine in strengthening India’s healthcare system, saying both sectors will play a key role in expanding services and creating new employment opportunities in the coming years.Addressing the fourth post-Budget webinar…

NEW DELHI: With the Bahrain airport not seeing any commercial flights since Feb 28, the Indian embassy there has made arrangements for stranded compatriots to return home via Saudi Arabia.“The embassy in Riyadh is obtaining individual transit visa approvals from Saudi govt. Transit visa requests are being referred by Indian embassy in Bahrain to Indian…

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Monday closed suo motu contempt proceedings initiated against YouTuber Ajay Shukla for his “defamatory” remarks against a former apex court judge after he tendered an unconditional apology.A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma decided to accept Shukla’s apology and end the proceedings against him but warned him…

NEW DELHI: In a major blow to an organised illegal wildlife trafficking network, MP State Tiger Strike Force, in coordination with Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, arrested Tarak Nath Ghosh, kingpin of a reptile smuggling racket, from Kanpur Sunday, reports Vishwa Mohan.Ghosh, part of a gang once operated by Chennai-based international wildlife smuggler Manivannan Murugesan, is…

SRINAGAR: Kashmir politicians across parties met Iranian ambassador Mohammad Fathali in New Delhi on Monday, expressing grief at Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s killing and calling US-Israel attacks “barbaric”.The meeting followed widespread protests in Kashmir last week over Khamenei’s murder in the attacks. “The people of Kashmir stand with the courageous and resilient people of Iran,” PDP…