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Time of India
14 hours ago
- Politics
- Time of India
President strangelove
Times of India's Edit Page team comprises senior journalists with wide-ranging interests who debate and opine on the news and issues of the day. Even by realpolitik standards, US loving terror sponsor Pak is a new low. India should assume worse will come Trump saying 'I love Pakistan' must be understood both in the historical and current context of US policy. That America's president is proclaiming love for a country widely known for funding, training, and protecting terrorists links back to decades of Washington policy. America has long perfected a kind of doublespeak when it comes to Pakistan-sponsored terror. Americans chose to unsee even the fact that Islamabad gave sanctuary to 9/11's architect bin Laden. Or that 26/11, which claimed American victims, was an ISI op. Now, with Israel's war on Iran, and some American strategists advocating Israeli-US bombing runs, Washington's 'realpolitik' argument would run like this: Pakistan is the only Islamic nation with nuclear weapons, it has so far backed Tehran with which it shares a 909-km border, and Beijing has a key presence in all matters Pakistan, therefore, keeping Islamabad happy makes sense. That Trump met and dined with jihadi-in-uniform Munir reinforces the point that US sees Pakistan as a tool of war. Sure, nation-states are expected to operate in national interest. Despite West's pressure, New Delhi stayed the course on buying oil from Moscow, the aggressor in the other war. But Russia, however unlovely Putin's regime is, isn't a terror sponsor. Only a few countries use terrorism as a strategic tool – Pakistan is one of them, and its target, as even Trump should know, is India. Therefore, 'loving Pakistan' and supping with its field marshal, who's a radical religious fundamentalist, isn't the same as India buying Russian oil. More so since, reportedly, Trump is offering Munir 'weaponry' in return for airspace access into Iran. Modi did well to tell Trump India won't brook any mediation. But New Delhi will have to assume things can get worse. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Time of India
Connecting people
Times of India's Edit Page team comprises senior journalists with wide-ranging interests who debate and opine on the news and issues of the day. DNA tech means remains of AI crash victims will reach their kin. It has also changed the world When Garuda Airways flight 152 crashed on Sept 26, 1997, many of the 234 fliers were mutilated beyond recognition. Eventually, 48 were interred in a mass grave. Thanks to advancements in DNA matching since then, kin of the Air India crash victims have been spared this pain. At least 135 of the 270 victims – many of them completely charred – have already been identified. Officials hope to complete the task by Wednesday. It's a measure of technology's march since scientist Alec Jeffreys found the first genetic fingerprint on Sept 10, 1984. He didn't discover DNA – that honour goes to Swiss scientist Friedrich Miescher, who made the discovery in 1869, the year Mahatma Gandhi was born. But then, not much happened for the next 115 years. Yes, Watson and Crick figured out DNA's structure and won a Nobel in 1962, but DNA didn't have practical uses until Jeffreys' eureka moment. Within a year, he had helped a boy get British citizenship by establishing a DNA link between him and his parents. The year after, he helped nail the culprit in a double rape and murder case. US caught on in 1986, and by 2013 its Department of Justice was collecting and analysing DNA samples for $40 a pop. Now, you can order a DNA paternity test online. Sequencing machines have become tiny – the smallest ones weigh less than a smartphone and cost around $3,000. US troops used one to identify IS leader Baghdadi on their chopper in 2019. Meanwhile, over 40mn people have given DNA samples to private firms to trace their ancestry. In recent weeks, DNA has revealed mix-ups that happened in hospitals in 1940s when newborns weren't tagged. It's solved decades-old crimes, and freed innocents who lost their youth in jail. It's a gift that keeps on giving. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
Time of India
5 days ago
- Sport
- Time of India
Bravo, Bavuma's boys
Times of India's Edit Page team comprises senior journalists with wide-ranging interests who debate and opine on the news and issues of the day. South Africa became Test champ thanks to grit & patience. Pointers for a young Indian team Choker' is the unkindest of labels in sport. It means you have the talent, but not the temperament to win, especially when it matters most. It means your defeats are caused as much by your opponents as by the demons in your head. It is a terrible cross to bear and post-apartheid South Africa carried it in cricket for nearly three decades. Starting from Allan Donald's needless run-out against Australia in 1999 ODI World Cup semifinal to their capitulation from a dominant position against India in the 2024 T20 World Cup final – the Proteas frequently settled for failure when success looked eager for an embrace. In the World Test Championship final against Australia at Lord's, South Africa rewrote the script, buried the tag of 'choker' forever. They were up against an opponent which relishes the big stage and seldom concedes an inch. But this time captain Temba Bavuma and his men didn't need any. In a high pressure encounter, where every delivery was fiercely contested over four days, South Africa played the game, ignored the occasion. Opener Aiden Markram's 136 will rank among the greatest Test innings of all time. Paceman Kagiso Rabada (5/51 and 4/59) was the knife that cut through Australia. But it was injured captain Bavuma's 66 that was inspirational, typifying the new determined South Africa which deservedly became champions. Hopefully, the triumph will also act as a unifier in a country increasingly torn apart by differences within. South Africa's triumph also carries a lesson or two for a largely inexperienced Team India touring England. Australia were the favourites to win. But S Africa bowled with fire, batted with patience and discipline. They never gave up. They believed. Captain Gill and company would do well to imbibe these traits on a tour that will test them hard. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
Time of India
03-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Factory factor
Times of India's Edit Page team comprises senior journalists with wide-ranging interests who debate and opine on the news and issues of the day. Manufacturing growth isn't keeping up with GDP growth, indicating a problem that needs fixing Taiwan, less than 0.4% the size of China, ensures its safety by making 90% of the world's silicon chips. It's indispensable, hence untouchable in a good way. That's the power of manufacturing. So, when you read India's GDP data for Jan-March, pay attention. The good news is that growth accelerated to 7.4%, better than China's 5.4% in the same quarter. But most of it happened in construction, especially govt-funded projects. Manufacturing grew at a modest 4.8% despite govt's PLI schemes for sectors like electronics and solar equipment, and the front-loading of orders by US importers anticipating Trump tariffs. Apple alone lifted five plane-loads of iPhones in the last week of March. We are now in the third month of this fiscal's first quarter, and given the global uncertainty, it's time to assess manufacturing as a national priority. On paper, it has been govt's focus for years, yet its share in GDP is stagnant – 15% in 2014, 17% now04. Govt's 25% target remains elusive. In China, despite its 4.5x larger economy and five years of 'China+1' sourcing policies, manufacturing accounts for 26% of GDP. India's GDP is projected to grow at 6.5% this fiscal, well below the asking rate of 8% for reducing poverty. Manufacturing is key to the required quantum leap. It's a political necessity to employ youth that GCCs and other white-collar operations can't absorb. After Op Sindoor, it's also a security imperative. A nation of 1.4bn should be making its own drones, planes and missile shield. But assembling iPhones is only a step, not a goal, because it does not give us Taiwan-like manufacturing clout. We need more foreign investment, but also domestic R&D to get ahead in emerging technologies. PLIs won't get us there – half of India's phone-making capacity is unutilised. Tamil Nadu, the lone state where 25% of GSDP comes from manufacturing, got there by actively fulfilling industry needs of manpower, regulation and infra. If TN can do it, so can Gujarat, Maharashtra, UP and others. What's needed is political will. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
Time of India
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Time of India
Yes means yes
Times of India's Edit Page team comprises senior journalists with wide-ranging interests who debate and opine on the news and issues of the day. Teenagers having consensual sex is basic human design. This must be decriminalised by GOI There are countless ways in which adults fail to understand teenagers and let them down. But when a systemic orthodoxy is causing them clear injustice, at least then the adult approaches must be reformed without delay. In the case of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012, court reports have been showing for years that blanket criminalisation of teenage sexual activity is deeply oppressive. Now, the Supreme Court has issued notice to GOI to give its views on amici curiae's suggestions regarding POCSO, whose rigid application in cases of adolescent relationships is found to lead to traumatically unjust outcomes. An analysis of all judgments passed in a case involving rape in Delhi's district courts in 2013 found that around one-third involved couples who had chosen to be together. Their parents pursued the police action. Police often sympathises with the girl's father, families often punish her with a severe beating. He gets jail and a rape conviction. Because her age of consent is 18. The defence is that these families and cops' morality cannot be changed simply by changing the law. It's an untenable defence. Their private morality is immaterial. The issue is adolescents' entitlement to a private life, to coming of age, on their own terms, in perfectly healthy and natural ways. Refusing to uphold adolescent agency to consent is in a continuum of injustice that wives also suffer. In this context, the phrase 'women and children' rings cruelly apt. GOI has been opposing the criminalisation of marital rape citing concern for 'social and family structure'. Consent, though, is the bedrock of human dignity. By wrenching it away from intimate relationships, lawmakers are enabling a legion of personal torments, and encouraging the worst instincts of adult busybodies. Reform the law, recognise consent, that's where both private and public good lie. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
