India is going through a phenomenal transformation politically, socially, and religiously. It is exciting. But it is also scarry and quite different than the popular image of a Nehru-Gandhi’s India. On February 14, 2024, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a $95 million temple in Abu Dhabi on 27 acres of land that is donated by President Sheikh Mohammad bin […]

In 2023, Hunan TV, China’s second-most-watched television channel, unveiled a series called When Marx Met Confucius. The conceit was literal: actors playing the two thinkers—Confucius dressed in a tan robe and Karl Marx in a black suit and a leonine white wig—met at the Yuelu Academy, a thousand-year-old school renowned for its role in developing Confucian philosophy. Over five episodes, […]

In January 2024, Chinese president Xi Jinping accepted the credentials of the ambassador of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (the Taliban) to China. And in September 2023 China was the first country to name a new ambassador to the Islamic Emirate since August 2021. Today, over a dozen countries maintain diplomatic representation in Kabul, though none have formally recognized the […]

On February 5, 2024, a suspected Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) cadre, Vimal Yadav, was arrested by the Police from the Shaheed Bhagat Singh colony in Ashok Nagar, under the Rampur Police Station limits of Gaya District. A CPI-Maoist letter pad was recovered from his possession. On February 1, 2024, one CPI-Maoist cadre, Kare Lal aka Pyare Lal Koda, carrying […]

On January 13, 2024, Assam Rifles along with Arunachal Pradesh Police arrested one over-ground worker (OGW) of the Independent faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA-I) in the Jairampur area of Changlang District in Arunachal Pradesh. The arrestee was involved in various extortion-related activities On January 11, 2024, Assam Rifles arrested two ULFA-I operatives, identified as ‘2nd lieutenant’ […]

None of the three main political parties in Pakistan were able to secure a majority in parliament following the 8 February election. Of the 266 contestable National Assembly (NA) seats, independent candidates backed by Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) won 93. Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz) (PML-N) and Bhutto-Zardari’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) secured 75 and 54 seats, respectively. […]

The Taliban have advertised their efforts towards infrastructure development over the last two years, since taking over power in August 2021. The Taliban Deputy Minister of Economy Abdul Latif Nazari stated in August 2023 that “overall 3575 development projects of $1.9 billion have been launched in the field of infrastructure, health, energy and transportation”.1 Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid stated that […]

The Nation Becomes Victim of Futile Elections A nation already at the edge of socioeconomic and crises of moral and political integrity becomes victim of authoritarian tyranny, political sinisterism and enduring pains, horrors and global degradation because of the fallacy of national elections being rigged by those very officials supposed to be responsible for a fair and free ballot box […]

On 8 February 2024, millions of Pakistanis emphatically responded through the vote in the general elections to months of repression and the systematic persecution of former prime minister Imran Khan and his party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), turning out to vote against the country’s powerful military establishment. The majority of Pakistan’s nearly 60 million voters delivered a stinging rebuke to the […]

Introduction Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1992, ‘the tectonic plates of geopolitics have been shifting’ and with current geopolitical tensions, including the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, the Israeli-Hamas war, new alliances and potential rivalry among world powers seeking for influence in Africa and other regions of the world, ‘we may see the world becoming more multipolar’. Despite the plethora […]