India

(By James Tapper) 100 million new voters are about to transform India (via GlobalPost) NEW DELHI, India — With only a few weeks until India elects its next prime minister, the country’s “demographic dividend” — the young people who provide its best hope of becoming a major economic power — is about to become its […]

India

India’s Elections: Religious Nationalism and the Future of Democracy

Juan Cole

(via The Economist) Elections in India: Carnival of democracy (via The Economist) LET the contest begin. On March 5th India’s electoral commission, at last, set the dates for the largest democratic exercise on Earth. By mid-May, India should have a new government. From April 7th until May 12th, across nine different phases of voting… […]

Climate Change

India’s New Large-Scale Solar Projects will add 2 Gigawatts to its Grid

contributors

Two gigawatts (GW) worth of new large-scale solar energy projects will soon be constructed in the nation of India, according to the country’s finance minister Shri Chidambaram. During his interim budget speech earlier this week, Chidambaram stated…

Arab World

“Zariya”: A. R. Rahman, Jordan song, Nepal Buddhist Hymn

Juan Cole

India’s MTV program “Coke Studio” (sponsored by Coca Cola) presents: Published on Aug 1, 2013 Giving a whole new spin to the term ‘world music’ — A.R.Rahman spins his magic on an absolute scorcher, featuring Jordanian singer –Farah Siraj along with Nepalese Buddhist Nun Ani Choying. With the traditional Nepalese Buddhist hymn forming the base […]

India

Tagore’s “The New Year” (Poem of the Day)

contributors

(By Rabindranath Tagore) The New Year LIKE FRUIT, shaken free by an impatient wind from the veils of its mother flower, thou comest, New Year, whirling in a frantic dance amid the stampede of the wind-lashed clouds and infuriate showers, while trampled by thy turbulence are scattered away the faded and the frail in an […]

Featured

India Flap derives from America’s Gulag Practices and Far-Right Supreme Court

Juan Cole

(By Juan Cole) The militarization of American police and humiliating practices of routine strip and cavity searches are the real culprits in the current diplomatic dispute between the United States and India. Police not only arrested the Indian deputy consul, Devyani Khobragade, who claims diplomatic immunity, on a minor visa and domestic labor charge, they […]

Human Rights

Indian Gays Shocked by Supreme Court Ruling upholding Colonial Sodomy Laws

csstester

(By Boris Dittrich) The day after International Human Rights Day, India’s Supreme Court published its ruling on whether the country’s sodomy law, which had been overturned by the Delhi High Court and then appealed, was unconstitutional. I’ve been a lawyer, a judge and a member of parliament in the Netherlands and each of those roles […]

Climate Change

With a Solar Minimum and La Nina’s, Why isn’t it Really, Really Cold?

Juan Cole

2013 is witnessing another year of very low sunspot activity, showing that we are in a years-long solar minimum. It may not last much longer, but something is going on more than just the usual drop in solar activity every 11 years. Even that 11-year cycle affects the weather. But we’ve seen remarkably low sunspot […]

Energy

India’s Energy could be 15% from Renewables by 2020: Greentech CEOs

Juan Cole

When you actually put renewable energy CEOs on television, they can explain that coal and other hyrdrocarbons receive government subsidies, making them look much cheaper than they actually are, whereas wind is now competitive with coal. When’s the last time you say a conversation like this on American television? You have to wonder if Time […]