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Columnists
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Bloggers
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Opinion | UK-India Trade Pact: The Empire, Finally, Shakes An Equal Hand
For 200 years, Britain shaped India's trade rules to its advantage - plundering raw materials, taxing salt, killing industries in the name of "free markets". Now, as post-Brexit UK shops around for friends, India has become a prized dance partner.
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- Jul 23, 2025 18:48 pm IST
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Opinion | Snapback To Reality: On Iran's 45-Year Slog To Nowhere
Vietnam chose wisely. It invited its old enemy to build factories, sign defence pacts and invest in peace. Tehran must decide: does it want to be the next Vietnam - or the next North Korea?
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- Jul 18, 2025 16:29 pm IST
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Opinion | The Great Indian IT Crash: Why You, An Engineer, Still Can't Find A Job
In Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, you will find PG hostels full of jobless coders, waiting, scrolling job portals, wondering what happened to their cherished IT dream. This is a story of a generation staring up a ladder that no longer reaches the sky
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- Jul 14, 2025 15:32 pm IST
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Opinion | Can Musk And His America Party Rely On 'Vibes'?
Musk is betting big on a simple truth: that people are tired of politics as usual. He thinks they want disruption, the kind that doesn't just drain the swamp but uploads it to the cloud.
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- Jul 09, 2025 16:13 pm IST
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Opinion | China Discovers It Can't Be A Superpower With 'Commitment Issues'
As the dust settles over Iran's shattered facilities, Beijing faces the question it has long tried to avoid: can it remain everyone's partner without becoming someone's adversary?
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- Jul 08, 2025 16:35 pm IST
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Opinion | Gaza's Final Act: A Handful Of Dust, A Skyful Of Death
A child who grows up amid such relentless trauma carries wounds that no treaty can heal. Even if the guns fall silent, what future can there be for a generation that has known nothing but siege, bombardment and bereavement?
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- Jul 04, 2025 16:08 pm IST
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Opinion | Why America Is Like A Teenager Who Refuses To Grow Up
American foreign policy in West Asia is a textbook example of adolescent overreach: short attention spans, cyclical memory, a belief in shortcuts to regime change, and an almost allergic reaction to complexity.
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- Jun 26, 2025 16:53 pm IST
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Opinion | How Did The Muslim World Go So Wrong?
From the shattered boulevards of Tripoli to the bombed-out alleys of Aleppo, from Baghdad's sectarian heartlands to Gaza's crumbled skyline, a common image emerges - of nations torn apart, societies hollowed and futures stolen.
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- Jun 20, 2025 11:06 am IST
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Opinion | Netanyahu - And Trump - Are A Bit Deluded About Iran. Here's Why
Netanyahu may believe he is protecting Israel. Trump may believe he is projecting American strength. But unless they also believe in the dignity of people to shape their own future, they risk repeating history's worst mistakes.
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- Jun 19, 2025 12:48 pm IST
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Opinion | Is Airbus Safer Than Boeing? No, And That's Not The Point
Most passengers don't choose a plane, they choose an airline. But in a duopoly, the illusion of safety in one brand over another is often just that - an illusion.
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- Jun 16, 2025 11:42 am IST
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Opinion | Is America Still Worth It?
In the years to come, the world may see fewer Sundar Pichais, Indra Nooyis, Raghuram Rajans and Arvind Krishnas emerging from Americas famed campuses.
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- Jun 11, 2025 12:03 pm IST
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Opinion | IMAX-Like Churches, TikTok Gurus, Putin: Inside America's Murky 'Faith' Bazaars
Behind America's dazzling surface lies another nation - one that fasts and prays for national repentance, that warns of apocalypse, that casts out demons on TikTok and tries to raise the dead in church basements.
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- May 30, 2025 18:14 pm IST
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Opinion | No, Sirs. South Africa Is Not 'Killing' Its Whites
The "white genocide" myth serves no one. It stokes fear among white South Africans, trivialises the pain of Black South Africans, and hands a loaded weapon to racists in America and Europe.
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- May 26, 2025 16:58 pm IST
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Blog | Gaza: What To Think About When You're Too Tired To Think About War
Amid the fire and fury, a quieter story is also unfolding, however invisible it may be: Israelis and Palestinians, Jewish and Arab citizens within Israel, and a few cases in the occupied West Bank, working to build a shared and peaceful society.
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- May 22, 2025 16:15 pm IST
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Blog | Whatever Happened To 'Working From Home'? Why Your Boss Wants You Back In Office
In India, where the tech sector gamely followed Silicon Valley into 'WFH', there is now growing pressure to follow it right back into the office - just like its Silicon Valley big brother.
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- May 20, 2025 19:00 pm IST
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Blog | A Blindfolding In J&K, To Headley: What Reporting Days Taught Me About Pakistan
My photographer colleague, Neeraj Paul, and I were tracking a lead to a rundown part of downtown Srinagar. We were blindfolded, bundled into a van, and taken to meet an Afghan group's leader.
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- May 15, 2025 18:04 pm IST
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Opinion | Trump The Showman Is Not Enough For West Asia Anymore
President Donald Trump swayed stiffly but gamely side to side, a ceremonial sword in hand, surrounded by robed Saudi men dancing, chanting and clashing blades.
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- May 12, 2025 15:25 pm IST
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Opinion | Trump Just Hosted The Ultimate Reality TV
Over two hours, one Q&A session, several rounds of forced applause, the show stood out for one thing - the DOGE chief, Elon Musk, taking off two hats and declaring, "Even my hat has a hat!"
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- May 01, 2025 18:16 pm IST
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Opinion | Is The Vatican Ready For A Black Pope?
Many Catholics in Africa are asking whether the next Pope will be from their continent. This, increasingly, seems likely. Names like Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana or Cardinal Wilfrid Napier of South Africa have featured in papal speculation for yea
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- Apr 28, 2025 16:29 pm IST
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Opinion | Pahalgam Attack, Pakistan, And The Cost Of 'Ideology'
Twenty-six tourists gunned down in Pahalgam; one Ahmadi man lynched in Karachi. Two different types of tragedies, hundreds of miles apart, but stitched together by the same playbook of hate.
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Syed Zubair Ahmed
- Apr 24, 2025 14:16 pm IST
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