Every Diwali, families across Maharashtra and north Karnataka build miniature forts using stones, bricks and mud to honour the legacy of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Some even offer the first diya to the Maratha ruler. Here's how the tradition emerged, evolved over time and found fresh momentum through social media and cash-prize competitions.
Tamil Nadu CM C Joseph Vijay's electoral victory has opened a new chapter in Tamil Nadu politics, but it has also raised a vacuum for a challenger. With Dhanush's fan network taking on a more organised welfare role, could another film star be preparing to enter the political battlefield?
Hindus in Bangladesh say they celebrated the best Durga Puja in recent memory without any major communal incident. How was this made possible by the Tarique Rahman government, and can it pass the 365-day test?
Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's street politics is acquiring a new rhythm. Rahul is focusing on a shorter but energetic and confrontational street politics, and timing it so that he can dominate prime time. Here's how, from the first call of the day to sister Priyanka Gandhi Vandra to Zoom meetings, all the protest action is planned.
Hydroponic cannabis and premium OG Kush have become harder to find in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. With police intensifying checks, the ganja shortage is giving India's underground weed market a serious buzzkill. Is it linked to the crackdown under Union Home Minister Amit Shah's Drug-Free India campaign?
For a shooter, the bullet is as much a part of the equation as the gun. Indian shooters have been dealing with a shortage of match-grade .22 ammunition, with the Russia-Ukraine war being one of the reasons. Did the shortage hit Indian shooters at the Asian Games?
In India, which wants to be counted among developed nations, there is a rush among communities to be counted as backwards, because of caste-based reservation benefits. A post on X after the IIT Bombay suicide sent me researching about Devendrakula Velalar, an SC community in Tamil Nadu that is demanding it be removed from the Scheduled Caste list. Here's what I found out about the unique demand of the DKV.
Bangladesh, the biggest producer and exporter of hilsa, is importing hundreds of tonnes of the prized fish from India. While Padmar Ilish is sought after in India, Bangladesh is importing hilsa from Gujarat, especially Bharuch. Here's how taste, supply, prices and processing are feeding the two-way trade.
Dharampal Singh had never stepped inside a courtroom. Then, in 2012, a raid on his modest Delhi University shop put him at the centre of a four-year legal battle with three of the world's biggest academic publishers. He feared he could go to jail, he worried about feeding his family and paying his workers, but he refused to give in — because, to him, the case wasn't just about photocopies.
The FSSAI has said in the Bombay High Court that Old Monk can't be sold as rum. The food regulator's action has revealed how most rums sold in India aren't rum. Most mass-market IMFL whiskies aren't whisky either. Nor are they rum. Here's addressing the elephant in the tavern.
Indian consumers are discovering that global food, drink and personal care brands often sell different formulations here. Fanta tastes sweeter and the formula of Head & Shoulders is different. Here's why products by the same brands taste, smell and feel different in India and abroad.
They were counting on a few minutes on Samay Raina's India's Got Latent to boost their following and earnings. The episode got recorded but was never aired after the Ranveer Allahbadia controversy last year. We spoke to two such participants whose episodes never aired, and who, like a dozen participants with them, remained latent.
IAS officer Tukaram Mudhe has shaken up the system as the Maharashtra FDA Commissioner. If bureaucrats win so much praise and adulation for just doing their job, why don't all of them serve honestly? Serving and retired officers shared what makes babus give in, and why integrity carries a personal cost.
A small loan with just a few taps on a phone, and what seems like an easy EMI can quickly become a debt trap. Millions of Indians are borrowing over and over again to repay loans, facilitated by instant loan apps. Hundreds of recovery calls daily, pressure on families and sleepless nights follow.
From booking Tatkal train tickets and filing RTIs to accessing EPF claims and court records, millions in India rely on government websites every day. Yet many users say these portals remain slow, glitchy and difficult to navigate. We tested some of these websites and spoke to users and experts to understand why.
Before they challenged the government at New Delhi's Jantar Mantar over the NEET paper leaks and irregularities in the education system, many young protesters first challenged the politics inside their own homes. Some arrived with bandaged hands. Others hid behind masks. Many carried unanswered calls from their BJP-supporting parents.
India's gated townships are like mini-republics. They are not replacing cities, but they are filling the gaps left by failing civic infrastructure. The question they pose is not why people are buying into them, but why so many feel they have to.
For many civilians, military wives are synonymous with officers' mess parties and Ladies' Nights. Their lives, however, revolve just as much around repeated relocations, rebuilding careers, raising families, welfare work and creating support systems wherever the next posting takes them.
For decades, India's brightest minds left home to shape the world's universities, laboratories and boardrooms. Today, many are returning, not out of nostalgia, but because India's biggest ideas can now be built at home. The country's quiet academic ghar wapsi may well be its most consequential Swadeshi movement yet.
Mumbai's Congress House, the pre-Independence-era landmark, is not a brothel, but men driven by lust and desire often fail to make the distinction. The former Congress office's proximity to a mujra house and the red-light district of Kamathipura make it carry a stigma. However, it is not really untouched by the sex trade.
