Bengal SIR hearing sessions: ECI not to consider certificates issued by individual educational institutions

IANS | December 22, 2025 9:38 AM

Kolkata, Dec 22 (IANS) The Election Commission of India (ECI) has made it clear that academic qualification certificates issued by individual educational institutions, including schools and colleges, will not be recognised as valid identity documents or age proof during the hearing sessions on the claims and objections to the draft voters’ list in West Bengal, which will start this week.

Meditation key to tackling global mental health crisis: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

IANS | December 21, 2025 11:48 PM

New York, Dec 21 (IANS) Meditation offers a proven response to mounting mental health challenges facing societies worldwide, Art of Living founder and spiritual leader Gurudev Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said on Sunday, stressing that inner calm and improved communication are essential to resolving both personal distress and global conflicts.

Chains of Commerce: How Britain’s need for gold forced ‘circuitous route’ that crushed India’s trade (From the Archives)

Santosh Kumar Verma | December 21, 2025 10:59 PM

New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) The early 19th century in India was not an era of equitable administration, but a period defined by the unrelenting political despotism of the British East India Company (EIC). Despite the Company’s self-serving claims that the "welfare and happiness of the inhabitants" was its "chief object" and that it had replaced a chaotic system with "courts of justice", the reality for the seventy to eighty millions of souls under its command was subjugation. They were ruled, as critics in Britain conceded, as those whom the British were "despots over".

BJP sweeps local body polls in Arunachal; PM Modi, CM Khandu hail victory

IANS | December 21, 2025 10:36 PM

Itanagar, Dec 21 (IANS) The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) registered a landslide victory in the local body elections in Arunachal Pradesh, securing a majority of seats in the Zilla Parishads and Gram Panchayats, polls for which were held on December 15, officials said on Sunday.