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Solar Power; People's Power

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Illuminating Households, Reducing Dependency, Conserving Environment For decades, energy security was largely understood through one question: How much oil and gas can a country secure, and from where? That question has become more complicated in recent years. Wars, sanctions, disruptions to shipping routes, geopolitical tensions and fragile global supply chains have repeatedly demonstrated that energy is not merely an economic commodity. It is a matter of national security, strategic autonomy and economic resilience. The recent disruption around the Strait of Hormuz is a powerful reminder. Before the conflict, roughly 20 million barrels of oil a day moved through the waterway; during the disruption, flows fell sharply, creating repercussions across crude oil, refined products, LPG, transportation and the wider global economy. The International Energy Agency described the episode as the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market. For India, the lesson is particul...
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Samarth Ramdas: Cultivating the Social and Cultural Ground for Swarajya

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The establishment of Hindavi Swarajya cannot be understood as the achievement of a single individual, a single battle, or even a single stream of thought. It was the product of a long historical process in which political ambition, military organisation, social mobilisation, religious consciousness, local traditions and individual leadership converged. At the centre of that transformation stood Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who translated the idea of self-rule into an organised political reality. But alongside the political and military movement ran another, quieter process: the preparation of the mind, character and social will necessary for such a transformation. It is in this parallel process that the contribution of Samarth Ramdas deserves examination. The argument need not be that Ramdas "created" Shivaji's Swarajya, nor that he was the political mastermind behind it, there is insufficient historical basis for so sweeping a claim. Equally, it would be reductive to dis...
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स्वतंत्र भारतातील विद्यार्थी चळवळी

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विद्यार्थी.. या नावात, संकल्पनेतच एक ऊर्जा आहे. प्रश्न विचारणारी, बंडखोरी करणारी ऊर्जा आहे.  पारंपरिक भारतीय शिक्षणपद्धती शैक्षणिक परिप्रेक्ष्यात प्रश्न विचारण्याला, बंडखोरीला उत्तेजन आहे. भारतीय शिक्षणपद्धतीत गहन विषय गुरू-शिष्यांमधील प्रश्नोत्तरांतूनच उलगडत गेले आहेत.  काळ पुढे सरकत गेला तसं विद्यार्थ्यांमधील बंडखोरीच्या कक्षा विस्तारल्या. विद्यार्थ्यांच्या प्रश्नांसोबतच अधिक व्यापक राजकीय, सामाजिक मुद्द्यांवर विद्यार्थीप्रणित आंदोलने जगभर झाली. काही यशस्वी, काही अयशस्वी तर काही नव्या व्यवस्थेला जन्म देणाऱ्या चळवळी जन्माला आल्या.  स्वातंत्र्याच्या पूर्वसंध्येला महात्मा गांधींनी 'स्वतंत्र भारताच्या सरकारांनी योग्य कारभार केला नाही तर स्वतंत्र भारतात जन्माला आलेली पिढी या व्यवस्थेला प्रश्न विचारणार, त्याविरुद्ध बंड करून उठणार. त्यावेळी मी त्या पिढीच्या पाठीशी उभा राहीन.' असे वक्तव्य केले होते.  त्याप्रमाणे खरोखरच स्वतंत्र भारतात जन्माला आलेल्या पिढीने, त्यातही मुख्यतः एका जनआंदोलनाची सुरुवात केली. त्या विद्यार्थी चळवळीची ठिणगी पाहता पाहता मोठी झाली आणि आणीबाणीच्या मा...
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Students Movements in Independent Bharat

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  Studenthood, by its very name, embodies energy, an energy that questions, challenges, and rebels.  The spirit of inquiry has always been central to the Indian tradition of learning. Classical Indian education did not discourage dissent; rather, it nurtured it. Profound philosophical ideas were explored and refined through dialogues between teachers and disciples, where questioning was regarded as an essential path to knowledge. As society evolved, the scope of student dissent expanded beyond academic concerns. Students increasingly began questioning broader political and social issues, giving rise to movements that reshaped nations across the world. Some succeeded in achieving their objectives, others faded away, while a few fundamentally transformed political systems. On the eve of Bharat's Independence, Mahatma Gandhi had remarked that if the governments of a free Bharat failed to govern justly, the generation born after Independence would question and challenge the system...
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सुएझ ते होर्मुझ: भारत आणि ऊर्जा भुराजकारणाचे पुनर्लेखन

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  वर्ष १९५६. सुवेझ कालव्याने ऊर्जा भू-राजकारणाचा समतोल पूर्णपणे बदलून टाकला. ब्रिटन आणि फ्रान्सने सुवेझ कालवा ताब्यात घेण्याचा प्रयत्न केला. इस्राएलने युद्धात विजय मिळवला खरा पण या सगळ्यात ब्रिटन-फ्रान्सचे हकनाक नाक कापले गेले. भुराजकारणाचा ध्रुव अमेरिकेकडे सरकला.  अमेरिकेचे तत्कालीन राष्ट्राध्यक्ष ड्वाइट डी. आयसेनहॉवर म्हणाले होते, "अँथनी ईडन (ब्रिटनचे पंतप्रधान) इतके मूर्खपणाचे कृत्य करतील, यावर विश्वास बसत नाही." या एका वाक्यात पश्चिम आशियात युरोप नाही तर अमेरिका-इस्राएलचे वर्चस्व स्थापित झाल्याचे जणू घोषित झाले होते. आता जवळजवळ सात दशकानंतर हा प्रदेश पुन्हा एकदा धुमसतो आहे. इस्राएल-अमेरिकेने इराणवर हल्ले सुरु केले. प्रत्युत्तर म्हणून इराणने पश्चिम आशियातील अरब देशांवर हल्ले केले. होर्मूझच्या सामुद्रधुनीतून कच्च्या तेलाच्या जागतिक वाहतुकीपैकी एक पंचमांश वाहतूक होते. त्या सामुद्रधुनीवर आणि त्यातील व्यापारी मार्गावर नियंत्रण राखण्याची क्षमता इराणकडे आहे, आणि तोच सगळ्यात मोठा हुकुमाचा पत्ता खेळला.  होर्मूझची सामुद्रधुनी बंद करुन जगाच्या नाकी नऊ आणले आहेत. यामुळे जागतिक ऊर...
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From Suez to Hormuz: How India Is Rewriting the Rules of Energy and Power

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The modern geopolitics of energy was irreversibly shaped in 1956 at the Suez Canal. What began as an attempt by Britain and France to reclaim imperial control ended in strategic humiliation. The Suez Crisis not only marked the decline of European colonial power, but also announced the arrival of the United States as the dominant Western force in global affairs. In the aftermath of the crisis, a frustrated Dwight D. Eisenhower is said to have remarked of British Prime Minister Anthony Eden, “I just can’t believe that Anthony Eden is so stupid.” The bluntness captured a deeper truth: the age of European strategic autonomy had collapsed, replaced by American primacy. Over the decades, this dominance evolved into a firm strategic axis with Israel, shaping the politics of West Asia. Nearly seven decades later, the region is once again at the center of global turbulence. Escalating tensions involving Iran, targeted strikes, and the ever-present threat to the Strait of Hormuz have revived con...
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