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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...

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...

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...

  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...