Scholarship – Political Compulsions

Two experts on Soviet studies, both lecturers in major universities, were in­formed late last month by the University Grants Commission (UGC) that their appli­cations for short-term post-doctoral re­search trips to the USSR had been rejected. No reasons were given, but both lecturers believe it was because they were not con­sidered politically acceptable. Another lecturer in…

Iranian Students – The Enemy Within

Iran’s much-vaunted Islamic revolution appears to have finally spilled over into India. Chanting Allah-o–Akbar and wielding primitive weapons like lathis bristling with nails, bicycle chains, knives and iron rods, a group of 100 pro-Khomeini Iranian students attacked 25 anti-Khomeini counterparts under cover of darkness in Aligarh on June 9. The bloody battle left 14 of…

Washington is Starting to Look Like Delhi

British historian and Harvard University professor [Niall Ferguson] An erudite scholar, acclaimed author, and the William Ziegler Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, British historian Niall Ferguson wears several hats. At the India Today Conclave, Ferguson spoke on “American decline: Myth and Reality”. On the Sidelines of the Conclave, BT’s Chaitanya Kalbag,…

Lean on Me

The US economy needs India more than ever, says Barack Obama had barely walked out of Parliament’s Central Hall when the debate began on whether his India visit was “transactional” or “strategic”. It was neither. Obama, accompanied by an unusually large contingent of CEOs, many of them small and medium businessmen, was in search of…