Ikram Sehgal

An attempt at ‘revolutionary’ farming by the enacting of commensurate laws by the Modi govt last autumn has evoked widespread farmer protests in India. Centred around mostly India’s breadbasket of Punjab, Haryana and UP this important problem is certainly not only Indian specific, many initiatives all over the world have aimed at making agriculture more […]

A nationwide general strike on 26 November 2020 that involved an estimated 250 million people was staged in support of the farmer unions in India. Approximately 200,000 to 300,000 farmers on tractors converged on 30 November at various border points on the way to Delhi. From nearby Punjab known as the “bread basket of India” […]

The Quaid’s vision of Pakistan was of Muslims being a nation that was ‘Islamic’ as a state and as a society. The way democracy and governance thereof has been operated by Pakistani rulers, we have failed, at least so far, to create that nation, that state and that society. Citing justice in his writings as […]

One of the oldest and foremost proponents of telling lies and spreading misinformation as a tool of politics (and economics)is the 24 centuries old “Arthashastra”.   A complete course handbook on how to run a state, it also details devious means to accomplish one’s ends.  An extensive manual for conducting subversion, Arthashastra is the earliest known […]

A new era of geopolitical and geo-economics development is unfolding in front of our eyes. As an interconnected economic and cultural region Eurasia had existed from the time of the historical Silk Road from about 13 century BCtill the 15centuryAD, not only as a trade route but facilitating a free exchange of people and ideas,resulting […]

This question was asked even before Donald Trump was elected President of the US in 2016 andbegun acting unconventionally throughout his term of office.  With no change of personality or character traits, habituallyaggressive and shamelessly narcisstic,Trump flouted rules and boundaries at will, what he had been doing throughout his life.Many of his distractors have even […]

The year 2020 demanded the utmost of all individuals locally and governments globally.  In that perspective Pakistan has not done badly, much better than neighbouring countries including India. With a population in daily wagers Imran Khan recognised thatthe hard-lockdown policies followed by other countries would be fatal,people would die of hunger instead of corona. Most […]

Four years ago Trump was an outsider, nobody believed he would get enough votes to win. Hillary Clinton seemed a sure winner being a member of the inner circle of US democracy, not really taken as a challenge Trump was allowed to run undisturbed without the detailed scrutiny every candidate for high office gets. Touching […]

A project of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), the Trans-Asian Railway (TAR) Network Agreement was signed on 10 November 2006, by seventeen Asian nations to build a transcontinental railway network between Europe and Pacific ports in China. Planned to cater for enormous increase in international trade between […]

Fifty years should be a sufficiently long time to go beyond the recriminations, hurt and feeling of revenge that has been part of our history. Fuelled by discrimination of the worst kind grievous mistakes were made, culminating in the violence of 1971. While both countries have their problems with history writing, it is time to […]