Beyond Cricket: How India Is Building a New Generation of Global Athletes For a long time, India’s sporting ecosystem had a slightly peculiar hierarchy. Cricket lived upstairs. Everything else was expected to knock politely before entering. That is changing. Not because cricket has become less important—it hasn’t—but because India is gradually building something that did not exist at comparable scale before: a multi-sport athlete-development ecosystem combining government programmes, private investment, sports science, technology and international competition exposure. The change is visible in athletics, badminton, boxing, wrestling, shooting, weightlifting, hockey and para-sports. And increasingly, the Indian athlete is being trained not simply by a coach with a stopwatch, but by a team of coaches, physiotherapists, nutritionists, psychologists, biomechanists, analysts and medical specialists. That may sound less romantic than the old sporting story. It may also be much more important. The biggest change is happening before the athlete becomes famous India’s new sports strategy is increasingly concerned with the part of sport that spectators never see. Talent identification. Training loads. Recovery. Nutrition. Injury prevention. Biomechanics. Psychological preparation. Performance analytics. And long-term athlete development. The government describes Khelo India as a framework that combines grassroots participation with talent identification, training infrastructure, competitions and

Culture Across Borders: How Indian Communities Keep Traditions A child growing up in Leicester may learn Bharatanatyam in a studio after school. A family in western Sydney may organise its calendar around a Tamil temple festival. In Southall, a young Sikh student may spend part of the weekend learning to read Gurmukhi. These are not simply cultural activities placed on top of everyday life. They are ways of passing knowledge from one generation to the next—often in countries where the language of school, work and friendship is not the language of grandparents. For Indian-origin communities abroad, cultural continuity is rarely automatic. It takes teachers, volunteers, rented halls, rehearsals, fundraising, family commitment and, increasingly, digital tools. The work is often done outside paid hours, between school runs and weekend shifts. Heritage, it turns out, has a timetable—and someone has to book the room. The Indian diaspora is frequently described as a community of tens of millions. India’s diaspora population is estimated at around 35 million in a 2026 NITI Aayog document, while UN data separately tracks international migrants by country of origin. These figures are not interchangeable: “diaspora” can include people of Indian origin who are citizens of other countries, while

India’s Multi-Alignment: How New Delhi Tries to Have Friends Without Choosing a Camp In international politics, friendship is complicated. It becomes even more complicated when your friends do not particularly like one another. India has spent much of the 21st century learning to operate precisely in that uncomfortable space. New Delhi buys defence equipment and energy from Russia, deepens technology and strategic cooperation with the United States, maintains an unusually close defence relationship with France, works extensively with Israel, negotiates with Europe, and participates in the Quad alongside the US, Japan and Australia. There is an obvious question. How does India manage all of this without becoming dependent on one major power? The answer increasingly lies in what analysts call multi-alignment, underpinned by the older Indian foreign-policy concept of strategic autonomy. It is not neutrality. It is not isolation. And it certainly isn’t having five best friends who all promise not to talk about each other at dinner. It is the attempt to preserve freedom of choice. Strategic autonomy is the principle India’s strategic autonomy has historical roots in the Non-Aligned Movement, but today’s environment is very different. During the Cold War, non-alignment was largely associated with refusing to formally

The Ocean Beside India Is Also the Highway Beneath Its Economy Why the Indian Ocean is central to India’s security, energy and global ambitions Look at a map of India. The country’s geography appears almost to point southwards into the sea. The Arabian Sea lies to the west. The Bay of Bengal stretches to the east. The Indian Ocean opens directly below the peninsula. That shape is not merely a geographical curiosity. It is a strategic advantage. And increasingly, it is also a strategic responsibility. India sits beside one of the world’s most important maritime theatres, connecting the energy-producing Middle East and Africa with the manufacturing and consuming economies of Asia. The Indian Ocean region is estimated to carry around two-thirds of the world’s oil shipments and more than one-third of global bulk cargo traffic. For India, therefore, the ocean is not “somewhere outside the coastline.” It is part of the country’s economic infrastructure. India’s coastline is an economic asset India has more than 7,500 kilometres of coastline, and its dependence on maritime routes extends across energy, trade, fishing, tourism and commercial shipping. Carnegie’s analysis describes India as the resident naval power in the Indian Ocean and notes that the

Can the World Really Become One Family? Imagine a family dinner where everyone agrees on the menu, nobody argues about money, nobody fights over the remote control and, most importantly, nobody asks who is paying the bill. Sounds wonderful. It also sounds slightly unrealistic. That is precisely why one of India’s oldest philosophical ideas has acquired such an interesting new life in international politics. “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” — the world is one family. The Sanskrit phrase has travelled an extraordinary distance: from an ancient Indian philosophical text to modern diplomatic speeches, international conferences and the vocabulary of global governance. India made it particularly visible during its 2023 G20 presidency, choosing “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam — One Earth, One Family, One Future” as the presidency’s theme. But there is an important question beneath the beautiful phrase: Can an idea about universal human unity actually work in a world where countries compete for security, technology, resources, markets and influence? The answer is neither a simple yes nor a cynical no. It is much more interesting. An ancient idea with a very modern message The expression appears in the Maha Upanishad, where the broader verse contrasts narrow-minded thinking — “this is mine, that is theirs” —

Argentina Will Stop at the 10th Minute for Messi: A Football Farewell Beyond the Scoreboard Football normally rewards movement. Goals change matches, referees keep the clock running and supporters expect the game to continue until the final whistle. But this weekend, Argentine football will deliberately stop. Across Argentina, matches are scheduled to pause in the 10th minute for a minute of applause in honour of Lionel Messi, following his retirement from international football. The choice of the 10th minute is unmistakable: it represents the number Messi made synonymous with his career for Argentina. The Argentine Football Association has also asked stadiums with screens to show a commemorative video before matches. It is an unusually simple tribute to an unusually complicated football story. From disappointment to redemption Messi’s international career did not begin as the perfect story that hindsight sometimes creates. He made his Argentina senior debut in 2005 and, for years, carried enormous expectations. There were painful defeats, including major-final disappointments, and his relationship with sections of Argentine football supporters was far more complicated than his extraordinary club career might suggest. He even announced an international retirement in 2016 before returning to the national team. The second half of his

The Technology Battle Behind the Aircraft India can build satellites. It can launch spacecraft. It can design and manufacture sophisticated missiles, warships, helicopters and increasingly capable fighter aircraft. So why does one particular machine continue to cause so much trouble? The fighter-jet engine. It is one of the most demanding engineering challenges in the world—and India’s long-running Kaveri engine programme provides an unusually revealing case study of just how difficult it is to move from designing an aircraft to mastering the machine that makes it fly. The easy version of the story is: India tried, the Kaveri failed, and foreign engines had to be imported. The real story is considerably more complicated—and much more interesting. An engine is not simply a powerful motor A modern fighter engine has to operate under extraordinary conditions. It must compress enormous quantities of air, burn fuel at extremely high temperatures, withstand intense mechanical stresses, deliver enormous thrust, remain reliable through repeated acceleration and deceleration, and fit within very tight limits of weight and dimensions. And it has to do all of this repeatedly, safely and predictably. The difficult part is not merely designing the broad architecture. It is mastering the hot section—the compressor, combustor

India Online: When AI, Viral Videos and Real Behavior Begin to Shape a Nation’s Image A country can now be judged by a video lasting less than a minute. It may show a street, a tourist, a food vendor, a public celebration—or something that never happened at all. For India, this creates a complicated new challenge. The country’s image abroad is no longer shaped only by newspapers, television, films, diplomacy and tourism campaigns. It is increasingly shaped by algorithms, influencers, viral clips and artificial intelligence. A recent controversy illustrates the problem. An AI-generated video showing a supposed Indian street-food vendor rolling rotis on his bare stomach while sitting among garbage circulated widely online. American content creator Kristen Fischer, who lives in India, publicly challenged the clip and said it was fabricated. Reports said the original video had accumulated around 28 million views. The incident was subsequently recorded by the OECD.AI incident monitor as an example of AI-generated content that can contribute to harmful stereotypes and reputational damage. The disturbing part is not simply that artificial intelligence can manufacture an absurd scene. It is that the absurd can look real enough to become somebody’s first impression of an entire country. When

From Sightseeing to Self-Discovery: Why Indian Travellers Are Looking for More Meaning in 2026 For decades, the classic holiday formula was simple: arrive, see the famous place, take photographs, buy souvenirs and move on to the next destination. In 2026, a growing segment of Indian travellers appears to be asking a different question: “What will this journey do for me?” That does not mean Indians have suddenly stopped visiting monuments, beaches or famous tourist attractions. They certainly have not. But travel preferences are becoming more personal. Recent industry research points towards greater interest in wellness, spirituality, culture, nature and experience-led holidays. Booking.com data reported by ETTravelWorld found Indian travellers increasingly choosing destinations around personal interests and experiences, while Agoda’s 2026 Travel Outlook found relaxation to be the leading motivation among Indian respondents. The change is subtle but important. The destination is increasingly becoming the setting for an experience, rather than the experience itself. The rise of the “why” holiday One useful way to understand the trend is through the idea of a purpose-driven holiday. A 2026 Dun & Bradstreet India report describes this as “Why-Cation”—travel undertaken for a particular emotional or personal purpose rather than simply visiting a destination. Its

India’s Chess Revolution: How a Game of 64 Squares Became a National Talent Engine There was a time when asking an Indian child to choose a sport usually produced a predictable answer: cricket. Chess was different. It was respected, certainly. It was associated with intelligence, concentration and perhaps the child who was unusually good at mathematics. But it was hardly a mass sporting aspiration. That equation has changed. Today, India is producing world-class chess players at a remarkable rate. The country’s current generation includes World Champion Gukesh D, Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi and a rapidly rising group of young players, including Divya Deshmukh. And this is no longer simply a story about individual genius. It is the story of an ecosystem. The Anand effect: the first great move Any serious discussion of India’s modern chess transformation must begin with Viswanathan Anand. Anand became India’s first Grandmaster in 1988 and subsequently established himself among the world’s elite, eventually becoming world champion. His success fundamentally altered the perception of chess in India. For a generation of Indian parents, Anand demonstrated something important: chess could be more than an intellectual hobby. It could become a serious international sporting career. The significance of

From Community Halls to Trafalgar Square: How Indian Festivals Went Global There was a time when celebrating an Indian festival abroad meant finding a community hall. Someone booked the hall. Someone brought a sound system. Someone arranged the food. Children performed a dance. Parents sat in rows. And, if the samosas ran out early, the organising committee had a small crisis. That world has changed. Today, Indian festivals are increasingly visible in some of the world’s most prominent public spaces. Diwali is celebrated in Trafalgar Square in London. New York City closes its public schools for Diwali. The Empire State Building has illuminated its tower for the festival. And Indian-origin communities around the world are turning cultural celebrations into major civic events. This is not simply a story about bigger festivals. It represents something more important: Indian identity abroad has moved from being something communities preserved privately to something increasingly celebrated publicly. Trafalgar Square tells the story London provides one of the clearest examples. The city’s annual Diwali on the Square is held at Trafalgar Square, one of London’s most recognisable public spaces. The 2026 event is scheduled for October 25 and is organised as a free public celebration open

Namaste: How Two Sanskrit Syllables Became One of the World’s Most Recognised Indian Greetings There are few Indian words that have travelled as far as Namaste. It can be heard in an Indian home, at a temple, in a Bollywood film, at an international diplomatic event—and increasingly at yoga studios thousands of kilometres from India. Sometimes it is spoken with genuine understanding. Sometimes it is simply followed by the words, “Thank you, everyone. Namaste.” And sometimes it appears at the end of a yoga class with such predictable regularity that the ancient Indian greeting almost seems to have acquired a job description. But the real history of Namaste is considerably richer. It is not simply a Sanskrit version of “hello.” Nor is its historical meaning literally the now-popular Western yoga interpretation about “the divine light in me recognising the divine light in you.” The actual story begins with something much simpler: bowing. What does Namaste actually mean? The Sanskrit word namas carries meanings including bowing, obeisance, reverential salutation and adoration. The related verbal root nam means to bend or bow. The familiar explanation of namaste is generally analysed as: namas + te with te meaning “to you.” So the literal