Pradeep Banerjee

India and Ireland in 2026: A Relationship Moving From Friendship to Partnership India-Ireland relations are entering a more practical phase — one where diplomacy is increasingly being measured not only by handshakes, but by trade, students, businesses, communities and the ability to deal honestly with problems. At first glance, India and Ireland might seem like an unlikely pair. One is a population giant in South Asia. The other is a relatively small European nation. Yet the relationship between them has been quietly expanding for decades — through education, technology, pharmaceuticals, business, culture and, increasingly, through the Indian community living and working in Ireland. Today, more than 80,000 Indians are estimated to live in Ireland, while more than 8,000 Indian students were studying there in 2023, according to Ireland’s official international website. Two-way trade in goods and services has also grown substantially, with Ireland reporting annual trade of more than €16 billion. The interesting question is no longer whether India and Ireland have a relationship. It is what that relationship can become next. From diplomatic friendship to economic opportunity India and Ireland established diplomatic relations in 1949, and Ireland opened its embassy in New Delhi in 1964. The relationship has historical

Reusable Boosters and the NGLV Race For decades, India’s space story was built around one remarkably simple principle: build a reliable rocket, launch the satellite, and move on to the next mission. That formula worked. But the economics of space are changing. Today, the world’s leading space programmes are increasingly interested in three things: more payload, lower launch costs and greater reusability. India is now pushing into all three. The Indian Space Research Organisation is developing a 200-tonne-thrust semi-cryogenic engine, testing technologies for recovering rocket boosters through Vertical Take-off and Vertical Landing (VTVL), and working on a partially reusable Next Generation Launch Vehicle (NGLV) powered by liquid oxygen and methane. And in September 2026, one of those programmes crossed an important testing milestone. ISRO successfully conducted a hot test of its semi-cryogenic engine power-head test article at the full 200-tonne thrust level at the ISRO Propulsion Research Complex in Mahendragiri, Tamil Nadu. This is not yet a reusable rocket. It is something more fundamental: the machinery needed to build India’s next generation of rockets. The 200-tonne engine: the heavy lifter’s new heart The semi-cryogenic programme is centred on the SE2000, a 2,000-kilonewton-class engine. ISRO is developing a semi-cryogenic propulsion stage

Asian Games 2026: Where Can India Win Its Medals in Aichi-Nagoya? India arrives in Japan with a record to defend, new stars to discover and a few uncomfortable questions to answer. Wrestling, hockey, shooting, athletics, boxing and archery could shape the medal story—but the biggest challenge may be replacing some of the names India expected to rely on. There is a peculiar moment before every major sporting event. The medals have not been won yet, but everyone has already started counting them. India’s Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games campaign is no different. After producing a historic 107-medal haul at Hangzhou, India’s sporting establishment and fans naturally want more. The question is whether the 2026 contingent has enough depth to repeat or surpass that achievement. The answer is promising—but it is not straightforward. Wrestling: perhaps India’s most intriguing medal battleground Wrestling remains one of India’s most dependable Asian Games sports, and the 2026 squad contains several athletes capable of creating major moments. Antim Panghal is among the leading names in the women’s competition, while Aman Sehrawat and Sujeet Kalkal are important men’s medal prospects. But the word prospect is important. Asian wrestling is brutally competitive. Japan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and other wrestling nations

EOS-05: ISRO Puts a New Eye in the Sky as India Expands Its Earth-Observation Capability At 2:55 a.m. on September 4, 2026, the night sky over Sriharikota lit up as India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, GSLV-F17, lifted off carrying EOS-05, an advanced Earth-observation spacecraft. The successful mission was more than another rocket launch. It marked the arrival of a new kind of observation capability for India: an imaging satellite designed to operate from geosynchronous orbit, allowing it to repeatedly observe a large geographical region for extended periods. ISRO describes EOS-05 as India’s first imaging satellite from geosynchronous orbit. What happened at Sriharikota? The GSLV-F17 mission launched from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. ISRO confirmed that the vehicle successfully placed EOS-05 into a Sub-Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (Sub-GTO). The spacecraft will subsequently perform orbital manoeuvres to reach its operational geosynchronous orbit. The mission was the 19th flight of the GSLV. GSLV is a three-stage launch vehicle combining solid, liquid and cryogenic propulsion. Its indigenous cryogenic upper stage provides the capability to place roughly two-tonne-class spacecraft into high-energy transfer orbits. EOS-05 is therefore not simply a passenger launched into space. The mission demonstrates India’s ability to combine

How Indian Communities Are Bringing Ganpati Bappa to Britain On Monday, 14 September 2026, something very familiar to millions of Indians will begin happening thousands of kilometres away from Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and other Indian cities. Homes will welcome Ganesha. Community halls will fill with prayers. Temples will organise darshans. Modaks will appear. And somewhere, inevitably, someone will discover that a perfectly respectable British kitchen is suddenly being asked to produce enough food for an entire neighbourhood. Ganesh Chaturthi has become part of Britain’s multicultural calendar. In 2026, Hindu communities across the UK will celebrate the festival from September 14, with the ten-day observance concluding around Anant Chaturdashi on September 25. Leicester’s local Hindu calendar, for example, confirms September 14 as Ganesh Chaturthi and September 25 as the main visarjan date. But Ganeshotsav in Britain is not simply an Indian festival transplanted overseas. It is evolving into something distinctly British-Indian. Ganpati arrives in Britain Ganesh Chaturthi commemorates the birth of Lord Ganesha, revered in Hindu tradition as the deity associated with wisdom, prosperity and the removal of obstacles. In India, the festival can transform entire neighbourhoods. In Britain, the scale is naturally different. But the emotion is familiar. Indian families

Indian Stand-Up Goes Global: How India’s Comedians Are Making the World Laugh in Their Own Voice There was a time when an Indian comedian travelling abroad usually meant one thing: a diaspora audience gathering somewhere to hear jokes about Indian parents, arranged marriages, relatives, weddings and the mysterious ability of an aunty to ask about your salary within 30 seconds of meeting you. Those jokes still work. But something much bigger is happening now. Indian stand-up comedy is increasingly travelling beyond the Indian diaspora and entering the mainstream international comedy circuit. Indian comedians are performing in major theatres, appearing at established festivals and building audiences overseas long before their aircraft lands at the destination. The Indian comedy scene has, in other words, discovered something airlines have known for decades: people will travel surprisingly far for something they really want. From comedy clubs to iconic international stages One of the clearest markers of this transformation came in August 2025, when Zakir Khan became the first Indian comedian to headline a Hindi stand-up show at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The performance was reported as sold out, with an audience of around 6,000. That is significant not simply because Madison Square Garden