India’s Board of Detractors: Of Brands, Billionaires and Bankruptcy
A Vanishing Trick That Would Put Houdini to Shame
The KBS Chronicle
Life. Leadership. Legacy.
Live Last read · last published · next check
Latest posts
Rags to Riches to Rags: The 6-Crore Discharge
Subhash Chandra built Zee, lost control of it by 2019, and this week paid ₹6.25 crore to settle ₹22,006 crore in claims. Reliance and two banks are not pleased.
Mohali Municipal Corporation Subsumes 15 Villages: The residents are perplexed
Nine months after fifteen villages entered Municipal Corporation, Mohali, four ordinary questions about tax, welfare, building permission and common land remain without a government answer
The Guarantor’s Gambit: Subhash Chandra, Mukesh Ambani, and a ₹22,000-Crore Word War
Reliance's one-page reply to Zee's founder, issued 28 August 2026, is the shortest document in this story. What led to it isn't.
Now in “The Print”: Punjab’s 2024 IAS Batch and the SDM-Ship Delayed, if Not Denied
The largest IAS batch Punjab has seen in thirty years has been made Officers on Special Duty instead of Sub-Divisional Magistrates — and the difference is the whole argument.
Delimitation: Congress Suggests Cold Storage, Not Ceasefire
What the GOP’s Three-Point Ask on Seats, State Shares, and Women’s Reservation Is Actually Protecting
“Making It Happen” — And Where It Sits on the Continuum
A review of Anil Swarup’s You Can Make It Happen (Unique Publishers, 10 August 2025, 272 pp.)
Rana Sangha Fought Babur; Rani Karnavati, his Widow, was Rakhi Sister of Humayun?
Raksha Bandhan Special: Examining Historical Events Beyond Legends and Popular Narratives.
GANGSTERISM AND THE SLEAZE OF DOING BUSINESS · PART FOUR OF FOUR
On Behalf Of
Punjab Needs a BJP Strategy, Not an Akali Rescue Plan
The alliance now being speculated upon might resuscitate SAD — without any concomitant benefit to BJP.
GANGSTERISM AND THE SLEAZE OF DOING BUSINESS · PART THREE OF FOUR
No Liabilities, No Record
Happy Onam: Celebrating Kerala’s Rich Cultural Heritage
A Grand 10-Day Extravaganza Embraced by All Faiths of Malayalam-Speaking Keralites, in Kerala and Beyond.
The Mecca Accord, Reconsidered: What It Actually Changes for India
On the “Islamic Nato” Question, the View from Jerusalem and Washington, and Whether India Is Prepared for What Comes Next
GANGSTERISM AND THE SLEAZE OF DOING BUSINESS · PART TWO OF FOUR
The Syndicate That Owns Nothing
Every Agri-Produce Export Ban Gets Lifted Eventually. The Farmer Pays for the Years It Held.
Monday’s wheat flour reversal is only the latest entry in a ledger Delhi has run up in rice, onion, sugar and cotton too — and has never itemised.
The Planet in One Browser Tab: Bilawal Sidhu Open-Sources “God’s Eye View”
How public data, three-dimensional maps and conversational AI are being combined into a living picture of the world
Eid-ul-Milad Greetings: Life and Times of Prophet Muhammad(PBUH)
A brief account of the life and times of Prophet Muhammad(PBUH) on the occasion of his birthday.
Subsidies Don’t Subside
On why transfers, once granted, are almost never withdrawn — a brief Roman prologue, and a longer reckoning with India and Punjab
GANGSTERISM AND THE SLEAZE OF DOING BUSINESS · PART ONE OF FOUR:
Twenty Thousand for the Pistol, Four Lakh for the Man
The King’s Speech and the Lion’s Roar: Two Voices That Began in a Stutter
On stammering, sovereignty, and the manufacture of authority
Canada Draws a Line: From Davos Doctrine to Economic Sovereignty
Carney’s suspension of trade talks with Washington is the first real test of the doctrine he set out at Davos: interdependence must never become subordination.
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (The more things change, the more they stay the same)
Forty years of mission-mode government, and the same unreformed frame that still turns up for COVID, cyclones, Operation Sindoor, floods, elections and the census
The Amnesty India Never Quite Offers: What a 2026 Scheme Would Need, and What ₹15 Lakh Actually Bought
45 years of precedent say a “no questions asked” dollar window needs an Act of Parliament, not a circular. The Black Money Act’s own arithmetic explains why almost no one uses the law as written.
FCRA vs FCNR: India Trusts the Dollar That Leaves, Distrusts the One That Stays
Chinese-linked equity and record bank debt confirm last week’s argument on FCNR. But it is FCRA money — the only kind that genuinely stays — that India treats with the deepest suspicion.
Edmonton’s Gurdwara at Dawn: A Screwdriver and the Limits of Every Sacrilege Law We Have Written
When a parolee walks into Nanaksar before the sangat has finished morning prayers, the gap between statute and sanctuary becomes impossible to ignore
Ladies and Gentlemen, the Apple Inc. CEO: John Ternus and the Shoes he Now Fills
A profile, on the eve of a transition on September 1, 2026, that ends Tim Cook’s nearly fifteen years at the helm of Apple Inc.
Whither the Workman? Labour Law, Industrial Establishments and the Industrial Disputes Act
Where Do the New Labour Codes Stand After Jai Bir Singh’s 9-Judge Bench Supreme Court Judgement?
Fair-Weather Reserves: Why $717 Billion Cannot Change India’s Economic Climate
High-cost dollar debt is not the road to a stronger rupee. Exports and foreign direct investment remain the only durable one.
Satellites Uplinked, Downlinked, and Still Grounded by Delhi
Elon Musk’s Starlink holds its licensing and its spectrum; only India’s regulation is still holding the signal back
Ram Mandir Trust Divided: The Foundation and the Fault Line
Champat Rai turns on Nripendra Misra — a clean chit is not an acquittal, and thirty-three points are not a verdict
He Defended Overseas Fugitives. Now Vijay Aggarwal Faces Sexual Assault Charges of His Own — in the UK
The Lawyer Who Built a Career Keeping India’s Most Wanted Out of Custody Is Now in Custody Himself, in London
Sant Harchand Singh Longowal: The Fateful Day of 20 August 1985, and a Ledger Still Open
What happened to the others involved in the assassination who were never brought to justice
No U.S. Bureaucrat as Monitor: Why New Delhi Owes Washington No Confession
On 13 August 2026, the White House’s Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy released The Great Transshipment Scam: Rise, Scope, and Costs, a report accusing more than 40 countries, India among them, of helping China evade U.S.
The Ice Silk Road and the Illusion of Escape: What China’s Arctic Gambit Means for India
Is India Constrained by Its Geography, or by a Want of Bold Decision-Making?
The Shehzad Poonawalla Precedent: When the Party Has No Ledger Entry for the Independent Mind
A resignation dated July 30, 2026, and the older questions it reopens
NDTV in a New Costume: The Roys Are Gone, and So Is the Soul
A rebrand cannot resurrect the brand equity that walked out the door with Prannoy and Radhika Roy on 29 November 2022
Pakistan’s Lawrence Bishnoi’s Sinister Plan to Hit India on Independence Day, Busted
One Enemy — Shahzad Bhatti — Wears Pakistan’s Flag; the Others Wear None At All
Man Shall Not Live by Silicon and AI Alone
Finding your Ikigai and the Ultimate Purpose of Life in the Age of Ai and AGI
Khan Market and a Central Deputationist’s View of Delhi's Geography
Lodhi Garden, Hauz Khas Village, and the India International Centre,
No BJP Poll Alliance in the Badal Bloodline: What Manpreet’s Elevation Really Tells Us
Reading the tea leaves the BJP itself has left out
Madan Lal Dhingra: The Forgotten Martyr Who Lit the Flame of Revolution
The brave son of Amritsar who embraced martyrdom at the altar of freedom before the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and before Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh kissed the gallows.
Warm Greetings on Bhadon Sangrand (ਭਾਦੋਂ ਸੰਗਰਾਂਦ): Embracing the Spiritual Essence of Bārah Māhā
Bārah māhā (ਬਾਰਹ ਮਾਹਾ) & the Spiritual Quest in the month of Bhadon (ਭਾਦੋਂ)
Eight Punya Tithis On: Two Mornings with Atal Bihari Vajpayee I Still Carry
16 August 2026
The Jantar-Mantar of Success — There Is No Secret Sauce, Only a Recipe
Encourage the Young. Do Not Appease Them.