Paar follows Naurangia played by Naseeruddin Shah and his pregnant wife, Rama played by Shabana Azmi, who are forced to flee their village after a massacre triggered by villagers fighting for Dalit rights. Their struggle takes them from rural Bihar to the outskirts of Calcutta, where poverty, hunger and the absence of a support system leave them with few choices.

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Opinion: 'India has seen its own manifestations of youth anger, first around entrance examinations and paper leaks, and subsequently about the revision of electoral rolls. Even though the protesters in India have remained steadfastly non-violent and do not advocate larger political changes, the government views them with unease. More recently, young people have been prominent in demonstrations, often violent, across France, Belgium, Italy, and Albania.'

Pravesh Sharma, former IAS officer, writes

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Interestingly, even as the middle class struggles to stay afloat, a different class is thriving. In Behold the Leviathan (2024), the authors wrote about a new elite emerging from India’s interiors—people without IIT, IIM or foreign degrees, for whom pedigree matters far less than it did for the generation before (source: Business Standard review). These are individuals who earn more than Rs 1 crore a year, or who run a cluster of small businesses that together add up to a local conglomerate. The largest among them own businesses earning anywhere between Rs 50 crore and Rs 500 crore of profit after tax a year.

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Opinion: 'In India, where fair skin has long been associated with beauty and social advantage, skin-lightening products occupy a lucrative market. Their packaging may now promise “radiance”, “brightening” or “instant glow” rather than fairness. But the terminology has changed faster than the underlying problem: consumers may be applying potent pharmacological ingredients without knowing what they contain or how they should be used.'

Deepali Bhardwaj, dermatologist, anti-allergy specialist and laser surgeon writes

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“75% to 80% of Kashmir’s troubles today & in the last few years have been due to the amazingly mistaken wrong-headed policy that the Maharaja pursued there,” said Nehru in 1952. Watch Aamaan Alam Khan explain his address:

#ThePrintGreatSpeeches

https://youtu.be/d4xhiCaPL2k

A poll by the Hebrew University of Jerusalem shows that a majority of Israelis feel that Iran had won over them or gained more from the conflict, and that Israel’s long-term security had been weakened.

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Opinion: 'That got me thinking about the best and the worst things about being Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The answer to both is PM Modi. He is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. He needs no advice from anyone because he knows the people’s pulse. He is India’s most popular leader with a titanium coating. Nobody in the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or the larger Sangh Parivar can question any of his words or actions. He is bigger than his party. The BJP’s Union Ministers, Chief Ministers, MPs, MLAs, organisational office-bearers—everyone owes their position to him and their continuity is at his pleasure.'

ThePrint Political Editor DK Singh writes

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Opinion: 'An adversary does not always need to penetrate a network if it can persuade an authorised user to provide the information it seeks. The technology and vocabulary of espionage has changed. The exploitation of human vulnerability has not.'

Shrawani Shagun Jha, research fellow at Centre for Aerospace Power and Strategic Studies, writes

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Opinion: 'That statehood should feature so prominently in the campaign marks a striking reversal in Israeli political calculations. For more than a decade, mainstream candidates largely ignored the Palestinian question; even those who privately suspected the issue would eventually resurface were convinced it held no traction with an indifferent electorate, dismissing it as a redundant topic that no longer warranted airtime during a national campaign. Today, however, the fallout from the 7 October massacre and the ensuing multi-front conflicts give Netanyahu hope. He believes that the deep concern among most Israeli Jews regarding a Palestinian state can be leveraged to force the issue back to the very centre of national discourse.'

Lev Aran, former coordinator of the Israel-India Parliamentary Friendship League, writes

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Opinion: '“There was a time when we equated Nepali nationalism with anti-India sentiment. That era is now over.” India and Nepal, he said, are “joined at the hip”, adding that it is “exceptionally important that India rises”.'

Rami Niranjan Desi, Distinguished Fellow at the India Foundation, New Delhi, writes

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India’s home healthcare industry is valued at $11 billion, driven by a growing elderly population and an overburdened hospital healthcare system. Yet, home ICU care isn’t a revolution yet. The promises of dignity, infection control and massive cost savings by home ICU services often hinge on practical concerns such as well-trained nurses and transparent payment plans.

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Jamia’s last students’ union elections were held in 2005. The university dissolved the elected body on 31 March 2006, citing campus violence and disruption to academic activities following a confrontation between student union leaders and university officials over student admissions and an alleged assault involving the then proctor.

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A Canada-wide study has found that taking fish oil supplements does not actually reduce Alzheimer's risk in patients. Watch ThePrint #Scientifix with Akanksha Mishra

https://youtu.be/npqz-oCaJQY

The litigation comes amid a wider food-safety enforcement drive in Maharashtra under Mundhe. Published accounts of the litigation have noted that the case comes against the backdrop of action by Maharashtra’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA) against eateries and other establishments over alleged food safety violations. 

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Opinion: 'For millions of Muslims, Mecca is one of the holiest places, associated with faith, mercy and spiritual renewal. I understand why people want to protect the sanctity of such a place. Every religious community has the right to expect people to respect its places of worship.'

Amana Begam Ansari, columnist, writes

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Opinion: 'If Pakistan claimed to intervene for the welfare of Kashmiris, what has it done for the people living in the territory? 
The answer is uncomfortable for Islamabad.'

SN Srivastava, former police commissioner, writes

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The NHPC had identified three potential sites in Siang and Upper Siang districts—Uggeng, Dite Dime and Parong—in the draft pre-feasibility report that it submitted to the Jal Shakti ministry and the Central Water Commission on 30 December, 2022. Government sources said that NHPC was told to conduct core drilling and geophysical studies at the three locations and compare them before finalising the dam site.  

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Opinion: 'The RBI’s intervention targeted rapid capital movement. It reduced the permissible size of currency derivative transactions lacking an underlying trade from $100 million to $5 million, prohibited companies from cancelling and rebooking hedges for speculative purposes, mandated banks to maintain a 20 per cent cash reserve with the RBI against large forward dollar purchase contracts, and established a special facility to sell dollars directly to state-run oil companies, thereby excluding their transactions from the open market. Although these measures were not explicitly termed capital controls, they effectively function as such, and their effectiveness will influence the rupee’s trajectory in the coming months.'

Bidisha Bhattacharya, Consulting Editor (Economics), writes

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Opinion: 'The episode revealed a key vulnerability that also served as a centre of gravity (CoG). It highlighted the dangers of operational dependence on a privately controlled satellite system that relies on the operator’s willingness to act in a compliant and friendly manner. When Starlink and Starshield were withheld, Ukraine appeared defenceless.'

Former IAF fighter pilot Ajay Ahlawat writes

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Opinion: 'When an anti-cancer injection supplied to a hospital pharmacy at Rs 2,700 carries an MRP of Rs 27,000, a markup of 900 per cent is not funding clinical trials or laboratory equipment. Instead, such a margin can serve as a commercial bounty for hospital networks and supply-chain intermediaries, incentivising them to ensure that a particular brand, rather than a cheaper alternative, is prescribed and dispensed.'

Sanjeev Chopra, former IAS officer, writes

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