Aravindan Neelakandan

In 2003, Swedish philosopher Nick Bostrom introduced the world to a disturbing thought experiment: the Paperclip Maximiser. He imagined a super-intelligent artificial intelligence with enormous access to all the resources of the planet, natural as well as human.

The Shroud of Turin has once again emerged from the quietude of its reliquary to capture the global headlines, this time bearing a provocative 'Indian connection' that has set the Indian press ablaze with excitement.

The modern Hindu mind suffers from a peculiar optical illusion. Observing the empty pews of Western Europe and the liberalised debates of North American seminaries, many Hindus have concluded prematurely that the Roman Catholic Church is a spent civilisational force, a crumbling relic of a pre-scientific age. Their characterisation of the Church rarely extends beyond its darkest medieval chapters: witch-hunting, Galileo's trial, the Inquisition's pyres.

Pope Leo XIV's repeated public appeals for an immediate ceasefire and a return to serious negotiations in the 2026 Iran war have drawn widespread attention and respect, including from many analysts and citizens who remain deeply critical of Iran's theocratic regime and its regional destabilising activities.

The Universe Is Pranking Us. Dr Mrittunjoy Guha Majumdar. Hay House. Pages: 240. Price: Rs 246.

The Mahasamadhi of Guru Muni Narayana Prasad marks the end of a physical presence that embodied the spiritual brilliance of Vedantic Universalism. As the successor to Nataraja Guru and Guru Nitya Chaitanya Yati, he carried forward a lineage dedicated to the unitive understanding of humanity and to the "darkness-dispelling Guru-principle" that resides within every being. The lineage goes back to Bhagwan Sri Narayana Guru.

Satellite launches are no longer the occasional government affairs they once were. Today, governments and private operators alike send a near-continuous stream of commercial satellites into orbit.

In the Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly on 12 May 2026, Leader of the Opposition Udhayanidhi Stalin rose and openly demanded the “eradication” (

On 8 May 2026, the Pentagon, now renamed as the 'War Department', finally claimed that it had surrendered its secrets to the digital winds.

In Tamil Nadu, between 2017 and 2025, 59 people were killed in 53 separate incidents of caste-related violence. Crimes against Dalit communities rose from 1,377 cases in 2021 to 1,921 in 2023. Across the state, 345 villages in 37 of 38 districts are officially identified as atrocity-prone. And when cases do reach court, only 12 percent of accused are convicted.