Counterview

By Sanjay Swati Bhave*  September 3 was the very last day of The Times of India’s office on Ashram Road. The Times is now moving out of Fadia Chambers and into a part of some very large building in the area behind ISKCON Temple and Mall. The Ahmedabad office, housed in the four-storeyed Fadia Chambers on Ashram Road, was itself a landmark of the city.

By M.G. Devasahayam*  Meta—the parent company of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp—recently agreed to a US$16.68 billion settlement in US courts over allegations that its platforms contributed to mental‑health harms among children. The settlement emerged during a federal trial involving claims brought by 29 states, local governments, school districts and individuals. Meta, along with Snapchat, YouTube and TikTok, continues to face thousands of lawsuits alleging that these companies knowingly designed features that are addictive to children and adolescents, thereby exacerbating a nationwide youth mental‑health crisis.

By Aravind Yadappanavar*   The irony is as bitter as it is devastating. In a year when the monsoon delivered deficit rainfall across Bihar, the state found itself submerged under one of its most severe flood crises in recent memory. The catastrophe of September 2024 was not born from an excess of rain, but from an excess of human hubris. The rivers that flow from Nepal did what they have always done during the monsoon: they swelled with water. But the response from Bihar's flood management infrastructure was nothing short of catastrophic. This was not a natural disaster; it was a man-made one, meticulously engineered by decades of flawed policy, short-sighted planning, and an almost religious adherence to the false gospel of structural flood control.

By A Representative   A glacial lake outburst flood in the Nepal-Tibet region of the Himalayas, which has killed more than a thousand people and left several thousand still missing ten days on, has prompted a veteran Indian power sector professional to write to three Union ministers and the Vice-Chairperson of NITI Aayog, urging a comprehensive review of the country's plans to expand dam-based hydropower and pumped-storage projects (PSPs).

By A Representative   The West Bengal human rights group Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) has approached the National Human Rights Commission of India, the Supreme Court of India and senior West Bengal authorities seeking an independent investigation into the alleged illegal detention, disputed identification as a Bangladeshi national, attempted push-back across the India-Bangladesh border and custodial ill-treatment of a 66-year-old man from Uttar Dinajpur district.

By Biljana Vankovska    A few days ago, when I landed at Budapest Airport on my way to an international conference devoted to serious questions of international politics, the first thing I saw was a huge civilian aircraft bearing a name unfamiliar to me: Isair. It was not difficult to guess, but I checked anyway. It was an Israeli air carrier.

By Rezgar Akrawi   On 25 August 2026, Mazloum Abdi announced from the People's Palace in Damascus the end of the mission of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and their dissolution as an independent military force, alongside the dissolution of the Autonomous Administration and its affiliated military and civilian structures and their integration into the institutions of the Syrian state. This announcement followed the extensive military operation in January, which paved the way for a negotiating track that culminated in the integration of its forces and institutions within the Syrian state.

By Peter Dziedzic*  Kashmir remains one of the world’s most contentious geopolitical flash points . In April 2025, India and Pakistan, two nuclear-armed countries that share a tense border, came dangerously close to a major confrontation after militants attacked Indian tourists near the popular resort town of Pahalgam in Indian Kashmir . Against this backdrop, media coverage of Kashmir often focuses on violence and division.

By Bharat Dogra   We are all familiar with how painful it is for a farmer to lose his land, so one can imagine the inner turbulence of a farmer who has not only been forced to sell his ancestral land due to economic compulsions but, in addition, is forced by continuing economic difficulties to accept temporary work as a landless farm worker on the same plot of land.