AFTER the relentless hype about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Solana, Dogecoin, LUNA, etc., for the last couple of years, we are now witnessing their complete meltdown. The hype was primarily driven by eye-popping increases in valuations of all the major cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin had gone from around USD 4,000 to USD 64,000, a sixteen fold increase, in 20 months. Other cryptocurrencies had even more ridiculous price increases in the same time period – Ethereum had a 50 fold increase, Solana 500 times, and LUNA had a 1,000 times increase.

ARE military technology aspects of the US-India relationship set to change in coming years? Recent reports suggest that the US is preparing a $US 500 million foreign military assistance package for India which, although a relatively small amount in  comparison with the multi-billion dollar value of large defence hardware acquisitions, has considerable political significance in the US security and foreign policy system.

RESPONSE of the media and the public to the series of reports together forming the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC/AR6) has been surprising, yet telling, in important ways.IPCC’s Assessment Reports are written and released roughly at intervals of six years and, as reports based on extensive peer-reviewed information and data, written up by leading scientists and experts from other disciplines with many rounds of consultations, are widely regarded as the broadest updated consensus of the scientific community on the issue of climate change.

INDIA'S struggle for independence was not simply to free India from British rule but also to build a nation that would deliver development to its people. The fruits of freedom would be bitter if independence did not lift its people out of the abject poverty that resulted from two centuries of colonial rule.

DOES the Ukraine war and the action of the US, EU, and the UK spell the end of the dollar as the world's reserve currency? Even if the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine reach a 15-point peace plan, as Financial Times has reported, the fallout for the dollar still remains. For the first time, a major nuclear power and major economy were treated as a vassal state. Its $300 billion foreign exchange reserves lying with the US, EU and the UK were seized.The threat to the dollar hegemony is only one part of the fallout.