Politicians slashed migration. Now they face the consequences

The article first appeared in The Economist on June 22, 2025. LAST YEAR net migration to Britain halved: the country’s population grew by just 431,000, down from 860,000 in 2023. In the final quarter of 2024 some 60,000 people, net, moved to Canada, a drop from 420,000 in mid-2023. In April net migration to America slowed to an annualised pace of 600,000, an enormous fall from 4m or so in 2023. In March net migration to New Zealand was down by 80% from its peak in late 2023... Read more on The Economist  Find more Global Indian Top Reads

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Louis Vuitton’s runway has found India — it must now lead the show

The article first appeared in The Indian Express on June 27, 2025. Pharrell Williams’s Louis Vuitton menswear spectacle in Paris on June 25 may be remembered less for its celebrities than for its compass. The collection — titled “Paris to India” — scattered cricket stripes across silk suits, dangled elephant-trunk bags from models’ hands and sent them striding over a snakes-and-ladders set conceived by architect Bijoy Jain. A Punjabi soundtrack co-produced by A R Rahman pulsed through the Louvre courtyard. In 30 brisk minutes, a French mega-brand declared that the world’s most sumptuous fashion conversation now needs India in every sentence. Read more on The Indian Express Find more Global Indian Top Reads

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When Dubai almost became a part of India

The article first appeared in BBC's website on June 22, 2025.

In the winter of 1956, The Times correspondent David Holden arrived on the island of Bahrain, then still a British protectorate.

After a short-lived career teaching geography, Holden had looked forward to his Arabian posting, but he hadn't expected to be attending a garden durbar in honour of Queen Victoria's appointment as Empress of India.

Everywhere that he went in the Gulf - Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Oman - he found expected traces of British India...

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Semma!: How James Beard-winning chef Vijay Kumar is making Tamil cuisine international

The article first appeared in The Hindu on June 18, 2025. Chef Vijay Kumar’s poignant speech on winning the James Beard Awards, 2025, for best chef in New York State, is especially powerful because it celebrates a huge change in attitude towards Indians and Indian food, and more specifically South Indians and South Indian food — a change that has been tirelessly fought for in Indian, and foreign kitchens for decades. Semma, set in New York City’s trendy Greenwich, is bright and buzzy, with a menu that embraces the food Vijay grew up eating in Natham, near Madurai, where his parents still live. For a long time, Indian cooking abroad was dismissed as spicy, greasy and generic, with curry houses serving an amalgamation of vaguely Punjab-inspired food: vivid bowls of butter chicken, spicy vindaloo and ‘naan bread.’ Read more The Hindu Find more Global Indian Top Reads

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India’s population reaches 146.39 crore, fertility rate drops below replacement level: UN report

The article first appeared on The Hindu on June 11, 2025 India’s population is estimated to have reached 146.39 crore by April, says a new UN demographic report, which adds that the country’s total fertility rate (TFR) has declined to 1.9, falling below the replacement level of 2.1.

The population is expected to grow to 170 crore before starting to dip in about 40 years, the report titled “State of the World Population 2025: The Real Fertility Crisis” says...

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In battle of the delegations, real story lies in what went unsaid

The article first appeared on The Times of India on June 15, 2025 In the aftermath of their recent military clash, rival delegations from Delhi to Islamabad converged on various global capitals, each aiming to shape elite opinion, win sympathy, and control the post-crisis narrative. Having witnessed some of the exchanges in London firsthand, the diplomatic duel across briefing rooms, think tank and diaspora events was as revealing for what was unsaid as for what was spoken. Read more on The Times of India Find more Global Indian Top Reads  

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