The war in the Gulf has exposed India's underbelly, this huge crisis on the shortage of petroleum products only exposes how energy insecure the country remains. If only someone had heeded to the plaintive calls made two decades ago by India's visionary "People's President" APJ Abdul Kalam. Two decades on, India is still at the mercy of Gulf oil. Nearly two decades ago, India's "missile man" and then President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, laid out an audacious national mission, energy security by 2020, leading to energy independence by 2030. He framed it not as an engineering target alone, but as a strategic necessity: "Energy Independence is the lifeline of a nation." Kalam's prescription, spelt out in his address at the South Asian Conference on Renewable Energy in New Delhi in April 2006, was clear-eyed about geopolitics, economics and technology. He warned that fossil-based oil, coal and gas reserves would not last forever, and that the ...
Sanju Samson 's three consecutive half-centuries at the T20 World Cup 2026 was the inspirational story to emerge from the tournament. For long, Samson has been considered as having the talent to make it big on the biggest stage. Somehow, the consistency never arrived, and ahead of the T20 World Cup, he suffered a torrid run. He did not play in all matches in the tournament either. But once he started to fire, beginning with the Super 8 match against West Indies, there was no stopping him. India batting coach Sitanshu Kotak revealed the quiet confidence that preceded Samson's resurgent run to becoming the Player of the Tournament in India's triumphant 2026 Men's T20 World Cup campaign, recalling how the wicketkeeper-batter promised that he would contribute whenever the team needed him. "I always used to tell Sanju, 'Sanju, you don't know - sometimes in two or three days, an injury or form issue could come up, or even a combination issue may appear. So you ...