Topics Archive

Reforming Pakistan’s madrasas

Pakistan’s military announces plans to bring the country’s madrasas under government control. Why should Pakistan regulate its madrasas? Madrasas are Islamic seminaries, known in Pakistan as Madaris-…

Japan apologises to victims of forced sterilisation

Twenty years after Japan repealed the eugenics law, it has agreed to compensate victims of the government program under which thousands of people were forcibly sterilized because of intellectual…

Sturgeon calls for Scottish Referendum 2.0

Scotland should hold a new referendum on independence from the United Kingdom by 2021 if Britain leaves the European Union, said the Scottish leader, Nicola Sturgeon. The question remains, is…

Do Better with Less: Frugal Innovation to Sustainable Growth

The Synergia Foundation hosted a Harvard Business School Club of India conversation with Prof. Jaideep Prabhu and Navi Radjou on April 16, 2019. Also in attendance were Sajju Jain - Founder of Impact…

Violence returns to Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka’s government has blamed local jihadist group National Thowheed Jamath for one of Asia’s deadliest terrorist attacks in years and said other nations had shared intelligence ahead of the…

Measles incidence increases worldwide

Measles cases increases by 300% worldwide, spurred on by anti-vaccination campaigns, supply chain issues and conflict. A vaccine is a biological concoction that provides acquired immunity to a…

Deeper EU-China cooperation in the near future?

Given pre-summit tensions, the release of a statement and commitment to a timetable for developing a monitoring mechanism is an achievement. Concessions made by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang are…

US award grants to anti-abortion clinics

President Donald Trump’s administration announced that it would award family planning grant to a chain of crisis centres that oppose abortion and don’t offer contraceptives. Abortion is the…

Drug prices balloon in the US

Some drug prices have increased significantly in the first three months of 2019. The rise comes amidst intense attention on the American pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry as we…

Turkey out of F-35 program?

The United States has suspended Turkey’s participation in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter jet program until Ankara cancels its planned purchase of a sophisticated Russian air defence system, the…

Trump veto stands

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday failed to override President Donald Trump’s first veto, leaving in place the “national emergency” he declared last month to build a U.S.-Mexico border…

Kabul’s expanding ‘green zone’

The ‘Green Zone’ in Kabul is the walled-off compound of embassies and newsrooms, which is set to expand dramatically. It already imposes extreme limitations on its sheltered residents and stokes…

Wayfinding in Times of Change

The Synergia Foundation in collaboration with the Government of Karnataka (GoK) organised a roundtable discussion on “Wayfinding in Times of Change” by Kenneth Mikkelsen on March 13, 2019. The event…

Slovakia elections underway

Zuzana Caputova, an anti-corruption lawyer who entered politics only a year ago, comfortably won the first round of Slovakia’s presidential election, the first such election since the country was…

Economists criticize data misuse

Top economists and social scientists studying India have published an open letter expressing alarm at the politicisation of economic data by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, highlighting…

Anti-Vaccination Movement

Vaccination skeptics have stated that the U.S Government is working with pharmaceutical companies in order to stop them. The government is also hiding the truth on how vaccinations kill hundreds of…

Phillip Morris circumvents investment ban

Phillip Morris International Inc. (PMI) has been paying for the manufacturing costs of Marlboro cigarettes in India circumventing a nine-year-old ban on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the tobacco…

Microplastic scourge spreads

According to new studies by the University of Exeter, microplastic pollution spans the world, showing contamination in UK’s lake and rivers, in groundwater in the US, along the Yangtze river in China…

Burundi closes human rights office

Burundi has forced the United Nations to shut its local human rights office after 23 years, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said. Burundi is a landlocked country amid the…

Well being index

According to global surveys, smaller countries such as Singapore are placed at the top of global wellness ranks while countries with large and booming economies are at the bottom. Gross National…