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The “Lazy Bird” in Nature: Why the Cuckoo Is a Master of Survival, Not Idleness

December 30, 2025

In popular imagination, laziness is often associated with inactivity, lack of effort, or avoidance of responsibility. When this human idea is applied to the natural world, it can be misleading. A classic example is the cuckoo, a bird widely referred to as the “Lazy Bird”. The label arises from the cuckoo’s refusal to build nests or raise its own young. Yet, far from being indolent, the cuckoo represents one of nature’s most sophisticated evolutionary strategies, demonstrating how survival often depends more on intelligence than on hard work alone.

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Pinaka LRGR-120: Precision Firepower and the Evolution of India’s Artillery Doctrine

December 30, 2025

India’s successful maiden flight test of the 120-km Pinaka Long Range Guided Rocket (LRGR-120) marks an important milestone in the country’s quest for credible, indigenous long-range precision strike capability. Conducted at the Integrated Test Range, Chandipur, the trial demonstrated not only extended reach but also high accuracy, manoeuvrability and system reliability—capabilities that modern battlefields increasingly demand. Beyond the technical success, the test reflects a deeper shift in India’s military doctrine, defence industrial capacity, and deterrence posture.

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India’s Health System at a Crossroads: Why 2025 Exposed Structural Fragility

December 30, 2025

With a population nearing 146 crore, India’s health-care system faces challenges unmatched in scale and complexity. The year 2025 laid bare the system’s underlying fragility — not through a single crisis, but through a convergence of pressures: resurging infectious diseases, a growing non-communicable disease burden, antimicrobial resistance, air pollution, pharmaceutical safety failures, and chronic underfunding. Together, these stresses have underscored an urgent truth: India’s health priorities need realignment, not incremental adjustment.

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India’s Foreign Policy in 2025: From Strategic Confidence to Strategic Caution

December 30, 2025

For India’s foreign policy establishment, 2025 unfolded less as a year of calibrated diplomacy and more as a sequence of shocks that challenged long-held assumptions. From the disruptive return of Donald Trump to the White House to instability in India’s neighbourhood and unending global conflicts, New Delhi found itself reacting more than shaping outcomes. As South Block looks toward 2026, the central task is no longer merely crisis management, but a sober recalibration of expectations in a world defined by volatility rather than order.

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MSMEs in a Volatile Global Economy: Why Budget 2026–27 Must Become a Course Correction

December 30, 2025

As India navigates an era of persistent global trade uncertainty, its micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) stand at a critical crossroads. Once celebrated as engines of employment, exports and entrepreneurship, MSMEs—particularly micro enterprises—are increasingly exposed to forces beyond their control: tariff wars, currency volatility, logistics disruptions and regulatory overload. Their appeal to the Union government ahead of Budget 2026–27 is therefore not merely a plea for relief, but a warning that without recalibrated policy support, India risks hollowing out the very base of its manufacturing and employment pyramid.

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