DARK SECRETS: 4 | Rare Historical Photos

The next phase of India’s digital payments dominance: Trusted AI-led agentic commerce, Visa’s Sethi says

India’s digital payments ecosystem is a “showcase for the world”. The infrastructure is ready to take the next leap: agentic commerce, where AI agents will make decisions and payments. For that to happen, however, trust is non-negotiable, and it has to be embedded into the architecture. Visa Group Country Manager,…

The Economic Times · Sep 15

175 years of university architecture reflects Australian history. We shouldn’t let that history be lost

Half a decade ago, Australian universities were thrust into an international experiment in online learning and working. Suddenly, bricks and mortar campuses seemed redundant.

The Conversation · Sep 15

Why the Involved Indian Father Gets Praised for Parenting While the Mother Does It by Default

The math nobody writes downYou have been doing it since before the child could ask for anything. The 2 a.m. feeds, the vaccination schedule memorized without a reminder app, the snack box packed with the one thing he will actually eat. Nobody handed you a trophy. Nobody called your mother-in-law…

Times Life · Sep 15

The desecration of DC: from a giant arch to a nuke-proof bunker, Trump’s legacy-building blingfest is an architectural atrocity

A bloated ballroom, a six-storey military HQ, a helipad-cum-cocktail patio, a gilded angel on a giant arch honouring himself … our architecture critic deplores the decorator-in-chief’s mutilation of Washington

The Guardian - UK · Sep 14

India's Dhole: The Whistling Wild Canid Whose Pack Hunting Method No Wolf or Tiger Uses

The Animal Most Indian Forests Don't AdvertiseThe dhole (Cuon alpinus) weighs between 12 and 20 kilograms. A sambar deer it hunts can weigh 300. That gap is not a problem the dhole solves with size or ambush. It solves it with method, and the method is unlike anything wolves, African…

Times Life · Sep 14

When a Childfree Choice Meets a Family With Expectations Already Written in Baby Names

The Name Was Already ChosenYour mother-in-law mentions it the way she mentions the weather. "We were thinking Arjun if it's a boy." She is not asking. She is reporting on a plan that includes your body, your sleep, your career, your next decade, a plan assembled without you, presented to…

Times Life · Sep 14

Gondal and Bhavnagar: The Saurashtra Palace Towns Where Royal Homes Still Take Paying Guests

The families who stayedMost Indian palace hotels were sold, converted, or handed to hotel chains that stripped them of everything except the architecture. Gondal went a different way. The Jadeja Rajput royal family of Gondal still lives in the Orchard Palace, a late-19th-century riverside property that takes paying guests into…

Times Life · Sep 14

Chinese President Xi proposes 5-point initiative at BRICS, calls for building large integrated market

Chinese President Xi Jinping urged BRICS nations to strengthen global governance and trade architecture. He proposed a five-point initiative to boost cooperation in manufacturing and technology. BRICS should leverage ties with emerging markets and the Global South for integrated markets. The group aims to safeguard supply chains and promote peaceful…

The Economic Times · Sep 13

Why Indian Families Ask About Pregnancy Before the Wedding Photographs Are Even Printed

The Question Arrives Before You DoYou are still opening wedding gifts when it starts. An aunt at the reception, leaning in close, voice dropped to a conspiratorial murmur: "So, good news soon?" Your mother-in-law, framing it as hope: "We are all waiting." A cousin, laughing as she says it, which…

Times Life · Sep 13

When Your Partner Performs Every Ritual You Believe In Without Believing a Word of It

The Diya Is Lit Every EveningYou know the exact way he does it. He picks up the matchbox, strikes it on the third try because the first two always fail, and holds the flame to the wick until it catches. He waits until it steadies. Then he steps back, folds…

Times Life · Sep 13