Since March 1, 2026, Iran has effectively blocked the Strait of Hormuz—the narrow waterway connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman through which approximately one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies transit. This blockade, a consequence of the escalating military conflict between Iran on one side and the United States and Israel…
On March 7, 2026, Dipali Das, a 60-year-old woman from Bangladesh’s Sylhet district who had been declared an illegal immigrant by a Foreigners’ Tribunal in Assam and spent two years in a detention centre, became the first person in India to receive Indian citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 (CAA) after having been…
On February 28, 2026, a series of explosions at Sri Surya Fireworks in Vetlapalem village in Kakinada district of Andhra Pradesh claimed the lives of 28 workers, including eight women. Preliminary investigations revealed that the unit had licence to employ only 8 workers per day and store a maximum of 15 kilograms of explosive material,…
On March 7, 2026, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, during the presentation of the State Budget for 2026-27, announced that Karnataka proposes to ban social media use for children under 16 years of age. On the same day, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu announced a similar prohibition for children below 13, with a 90-day…
The results of Nepal’s general elections, held on March 6, 2026, have produced one of the most dramatic political upheavals in the subcontinent’s recent history. The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), founded just four years ago in 2022, is leading in approximately 110 of 165 constituencies, far outpacing Nepal’s established political formations—the Nepali Congress and the…
On March 7, 2026, the United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the U.S. was granting India a thirty-day window to import Russian crude oil, framing it as a reprieve from sanctions amid the escalating West Asia conflict. Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz since March 1, 2026, has sharply constricted global oil…