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By NARAIN BATRA

Last June in a White House meeting, President Joe Biden gave India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi an extraordinary gift, an autographed first edition copy of the “Collected Poems of Robert Frost,” one of America’s greatest poets.Modi responded with an...

By NARAIN BATRA

On April 22, the pristine calm of Baisaran Valley near Pahalgam, Kashmir, was ruptured by violence of the most brutal kind. In what is now being called the deadliest civilian-targeted terrorist attack in India since 2008, 26 tourists, including a child and a Nepalese national, were murdered in cold blood by militants claiming allegiance to The Resistance Front (TRF), a known proxy of the terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba of Pakistan.

By NARAIN BATRA

Recently, I had a fascinating conversation with first-term Vermont state Sen. Joe Major about the state’s trials and tribulations in the age of MAGA Trumpism. I asked him to describe “A day in the life of a Vermont Senator” and how he juggles his professional and political interests.

By NARAIN BATRA

Congressman Seth Moulton (D-MA) in a recent conversation at Dartmouth’s Rockefeller Center for Public Policy with Russell Muirhead, a government professor at Dartmouth, spoke with refreshing candor that the Democratic Party is in peril. It needs a serious re-evaluation of its deplorable electoral performance despite facing an opponent perceived as deeply flawed.

By NARAIN BATRA

President Trump’s proclamation of a “golden age” for America seems to be emerging from his vision of ultranationalism and global dominance. He conjures a future where America will “flourish and be respected again all over the world” and become “the envy of every nation.” Russia’s Putin and China’s Xi Jinping have similar visions of grandeur by recovering and redeeming a glorious past through economic and military dominance.

By NARAIN BATRA

Last year, Valley News investigative reporter Jim Kenyon wrote a heart-wrenching story about Jennifer Kahn, a 59-year-old school secretary at Mascoma Valley Regional High School who also worked as a restaurant waitress in Lebanon. Working on the dinner shift and depending upon her minimum hourly wage and tips, Kahn worked hard to “pay for everything from utility bills to her kids’ college educations … mostly as a single mom.” It wasn’t a sob story but a wage-tip-sharing legal case with her employer that drew the reporter’s probing attention.

By NARAIN BATRA

In his latest book, “On Freedom,” Yale historian Timothy Snyder provocatively asserts that “some Americans want to be tyrants.” The statement, while challenging, invites strict scrutiny regarding its implications for American society and its ongoing...

By NARAIN BATRA

Last Friday, a panel of distinguished Dartmouth political scientists from the Department of Government including Brendan Nyhan, Jason Barabas, Jennifer Lind, and Anna Mahoney, addressed a range of issues that influenced the election results, including...

By NARAIN BATRA

In mid-November 2023, Barbra Streisand expressed to talk-show host Stephen Colbert deep sadness over the ongoing violence in Gaza. She said: “It’s sad about what’s going on today — meaning people have to live together, even though they’re different...

By NARAIN BATRA

In early September when the families of freshmen, the Dartmouth class of 2028, more than 1,200 young fresh faces, landed in Hanover to drop their children off for the beginning of their college journey, there was an atmosphere of excitement, pride and...

By NARAIN BATRA

About a month before President Joe Biden ended his bid for a second term, Rodney Smolla, a constitutional scholar and president of Vermont Law and Graduate School, gave a fascinating lecture at the United Church of Strafford about the 2024 election....

By NARAIN BATRA

Reading Darrin McMahon’s book “Equality,” especially on the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, connects the debate during that transformative movement to battles over equality in the present moment.The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. drew...

By NARAIN BATRA

In the fall, Dartmouth College will bring to its campus a student body of 1209 young strangers, men, women, genderqueer/nonbinary/trans, including first-generation college-goers, international students, African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Native...

By NARAIN BATRA

A few years ago, I was on a return flight from New Delhi to Paris and New York, when the chief flight attendant suddenly broke up the humming silence and asked passengers to ring the call bell if anyone was a doctor. One physician, a tall and handsome...

By NARAIN BATRA

In our daily lives we see some of the most talented people, experts in their fields, in academics, sports, entertainment and business, choke under pressure when the moment for performance comes for which they have prepared for days and days. Why do...

By NARAIN BATRA

I always look forward to reading the periodic reports about the intersection of business and government issued by Tuck School of Business Dean Matthew Slaughter and his colleague, and former White House speechwriter, Matthew Rees. The most recent...

By NARAIN BATRA

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has emerged as a mighty technological force, transforming various aspects of our lives. With its potential to automate tasks, improve efficiency, and help us make complex decisions, collaborative AI holds great promises...