Eyes of the India

  City officials say efforts are under way to bring supplies into the city during a strict ‘zero Covid’ policy Shanghai on Wednesday made some concessions to a child separation Covid policy, in a nod to growing public frustration as it extends a citywide lockdown that left some residents struggling to buy food. The lockdown of China’s most populous city, which started in parts of Shanghai 10 days ago and has since been expanded to confine practically all its 26 million residents to their homes, has significantly disrupted daily life and business. Public criticism over the curbs, part of Beijing ’s elimination strategy, has ranged from complaints over crowded and unsanitary quarantine centres to difficulties in buying food or accessing medical treatment. But the most controversial policy is Shanghai’s practice of separating Covid-positive children from their parents, which came to the fore on Saturday and triggered widespread anger across the country. In the face of such crit...

 U.S.-India bilateral relations for decades had more form than substance. Gauzy rhetoric about “shared democratic values” papered over tensions rooted in differences over the Cold War. The U.S. wanted India to choose sides; Indian leaders, fresh from an anti-colonial struggle, preferred charting an independent course to being trapped in the slipstream of others’ disputes. But if India’s leading role in the Nonaligned Movement — and its arms deals with the Soviet Union — put a ceiling on the bilateral relationship, the American public’s generally positive view of India’s struggle for freedom and commitment to democracy established a floor. As a result, even when political tensions arose, the U.S. provided development assistance to India, people-to-people exchanges expanded, and scientific cooperation grew. The collapse of the Soviet Union signaled an opportunity for a new chapter in the  bilateral relationship. The respective governments in the 1990s in Washington and New Delhi...