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"Rent-a-grandchild" services are growing in Gurugram, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Mumbai. For about ₹400–450 an hour, a companion takes seniors to temples, sits with them at hospital visits, or simply listens. With children moving to other cities and abroad, supporters say this fills a real gap. Critics ask whether it lets families off the hook, and point out that most Indians can't afford it.

Delhi woke up to thick smog the morning after Diwali, with AQI above 350 ("severe") in several areas. The Supreme Court had allowed only green crackers, in fixed three-hour windows, but fireworks went on all Sunday evening. Is a full ban the answer, or should the focus be on vehicles and stubble burning, the two biggest sources of winter pollution?

Lakhs of Indian graduates finish college every year without a single day of real work experience - and employers keep saying freshers are not job-ready. Some courses already build work into the degree: medicine has its compulsory internship year, and engineering colleges under AICTE require students to complete internships. The National Education Policy 2020 asks for internships across undergraduate programmes too, but most BA, BCom and BSc students can still graduate without spending a day in a workplace. Making it compulsory would mean every college arranging - and every student finding - a placement before they get their degree: in a company, a government office, an NGO, a farm or a local business. Should an internship be a condition for graduating from every college in India? Where do you stand? Vote, then share your opinion - and say what would change your mind.

Coding assistants now write a large share of new code at many companies - including code that runs banks, hospitals and UPI apps. When that code breaks, nobody can say "the AI did it". Tools such as GitHub Copilot, Cursor and Claude now suggest whole functions while a developer types, and Indian IT services firms and start-ups have rolled them out to large parts of their engineering teams. A growing share of each day's code starts as an AI suggestion that a developer accepts, edits or rejects. How closely that code is checked varies. At some companies every change, whoever or whatever wrote it, needs a person to read it and approve it before it ships. Others let automated tests and security scanners clear small or low-risk changes, and keep human review for the rest. The question here is narrow: should a person have to read and sign off on every line an AI writes before it goes live? Where do you stand? Vote, then share your opinion - and say what would change your mind.

The rule must be equal for every citizen. Other government employees, doctors, police personnel are also part of the constitutional pillar

On 28 February the United States and Israel launched hundreds of strikes across Iran, in the middle of nuclear talks. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed, and his son Mojtaba Khamenei was named to succeed him. Nuclear sites including Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan were hit. Iran answered with missiles and drones against Israel, US bases and Gulf states, and choked the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world's oil passes. A ceasefire in April and the Islamabad Memorandum in June - brokered by Pakistan with Qatar and Oman - briefly lifted the US naval blockade of Iran's ports and reopened the strait. It did not hold. By the autumn fighting had resumed and the blockade was back. Where things stand this week The heavy fighting stopped weeks ago, but there is no ceasefire in force. The US blockade of Iranian ports continues; Iran says tankers keep hitting mines, and on 5 November it declared Hormuz closed to ships that do not coordinate with Tehran. Talks are indirect, through Qatar and Pakistan. Iran's conditions: lift the blockade, repeal sanctions, guarantee no more strikes, and a ceasefire across the region, including Lebanon. Washington wants a verifiable commitment that Iran will not rebuild its nuclear programme, which Vice President Vance says the US has already destroyed. Brent crude peaked at $116 a barrel on 23 October and fell to about $95 after the US midterms, in which Democrats won both houses of Congress. Senate leader Chuck Schumer says the war "must end"; President Trump says he would do it again. Iran says more than 3,500 people have been killed there. US, Israeli and Gulf forces have also taken losses, and the war has caused the biggest disruption to the world's oil supply on record. The US and Israel went in to end Iran's path to a nuclear weapon and break its missile and military power - and some in Washington spoke of a change of government. Iran's aims were to survive with its system intact, use Hormuz as leverage, and come out with sanctions lifted and a guarantee of no further attacks. Eight months on, who has achieved what they set out to do - the US, Iran, or neither? Where do you stand? Vote, then share your opinion - and say what would change your mind.

On Thursday, 5 November, Cristiano Ronaldo announced in a video message that he is retiring from international football. "To the Portuguese people, the day has come for me to hand back the No. 7 shirt of our national team," he said - a journey that began in August 2003, when he came on for Luís Figo in a friendly against Kazakhstan. He is still playing club football for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia. For Portugal 234 caps - the most in men's international football, and he was the first man to reach 200. 146 goals - the men's international scoring record. Six World Cups, and the first man to score in six of them. Euro 2016 - Portugal's first major trophy - and the Nations League in 2019 and 2025. Record totals at the Euros: 30 appearances and 14 goals. He scored for Portugal in 23 consecutive calendar years. For his clubs Five Ballon d'Or awards. Five Champions League titles - one with Manchester United (2008) and four with Real Madrid - and the competition's all-time top scorer. League titles in England, Spain and Italy, with Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus. About 985 official career goals so far, and he is chasing 1,000. Football has changed since 2003: more matches, more data, more money, earlier specialisation and more injuries. Will another player ever put together a career like this one - this many goals, this many trophies, at this level for this long? Where do you stand? Vote, then share your opinion - and say what would change your mind.

The entire episode is unfortunate and raises serious concerns about the relationship between two important pillars of the justice delivery system — the Bar and the police. Both have distinct but complementary responsibilities in upholding the rule of law. Differences, if any, should be resolved through institutional mechanisms, mutual respect and due process rather than protests, confrontations or public exchanges. The dignity of the legal profession, the discipline of the police force and, above all, the faith of the common citizen in the justice delivery system must remain paramount. Institutions are bigger than individuals, and institutional decorum must prevail over individual differences.

On 31 October, Samajwadi Party leader Azam Khan walked out of Rampur district jail after nearly 11 months inside. Two days earlier the Allahabad High Court had suspended his sentence and granted bail to him and his son Abdullah in the dual PAN card case. It refused to stay the convictions, so both remain disqualified from contesting elections. The jail had release orders for him in some 50 cases. He was free for minutes. An Enforcement Directorate team was waiting at the gate and arrested him under the money laundering law (PMLA), in a case registered in 2019 over the Maulana Mohammad Ali Jauhar Trust and the Jauhar University in Rampur that Khan founded. The ED alleges financial irregularities and land grabbing. On 1 November a special PMLA court in Ghaziabad sent him to 14 days of judicial custody in Dasna jail. Abdullah was released and went home. Outside the jail Khan said: "This is the punishment for being a Muslim." Where do you stand? Vote, then share your opinion - and say what would change your mind.

स्कूल का वो दोस्त जिसके साथ टिफ़िन बाँटा, बोर्ड परीक्षा से पहले रात-रात भर पढ़ाई की, और जिससे अब शायद साल में दो-चार बार ही बात हो पाती है। और दूसरी ओर कॉलेज, ऑफ़िस या पड़ोस के वो लोग जिनसे रोज़ मिलना होता है, जो आज की हर छोटी-बड़ी बात जानते हैं। स्कूल के WhatsApp ग्रुप में कोई पुरानी फ़ोटो आती है तो लगता है कि सब कुछ वैसा ही है। फिर नौकरी, शादी, शहर बदलना - ज़िंदगी आगे बढ़ती है, और रोज़ के साथी उस जगह को भरने लगते हैं। तो समय बचपन की दोस्ती को और पक्का करता है, या धीरे-धीरे उसकी जगह वो लोग ले लेते हैं जो आज हमारे आसपास हैं? आप क्या सोचते हैं? वोट करें, और अपनी राय में बताइए कि आपकी कौन-सी दोस्ती टिकी और क्यों।