ICYMI#TheTribuneOpinion: Caste, cadets, cyberwars & other complexities in India

The Tribune Edit and Op-ed kitty this week was full of diverse issues ranging from India’s population problem to caste census and the National Defence Academy’s first batch of women candidates.

Let’s begin with one of the most contentious issues —  caste census. Sociologist Dipankar Gupta, in his Op-ed Caste census is a case study of divide & misrule, writes it is ‘divide and misrule’ once again, this time with votes and voters, on the basis of caste. Some may believe that it will foster public good, but on the flip side, it will create minorities within minorities, he writes. After the implementation of caste census, the poorer SCs and STs will begin to consider the crème among them as obstacles to their progress.

Let us move from the caste census to the fallout of Op Sindoor that continues to echo in the powers of corridor. Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy in his article Op Sindoor has ticked the right boxes writes that India came under international pressure during 2002 Op Parakram after the Parliament attack in 2001. After the Kaluchak army camp attack in Jammu, killing 30 people, mostly wives and children of defence personnel, India mobilised the army on the border but stopped short of a limited airstrike. But the love story between the Pakistan army and terror outfits continued with Mumbai (2008), Pathankot (2015), Uri (2016), and Pulwama (2019). Thankfully, this time round in 2025, the kinetic and non-kinetic response was spontaneous and fearless, he writes.

In yet another somewhat related article, Lt Gen DS Hooda (retd) points at the shifting landscape of warfare in his Op-ed Evolutionary or revolutionary — Visualising the digital battlefield. He writes that a US cybersecurity firm has revealed that Chinese state-sponsored hackers had targeted India’s power grids in Ladakh in April 2022. With cyberwars becoming a new norm and China a leader in facial recognition and drone technology, it could always have an upper hand, he writes.

The next level of digital footprint is Artificial Intelligence AI. All of us know by now that AI can do anything and everything, but will AI be able to humanise the understanding of quantum mechanics, which needs keen observation? AI will remain a powerful tool but, Nishant Sahdev in his article Will AI ever understand quantum mechanics argues it will not be able to become a true knower of the quantum world.

Continuing with science and technology, while several science and research projects have been curtailed in US universities courtesy US President Donald Trump, countries with a good research base like Canada and Germany are trying to attract American scientists who are losing jobs there. India could cash in on this opportunity but it only has fancily named schemes for overseas Indian scientists, writes science commentator Dinesh C Sharma in his article Science, research reel under US fund squeeze.

In the same vein, senior economic analyst Aunindyo Chakravarty educates us on how the remittance tax (tax on money sent home by Indian-origin people working abroad) proposed by the US will make little financial sense for NRIs to invest in Indian assets, and the money that reaches India will take a hit. In his Op-ed piece Remittance tax by US may hit real estate in India he tells us that NRIs buying homes in big Indian cities was one primary reason for the boom in premium real estate over the years.

In another editorial piece, public intellectual Mohan Guruswamy provides an overview of the population problem through his article The population problem in India & why it is time to act now. He writes that the medium variant projections (the term used for the likely population trajectory the country takes) provide the likely scenario India will face between 2005 and 2050 vis-à-vis ill-effects of a large population. As a country, we will grow by approximately 45 per cent and if we have to break from the poverty trap in the next 50 years, the time to create millions of jobs, plan policies for the growing elderly population and other forms of economic development is now.

Taking us away from problems to hope is an article by Maj Gen Sanjeev Dogra (retd). He writes that once-upon-a-time demure girls, 19 in all, passing out of the elite National Defence Academy campus at Khadakwasla was a moment to cherish for the entire nation. That these girls in a crew-cut did not just adapt but flourished. Their male course-mates, earlier unsure, later stood shoulder to shoulder with them in training and triumph, he writes in his Op-ed NDA’s first women cadets ready for tomorrow.

In the only political opinion piece this week from the region, The Tribune Editor-in-Chief Jyoti Malhotra wonders in her article 'BJP’s baffling silence in Ludhiana West' how the BJP is seemingly completely disinterested in the Ludhiana West bypoll in Punjab though its top leadership, particularly the likes of Amit Shah, known for his political manoeuvres, leaves no stone unturned even in panchayat elections. The people of Punjab always resist the idea of being ruled by the Delhi durbar and the BJP is clearly letting it be.