Q: How do you define socialism personally? JD VANCE: I think in reality what it actually means in the American context is you want to replace American workers with foreigners workers, and you want boys to play in girls' sports

The final frontier of consumerism has arrived in South Korea.

95 years of hard-earned autonomy. Now under the scanner, this time the ISI The Indian Statistical Institute (founded 1931 by P.C. Mahalanobis) is not just another campus. It is one of India’s rare institutions that was built on scientific independence, not bureaucratic control. The ISI Act of 1959 recognised it as an Institution of National Importance while preserving its society-based, faculty-driven character. The new Indian Statistical Institute Bill, 2026 proposes to scrap that framework. It converts ISI into a statutory body corporate, replaces the representative Council with a government-appointed Board of Governors, and significantly curtails the role of the Academic Council. Faculty and the Institute’s own statutory bodies have publicly said this was done with zero meaningful consultation with them. The government’s pitch is “modernisation” and alignment with IIT/IIM-style governance. Critics inside ISI argue the opposite: it concentrates power, reduces elected academic voice, and opens the door to external interference in academic decisions. They also note that the 4th Review Committee (Mashelkar) did not recommend repealing the 1959 Act or abolishing the Society structure. This is not an abstract governance debate. Institutions that produce independent data, rigorous statistical research, and critical inquiry need structural insulation from short-term political or bureaucratic priorities. Once that insulation is thinned, it is hard to restore. Academic freedom is not a slogan. It is the operating condition of any serious research institute. ISI faculty are right to raise the alarm. Parliament should insist on genuine consultation with the Institute’s own bodies before rewriting a 95-year-old model that actually worked. Another Premier Institute being Saffronised and being brought under RSS Siege.