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Date: 13th June, 2026
Mayday For Justice?: A Year After AI171 Fell From The Sky, The Truth Remains Grounded
The Fact: Exactly one year ago, on June 12, 2025, Air India Flight AI171, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner bound for London Gatwick, crashed just seconds after taking off from Ahmedabad's Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport. The aircraft slammed into the hostel complex of B. J. Medical College, killing 241 of the 242 people on board and 19 people on the ground. The disaster claimed 260 lives in total, making it one of India's deadliest aviation tragedies and the first fatal hull-loss accident involving a Boeing 787 Dreamliner.
The Context: One year later, the Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has still not released its final crash report. Under International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) norms, accident investigators are expected to publish a final report within 12 months whenever possible, or issue updates explaining the delay. While the AAIB says the probe remains ongoing and has entered the final stages of analysis, families of the victims continue to wait for definitive answers about what caused the crash and who, if anyone, will be held accountable.
The Peek Insight: For the families of AI171's victims, the unanswered questions have become a second tragedy. A year after 260 people died, there is still no final report, no clear explanation of what happened in the cockpit, and no definitive accountability. The preliminary findings shifted public attention to the pilots after revealing that the fuel-control switches moved from RUN to CUTOFF, but pilot associations argue that technical and systemic failures have cannot be ruled out. Meanwhile, concerns have emerged about Air India's safety oversight, Boeing's wider safety record, regulatory scrutiny by the government’s aviation watchdog DGCA, disputed compensation settlements, and the continued delay in returning victims' personal belongings. For many families, the question is if India's aviation system is willing to deliver the transparency, accountability, and justice that 260 deaths demand. If a disaster of this scale cannot produce complete answers after a year, families ask, what will?
Courtsey: Mint
Behind Every Pay-check, Stands A Woman Without One: To The Unsung Builders Of A Nation
Image Courtesy: Supreme Court of India
The Fact: On June 11, the Supreme Court fixed ₹30,000 as the notional monthly value of a homemaker's contribution while determining compensation in motor accident claims, describing homemakers as "nation-builders" and the "building blocks for the nation's road to holistic progress". The ruling came in a case involving a woman who died in a road accident in November 2001. A bench of Justices Sanjay Karol and N. Kotiswar Singh enhanced the compensation payable to her family from ₹8.43 lakh to ₹62.78 lakh, holding that the loss suffered by a family extends far beyond income. The Court recognised that a homemaker's contribution includes not only managing the household but also providing emotional support, caregiving, companionship, and stability to multiple generations within a family, including parents and in-laws.
The Context: The case had travelled through multiple forums before reaching the Supreme Court. In December 2023, the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal awarded compensation of ₹2.42 lakh to the woman's legal heirs. The Punjab and Haryana High Court later increased it to ₹8.43 lakh in December 2024. Unsatisfied with the assessment of her contribution, the family approached the Supreme Court. Referring to the Time Use Survey 2019, the Court noted that women spend over seven hours a day on unpaid domestic work and undertake significantly more caregiving responsibilities than men. The bench observed that despite contributing more than 16 hours a day to household functioning and family welfare, women's unpaid labour remains excluded from conventional economic calculations such as national income and GDP, even though several studies estimate its value could account for 15-17 percent of India's GDP.
The Peek Insight: The Supreme Court's ruling is significant not only because it puts a price tag on a homemaker's work, but because it acknowledges a truth society has long ignored about households, economies, and even future generations being built on unpaid labour that is overwhelmingly performed by women. For decades, a homemaker's contribution has been treated as invisible simply because no salary is attached to it. Yet when she is gone, families suddenly realise that her role was never limited to cooking meals, cleaning homes, or raising children but involved providing care, emotional support, stability, and holding together the fabric of everyday life.By calling homemakers "nation-builders", the Court has challenged the deeply ingrained belief that only paid work creates value. The judgment recognises that economic growth is possible because someone, often a woman, performs the unpaid labour that enables everyone else to participate in the workforce.
Crude, Not Subdued: Jaishankar Says India Buys Oil On Interest, Not Instructions
Image Courtesy: PTI
The Fact: External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has pushed back against suggestions that India requires US approval to purchase Russian crude oil, asserting that New Delhi's energy decisions are guided solely by cost, availability, and national interest. Speaking at the Kultaranta Talks in Finland, Jaishankar dismissed what he described as a selective Western approach toward Russian oil exports, stating, "Let's not pretend that there is some great principle involved here. They do it when it suits them and don't do it when it doesn't." He also reiterated India's long-standing position that it buys oil "based on cost and availability".
The Context: Jaishankar said India began buying larger volumes of Russian crude after the Ukraine war because market conditions had changed and Russia was among the suppliers with oil available at competitive prices. At that time, the US specifically asked India to buy Russian oil to stabilise the oil market, Jaishankar said. “I buy oil based on cost and availability,” he said. Jaishankar was responding to a question on India’s position on the Russia-Ukraine war and whether New Delhi had been “too sympathetic to Russia” and “too willing to buy oil from Russia”.
The Peek Insight: Opposition leaders have argued that any suggestion of India requiring approval from another country to conduct trade undermined the principle of strategic autonomy that has long guided Indian foreign policy. Critics claimed that references to US acceptance of Indian oil purchases created the impression that New Delhi's decisions were being validated externally rather than taken independently. Government supporters, however, countered that India never sought permission from any country and pursued its national interest amid a volatile global energy market. Jaishankar's latest remarks appear aimed at both international audiences and domestic critics, even though he stopped short of directly criticising the US President.
World Gets Its First Trillionaire: One Giant Leap For Musk, One Giant Gap For Mankind
The Fact: SpaceX has completed the largest initial public offering (IPO) in financial history, pricing 555.6 million shares at a fixed $135 each on the Nasdaq. Raising $75 billion and commanding a massive $1.77 trillion market valuation, the historic Wall Street debut officially makes Elon Musk the world's first paper trillionaire. Thanks to his 42% stake in the rocket giant, Musk's total net worth has soared past $1.1 trillion, positioning his fortune at nearly triple that of the world's second-richest person, Larry Page ($304 billion). To put this wealth into perspective, Oxfam notes that if an individual spent $1 million every single day, it would take them 2,740 years to exhaust $1 trillion.
The Context: Indian retail investors can technically participate in this historic listing. While securing pre-allotted IPO shares at the $135 price is incredibly difficult due to institutional crowding, Indian residents can legally buy SPCX shares on the open market via international brokerage accounts. This is facilitated by the Reserve Bank of India’s Liberalized Remittance Scheme (LRS), which permits individuals to remit up to $250,000 abroad per financial year for foreign equity investments. However, market experts are strongly cautioning new investors against jumping into the stock immediately due to a heavily skewed, low risk-reward equation. Despite a 33% revenue jump to $18.67 billion in 2025, SpaceX remains a deeply capital-intensive venture that swung from a previous profit into a massive $4.94 billion net loss for 2025, with cumulative losses mounting to $8.7 billion through early 2026 due to the immense cash burn required for its Starship and Starlink programs.
The Peek Insight: This milestone marks the dawn of a "New Gilded Age", where a single private corporation commands extraordinary, sovereign-level global clout by underwriting critical international infrastructure. SpaceX operates a near monopoly on commercial rocket launches, runs Starlink, the world’s dominant satellite internet network, and functionally underwrites the military communications of the United States and its global allies. This yields an unprecedented level of geopolitical influence. While 19th-century "Robber Barons" like John D. Rockefeller or Andrew Carnegie saw their immense fortunes peak at roughly 1.5% and 0.5% of U.S. GDP, respectively, Musk's trillionaire status commands an astonishing 3% of the U.S. GDP. This extreme concentration of capital highlights a staggering global inequality crisis; the poorest half of the world's population currently owns just 2% of total net wealth, while the richest 10% holds 76%. Unlike historical tycoons who pioneered massive public philanthropies to redistribute their wealth, modern trillion-dollar capital remains cyclical, locked tightly within private technological flywheels, heavily shifting the balance of global power away from democratic accountability and into private boardrooms.
Image Courtesy: The Indian Express
The Game Of ‘Throws’?: When The Biggest World Cup Meets Border Control
Image Courtesy: BBC
The Fact: The 2026 World Cup has officially begun. For the first time, the event is being hosted by three countries, i.e., the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The number of teams has been expanded from 32 to 48. Due to this, there will be a total of 104 matches, again a record. But at the same time, several factors are proving to be a hurdle for fans who would want to watch the match live in the stadium, as well as those willing to stream it at home.
The Context: Due to the event being spread across a continent, fans will have to cover massive distances to watch their preferred matches. At the same time, the cost of the tickets has been high due to dynamic pricing. As per an Economic Times report, the most expensive ticket for the final match is priced at over $7,000. This is one of the most expensive tickets in the history of the tournament. The report says that this figure is almost 20 months of average income for an Indian. For comparison, the final match ticket at the last FIFA World Cup was priced at $1,606. Adding to that is the immigration hurdle. Four of the countries participating - Iran, Haiti, Senegal, and the Ivory Coast are facing travel restrictions, with the first two facing an outright entry ban in the US under the Trump administration. Even one of the event's accredited referees, Omar Artan, was denied entry into the US despite holding a valid visa. On the other hand, Indian fans faced months of uncertainty over the event's broadcast in India. Despite the country being one of FIFA's major markets, broadcast negotiations had been stalled for some time. This raised concerns about the tournament's availability in the country. However, the dispute has now been resolved. Viewers in India can watch the World Cup on the Zee Network and its digital platforms through the Unite8 Sports arrangement.
The Peek Insight: For decades, FIFA has sold the World Cup as football's most inclusive event. It is a tournament where geography, language, and politics temporarily give way to a shared sporting experience. Much of that, however, has to do with where the tournament is being held. Sport has often succeeded where politics has failed. The United States, which calls itself the "land of the free", is causing significant hurdles for players to enter the country. Even the 2022 World Cup in Qatar did not witness comparable restrictions. On the other hand, soaring ticket prices mean many supporters may find themselves priced out of the experience.
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