The CEC, the two ECs

Can India's Election Commission Pass the Gandhian Test of Public Integrity?

The Election Commission belongs neither to the government of the day nor to the Opposition. It belongs to the people of India. Its first duty is to protect the citizens' vote. That is the standard by which the CEC, the two ECs should be examined. 

Manipur’s Displaced Still Waiting for Home: Crisis Resolution Needs to Move From Relief to Restoration

Manipur therefore needs to move beyond the language of relief and towards the language of restoration. The ultimate measure of recovery will not be how many camps have closed. It will be how many families can safely return, rebuild their livelihoods, educate their children, access justice and live without fear.

Capital Crime - and the Anatomy of Impunity in India

The Chopra siblings' murder in 1978, the Nirbhaya case of 2012, R.G. Kar Kolkata in 2024 and Kalkaji in 2026 belong to different historical contexts.  Yet they reveal a recurring difficulty in Indian governance: we are capable of extraordinary mobilisation after extraordinary violence, yet less consistent at converting that mobilisation into permanent institutional practice.

The Indian Government Should not Pick Sides in Tata Conflict

The Tata group is a national icon, a picture of enterprise, growth and service packed in a business model that many Indians cherish and hold as an exemplar. That model, in which the bulk of a great enterprise’s profits flows to charitable trusts for the public good, is rare anywhere in the world. 

More on Governance, Public Policy and Law

Bangladesh is integral to the development of India's Northeast

If India focuses on improving bilateral economic and connectivity initiatives with Bangladesh, the economic development of this region is inevitable.

The bulldozing of the 'idea of India'

The manner in which bulldozers as tools of retaliatory State violence and punishment are being normalised now is akin to illegal 'encounter' (extra-judicial) killings which have now been normalised by police forces across the country.

Why I'm boycotting the World Cup in Qatar: FIFA stadiums built on the blood, sweat, and lives of migrant workers

I learned, too, that on average, the Gulf countries send half a dozen coffins a week to Nepal with the remains of somebody’s beloved family member. This didn’t just apply to Nepal — workers from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and African countries faced a similar fate. 

Sri Lanka's dire food insecurity: Need for a well-planned policy framework

The root causes behind the food insecurity status of Sri Lanka are two-fold. Short-sighted policies such as the chemical fertilizer ban imposed by the Rajapaksa government generated a domino effect on agricultural production. Additionally, foreign exchange constraints severely limited food imports.

The hypocrisy of COP meetings: Be the change you want to see

As Mahatma Gandhi said we should be the change that we want to see or in other words we should practice what we preach. That is never the case.  So we heard pontification on how we should reduce the carbon footprint to make this world sustainable by people who never practice sustainable living in their personal life. 

Greater Bangladesh-Northeast India engagement will be a win-win for both countries

If trade and cultural relations between Bangladesh and Northeast India improve, the picture of the entire region will change.

Teachers across borders: Connecting people, learning from each other

Writers of the three winning entries, one from Pakistan and two from India, read their works out online at the Spelt conference to a full auditorium. The meritorious list included four stories from Pakistan, three from India, two from Nepal and one from the Philippines.

India’s higher education on a neoliberal path: Rankings should not sideline dissent and diversity

The ranking process is a vicious circle wherein higher-ranking institutions can mobilize more resources and vice versa. Unfortunately, those institutions which are not part of this frenzy competition will eventually be excluded from the higher education space dominated by the current neoliberal discourse.

India Space Congress 2022: Space as the fourth frontier

The space industry is keenly looking forward to the Indian government's new space policy and hoping for ease of doing business to take a practical shape.

Climate change mitigation: Will world leaders rise to the occasion to save the planet?

What applies to India can also work for other nations. So one hopes that world leaders participating in COP27 will reach actionable decisions and obtain the funding already promised by the developed countries to make a serious start to creating a sustainable global environment and avoid further climate change within the next few decades.

India’s G 20 presidency: Unique oppportunity to place nation's narratives on global agenda

There can be no doubt that the direction of the Ukraine conflict may cast a long shadow on India’s presidency.

COP27: Should South Asia learn from Africa?

Taking a cue from Africa, can South Asian countries conduct strategic and collective consultations to build a nest?

Self-reliance in combat helicopters incomplete without replacements for 'flying coffins'!

Following the crash of a Cheetah helicopter on 5 October 2022, the second such helicopter to crash this year (the earlier one was in March 2022), the Indian Army Wives Agitation Group (AWAG) wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressing anguish over the continued use of the outdated Cheetah and Chetak Light Utility Helicopters (LUH), which have claimed many lives of experienced and young officers.

Ela Bhatt: One of India’s most consequential campaigners for women's empowerment and societal harmony

Today SEWA has some 2.1 million members making it the single largest trade union of its kind in India serving and representing self-employed women workers in 18 states

Google's bigness has become bothersome: Tech giant now in India's competition watchdog's crosshairs

Interestingly CCI’s ruling was not the result of or in response to any complaint by a user, vendor, advertiser or customer. It came out of a summer project done by three student interns, who studied the EU case and its applicability to Indian conditions