Assuming leadership requires both inherent strength and ideological positioning. While the world covets India as a market, India should also become a market leader in strategic areas where it needs to be self-reliant and has export potential. These include space, defence, aeronautics, AI, semiconductors, and skilled manpower. India must leverage economic diplomacy and soft power
There is also a subtle but perceptible fatigue with the continued reliance on polarisation as a political tool. Identity-based mobilisation, while effective in the short term, risks diminishing returns when overused. If these undercurrents - internal dissent, governance gaps, and narrative fatigue - begin to converge, they may not immediately overturn electoral outcomes, but they could signal the early stages of a more substantive political challenge to the BJP
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be cognizant of the fact that the crash occurred in Ahmedabad, in his home state. People will come to their own conclusions as to whether they saw Modi standing up to American pressure or give in. India has not forgotten the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, that Warren Anderson and Union Carbide Chemicals went scot-free, that India settled for a meagre $470 million compensation – 25 years later – for the families of the thousands who died and the millions who were adversely affected.
The social media takes advantage of the reward systems in the brain, especially the dopamine circuits within the basal ganglia and the prefrontal cortex. Using signals of micro-engagement, including the duration of time a user hovers over a video or the number of times a user rewatches a clip, algorithms develop a feedback loop that over time redirects the feed of a user to more intense or provocative content.
How do our regulators allow a university to function with almost every leadership position, academic and administrative, occupied by a member of the promoter family? How does patent filing become a game, as alleged in this case, or how does a paper authored under the university on banging vessels to kill the coronavirus get written? The incident brought to sharp light how India has slipped into an education system run on high fees by private institutions with questionable credentials.
Under the BNP, particularly during Khaleda Zia’s rule, four major anti-India terrorist camps were being run in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Notably, these terrorist training camps had Al Qaeda and Pakistan ISI/military instructors. As a young officer, Pervez Musharraf (later president of Pakistan) also served as an instructor in these terrorist training camps. To assume that the radical elements of the BNP will not be in league with the JeI will be the height of naviete.
India needs to evolve a comprehensive and integrated strategy for the defence of the LAC, one that brings together military preparedness, diplomatic engagement, infrastructure development, technological surveillance, economic resilience, and informed public communication. Such a strategy cannot remain confined to closed institutional silos; while operational specifics must remain confidential, the broad contours of national intent and preparedness should be placed in the public domain. Transparency at the strategic level strengthens public confidence, builds national consensus, and signals clarity of purpose to adversaries.
This is not a level playing field. American agriculture is industrial-scale, capital-intensive, and backed by massive state subsidies. Indian agriculture, on the other hand, survives on small and marginal farmers, fragmented landholdings, and minimal state support that often arrives late or not at all. Cheap imports don’t merely compete; they crush.
Companies that align what they earn with what they stand for can transform industries, drive innovation, and actually leave things better than they found them. They build trust that lasts. They attract talent that stays. They create customers who come back. The future belongs to businesses that figure out how to balance purpose and profit. Indian founders face a choice: build like Tata, with purpose woven into the foundation, or chase short-term efficiency like IndiGo and Micromax until the wheels come off.
The emphasis on Vikisit Bharat (Developed India) is to be welcomed. Who would not want India to be developed fully but there remain huge questions in terms of the direction of this development and what the nature of development ought to be in an India where inequality remains high, health services are poor, and education poses many challenges that have been highlighted time and again. Consider that the total percentage on education (Centre and State expenditure on education combined) is merely 3.3% of the GDP, and on health it stands at just 1.5%. This is a shockingly low number
It may be argued that invoking the Bhutanese king’s principled stance as a reference point for a country as vast and diverse as India is deeply flawed—or, at best, a theoretical abstraction. Yet the fact remains: the ethos of good governance knows no geographical boundaries. If the highest leadership of a small, landlocked nation with limited resources could believe in, and strive towards, such ideals, why should our country fall short of visionary leadership, especially when it is far larger and endowed with greater capacities, opportunities, and strategic advantages?
In this backdrop, opening up India fully to Chinese, including inviting the Chinese delegations, is akin to arranging visits of KFC owners to poultry farms! The hubris that this was to familiarize two big political parties and two economic powers with each other must have amused Beijing endlessly. Finally, insecurity is palpable in India’s handling of China and the US. About time we get over this.
History is not a tool to divide society and perpetuate the injustices of the past. It is there to show us what wrongs have happened in the past which should not happen again. We need to march towards a just society where all live the life of dignity and respect, a society where all of us enjoy equal citizenship rights.
Public opposition towards the reforms escalated after a web link to a gay dating site was found in one of the lessons in the grade six English language module. This website was subsequently blocked by the regulator for internet users in Sri Lanka. The lesson was intended to teach ten-year-old kids how to make online friends.
Producing satellites for any purpose is an expensive endeavor. Failure to launch them has a profound impact not just on the client entities’ bottom lines but even the quality of science and services they may be seeking to pursue. Fifteen out of the sixteen satellites on the failed mission were from foreign entities, which constitute a lucrative market for ISRO. If they begin to nurse misgivings about ISRO’s reliability it can seriously dent not only the agency’s revenue but, more important, its reputation
Internationalisation also plays a crucial role in addressing the long-standing issue of brain drain. For decades, large numbers of Indian students have pursued higher education abroad, particularly in North America, Europe, and Australia. While this has strengthened India’s global presence, it has also resulted in substantial outflow of talent and financial resources. Many students who leave choose not to return, contributing their skills to other economies.
The Dharavi Redevelopment Project has the potential to serve as a model for inclusive urban planning. However, this outcome depends on whether economic growth, social equity, and environmental sustainability are treated as equal priorities. Without adequate safeguards, the project risks becoming another instance where redevelopment favors corporate interests over human needs.
While in operational terms, India’s democracy was downgraded by several international bodies in recent years to ‘partly free’, its perceptible decline is perhaps most evident in the distrust generated by the bureaucratic fiat of a selective voter revision. As the exercise has struck off names without a clear audit or requisite time for discussion for explaining and correcting such deletions, the tag of the world’s largest democracy appears troubled by these developments.
Economic benefits also arise because of the jobs created in the childcare industry. Investing in childcare offers a clear pathway to unlock short and long-term economic gains, while enabling women and children to realise their full potential. If every young child in the pre-primary age group had access to childcare, millions of mothers could enter paid work between 2023 and 2030. In India alone, this could mean 6.2 million mothers joining the workforce.
