Ram Janmabhoomi Temple at Ayodhya

Ayodhya Temple Scandal in India Signals Systemic Decay

The scandal at Ayodhya is not a new low really. It is all too expected as the slippery slope of a journey focused only on the ends without caring for the means. The collapse at Ayodhya is thus a logical culmination of a system of leadership, governance and capture of power that believes in and lives by the edict that results matter and how we get to the results does not.

The Hidden Tax: Road Accidents Drain Over 3% of GDP From India and Sri Lanka Every Year; Generative AI Could Win it Back

The core data architecture — a national road safety data lake, AI-powered enforcement, multilingual public awareness — is replicable at any scale, in any South Asian language, in any South Asian urban or rural road environment. The technology does not need to be reinvented for Dhaka, Kathmandu or Karachi. It needs to be validated in Colombo and Delhi first.

India's Graduate Unemployment Crisis: Need to Redesign Degrees, Give Social Dignity to Trade Skills

The deeper problem is India’s graduate unemployment crisis. Millions of young graduates are not working, earning or acquiring experience, but preparing for competitive exams. The government job has become a lottery ticket; the coaching class has become a waiting room

Electoral Revision and the Crisis of Citizenship in India: Democracy is Measured by its Protection of the Vulnerable, not by Exclusion

India is neither Nazi Germany nor Myanmar, and historical comparisons should never be employed simplistically. However, comparative political sociology reveals a recurring lesson: when citizenship becomes tied to ideological notions of national authenticity, minorities disproportionately bear the burden of proving belonging.

More on Public Policy and Governance

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

Defence production strategies: Indigenisation must be the watchword for Indian military planners

The Chinese leadership's exhortation to the PLA to improve its capability sufficiently to win local wars must be a wake-up call to India's military strategists and operations planners.

Biden’s putdown of Pakistan: More to it than meets the eye

The fact that the bulk of whatever aid goes to Pakistan is grabbed by the military and used for terrorism is of little consequence to the US, as is the fact that it was Pakistan that engineered the humiliating withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

Canada on a suicidal course: Giving a free run to South Asian separatists and terrorists could boomerang

The Canadian government is doing a very big mistake by thinking that such separatists and terrorist groups operating in Canada will not harm Canada but only other countries.

The population myth, prejudice and dangers of a misguided policy

It is possible to use the numbers to argue in many ways but what should be reasonable to note is that there is no conspiracy among a certain set of people to grow their numbers. Demographics tells us that as the level of education (particularly of the woman) and the standard of living of the family moves up, the number of children per woman generally comes down.

How the battle against insurgency was won in Tripura

A mere look at the map of Tripura showed that the insurgents were operating from the hills where there was no police presence as all the police stations and posts were on the main roads. I was convinced that we should move into the hills.

He crossed boundaries for India's freedom: Musings at the feet of Gandhi in London

The statue has cost substantial money but is fully funded by the public through a charitable trust managed by a number of Indians residing in the UK. The chair of an advisory group that oversaw the project was former Pakistani-origin mayor and minister Sajid Javed.

Right to free food: India will need to carefully do the cost-benefit analysis

An increase in support of free food means cutting back on maybe health, education, infrastructure, military or pension benefits. The government cannot escape these difficult fiscal tradeoffs.

Gandhi remains as relevant today as in his time

Thus the mantra of development should be spirituality with high technology. Both these things allow us to reduce our greed for resources and live in harmony with nature – something that Gandhi preached intuitively all his life.

A paean to Mahatma Gandhi and his inclusive philosophy

But for Gandhi, India's political destiny would have been vastly different and her moral stature vastly inferior.

The long road to the ‘Right to Health’ in India

Clearer commitments and standards on access and quality, making oversight and redressal mechanisms more participatory, and allocating adequate financial resources alone would make the right to healthcare to all citizens a reality.