Narendra Modi’s governments have spent more than a decade transforming India at scale. Highways have expanded, railway stations are being rebuilt, airports have multiplied, digital payments have become ubiquitous, welfare delivery has increasingly moved directly into bank accounts, defence
India has celebrated its 80th Independence Day. For eight decades, generations of Indians have lived in a sovereign republic that has survived wars, political upheavals, economic crises, insurgencies, coalition governments, reforms and extraordinary social change. We have every right to demand more from the country we live in: better roads, schools and hospitals; safer
India’s Independence Day ceremony at the Red Fort ought to provide the Opposition with no shortage of serious material to scrutinise. The Prime Minister delivers one of the most politically significant speeches of the year, lays out his government’s priorities and makes claims about its record before the country. There is policy to question, promises […]
Prime Minister Narendra Modi used the Red Fort on Independence Day to issue a striking warning. Armed Naxalism, he said, had been pushed to the brink, but another danger remained. He called them “dimaagi Naxals” — ideological Naxals who, according to him, are searching for opportunities to promote violence and anarchy, drag society down the […]
An Independence Day ceremony is not a film premiere, a birthday celebration or a private family gathering. It is a State function. The venue belongs symbolically to the people. The hospitality is State hospitality. The seating arrangements carry the authority and prestige of government. Those accorded conspicuous prominence at such an occasion inevitably acquire a […]
Delimitation has returned to the centre of India’s political debate, and it is no longer an abstract argument about what might happen sometime after 2026. The government has already placed a new delimitation framework before Parliament, accompanied by a constitutional amendment proposing a substantial expansion in the permissible size of the Lok Sabha. The Delimitation
There is something striking about the public reaction to Tukaram Mundhe in Maharashtra. He is not a film star, cricketer or politician walking into a rally. He is a serving IAS officer heading Maharashtra’s Food and Drug Administration. Yet recent public appearances have seen people greet him with the kind of applause normally associated with […]
Maharashtra has cleared nearly 83,700 sq ft of forest land for two projects associated with Adani Group companies. Nearly 70,000 sq ft of this involves reserved forest and mangrove land in Raigad for Adani Cementation’s proposed cement terminal, while another roughly 13,800 sq ft of forest land in Amravati has been cleared for a gas […]
India’s debate over the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act is too often conducted as though the law exists in a vacuum. Every attempt to tighten scrutiny of foreign contributions is immediately converted into an argument about civil society, dissent, charitable freedom and government overreach. What disappears from that discussion is the reason India created a regulatory
Rahul Gandhi has entered the debate over E20 petrol with what was clearly intended to be a visual demonstration of the concerns many Indian motorists have been raising. In the video, he stands beside a modern vehicle, opens the fuel flap and talks about ethanol-blended petrol, vehicle compatibility, mileage and the financial burden that motorists […]








