New Parliament House

Is Delimitation Becoming a Penalty for Good Governance for India's Southern States?

For decades, these states invested heavily in women’s education, public health, industrialisation, literacy and population control. Fertility rates in many southern states have already fallen below replacement levels. In contrast, several northern states lagged behind for years on precisely these indicators. If parliamentary representation now shifts overwhelmingly toward states with higher population growth, the message becomes deeply perverse: governance discipline weakens political power.

Denial of Voting Rights to Undertrials: Blinds Spots in India's Democracy

At its heart, the challenge to Section 62(5) is a test of constitutional sincerity, of whether the Indian Republic truly believes that citizenship endures even behind bars. Enacted in the infancy of the republic, the provision has long outlived its moral logic. It collapses the distinction between confinement and culpability

Reforming Higher Education: A Reset Moment for Kerala Universities After Years of Drift

To its credit, the new state government’s policy declaration recognised this reality. It emphasised skill development, industry-linked learning and stronger connections between educational institutions and emerging sectors of the economy. Whether those aspirations translate into measurable reform remains to be seen.

The Burden of the Disenfranchised and Excluded in India's Democracy

Apart from risks related to the integrity of the process, the SIR process also turns what is celebrated as the festival of Indian democracy into a nightmare for the excluded. It can create divisions and split neighbourhoods, particularly when the numbers are large and hotly contested, as they have been in the most recent example in the state of West Bengal. 

More on Public Policy and Governance

Remembering Gandhi: Symbols he conceived and used were transformative

Be it charkha or khadi, the symbols Gandhi espoused have remained so strong that even now when we talk of a "Atma Nirbhar Bharat", (a self-reliant India), they ignite our minds with a sense of mission and pride.

India-France relations demonstrate a strong strategic bond

With both India and France supporting a multi-polar world order led by democracies, France has been a supporter of India’s claims to permanent membership in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).

Is restoring the plural Idea of India possible?

Hysteria cannot be combated by hysteria. We need the ideology which binds the weaker sections of society, the Dalits, religious minorities, women, workers and Adivasis.

A targeted military operation to purge Kashmir Valley of terrorists

During Operation Sarpvinash, several terror bases containing large food storage, communications devices, arms, ammunition, and even medicines were destroyed. With the kind of supplies and the discovery of a large number of bunkers during Operation Sarpvinash, there was some comparison to the infiltrations India saw during the Kargil War.

How to prevent foggy disasters at Delhi airport

The problem each year repeats like the weather itself,  simply because of the awful behaviour of the airline ground staff. Our airline ground staff are perhaps the worst amongst developing/developed nations. 

Caught in a cleft stick: Congress' invite rejection reflects its dilemma over Hindu vote

It would seem as if the Congress Party were going for broke by rejecting the invitation quite aware that it is unlikely to win even the moderately right-leaning Hindu electorate, let alone the hard Hindu right, in the foreseeable future. 

Modi's Christian outreach: Wooing a marginalised community for electoral gains?

The anti-Christian violence is a low-radar activity where the priests working in remote areas are apprehended when they are conducting prayer meetings in particular.

To avoid climate catastrophe, developed nations need to acknowledge historical culpability

For nations like Bangladesh, it is an issue of concern since it will be difficult to successfully carry out national climate action plans for adaptation and mitigation in the absence of explicit financial commitments from wealthier nations. 

New criminal justice laws in India are repressive

What is perceptible is the government’s intention to destroy the fabric of human rights protection in India and to increase the power of the government to control and oppress the people of India.

IMF prescribed mantras not in Sri Lanka's interests

From Sri Lanka’s example of periodically falling into a BOP crisis, one might wonder if IMF-prescribed solutions (or terms and conditions attached to IMF funding) ever help small nations like Sri Lanka to achieve long-term BOP stability. 

The flawed criminal justice system in India: Rape law reforms need political will to transform mindsets

The cavalier attitude and patronizing politics of a patriarchal society need to change to eliminate the social stigma of the victim in rape trials in India.

IAF set for critical replenishments to meet growing threats

Reportedly, a part of China’s dole to Pakistan in March 2022 was the multirole J-10C fighter jets which can be interconnected with their Chinese counterparts through the PLA air force's KJ-500 early warning aircraft.

Avoiding Himalayan disasters: Need to heed geological warnings

A number of such disasters could have been avoided if local geology was understood or warnings from experts had been heeded

Crying for justice: Need for Indian government to make speedy justice delivery a mission

The time for half-hearted attempts, and/or conventional methods, has gone by when it comes to delivering justice in India.

Bangladesh Army's stellar role in bringing peace and development to CHT

Local sources claim that multiple tribal terrorist groups are holding hundreds of thousands of people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts as hostages. These groups are active in controlling and influencing their areas through various sabotage and terrorist activities, extortion, kidnapping for ransom, attacks, and counter-attacks.