Bhutan and its people

Where Happiness is a Measure of Governance: What Bhutan’s Democratic Consolidation Can Teach Global South Nations

As democracies around the world confront public dissatisfaction, Bhutan reminds us that the health of a democracy cannot be measured only through the ballot box.  It must also be evaluated through the well-being, dignity, security, and trust experienced by citizens.

India's Education Deficit: Real Reforms Lie in Making Coaching Redundant

India's digital infrastructure can certainly deliver free coaching to millions. But an even greater achievement would be to build an education and employment system in which families no longer feel compelled to buy coaching in the first place. Making bottled water cheaper is useful. Making the water from taps trustworthy is the real solution.    

India’s Education Report Card: Student Retention, not Enrolment is Key to Success

The message is clear. India needs not merely more children entering classrooms, but more children staying, completing and learning. Achieving the ambitions of NEP 2020 and SDG 4 will require sustained public investment, stronger secondary-school retention, better support for vulnerable learners and a sharper focus on completion.

For a Developed India, Its Young Need to Be Instilled with Civic Values First

The virtues like civic discipline or gender sensitivity in India are not at premium. Basic civic sense is conspicuous by its absence. It gets manifested as indiscriminate littering, spitting, traffic indiscipline, vulgar or derogatory comments against women etc. Such attitudes find manifestation in foreign destinations as well.

More on Education and Gen Z Voices

Greenland, Great Power Politics, And India’s Strategic Imperative: A Realist Geopolitical Analysis

Greenland’s geopolitical prominence illustrates how a distant region can reflect deeper shifts in global power, economics, and security. For countries like India, Greenland is not about territorial ambition; it is a reminder that structural shifts in global power dynamics transcend geography. In a realist world, engagement is not optional; it is necessary for safeguarding long-term interests in a system where power continually redistributes itself. 

Rethinking Affirmative Action in India’s Universities: Needed Structural Reform, Not Symbolic Arithmetic

Reservation in education has achieved moral legitimacy and expanded access, but it has also created new inequalities and stagnation. Its future lies not in expansion or abolition, but in redefinition. Affirmative action must evolve from symbolic arithmetic to structural reform, grounded in data and fairness.

Podcast featuring Ashok Sawhny "Sahil"

In this exclusive conversation, Mehran Shah sits down with Ashok Sawhny Sahil, a renowned businessman and celebrated poet.

Tanhayi

Jagaiyo Na Mujhe Yaan̈
Bohot Andhera Hai

Let’s Think Again

Let’s Think Again Impatience they say,
now holds sway Impatience will bring forth gains,

What Good Is Imprecation?

What good is imprecation?
Why would you harm invoke?

Eyes

Eyes Never look at me and lie,
Cos eyes are windows to the soul,

The World Seen Through the Eyes of the Blind

How much different would the world appear Seen through the eyes of the blind?

If God Resides In The Hearts of Men

If God resides in the hearts of men
As I believe He does,

Golf

If there are no flowers where you are, 
and the stars seem too far, 

The Phantom called immortality

Vast stretches of arid land,
rivers that never know the sands to traverse.
 

At one's mother’s feet

Lies the stairway to heaven,
And eternal peace.

My River

There’s a river i know
Whose name i, often, forget,

There’s Divinity in Silence

Spend time with Silence
For, wisdom lies there,

The Arrogance of Misfortune

Gloat not, O misfortune
Your triumphs are not eternal,