NITI Aayog and PM Modi

Re-engineering India's Grassroots Administration: A New Bottom-Up Development Model

It is time the Indian district administration’s focus shifts to economic development and prosperity-building through strategic planning, resource mobilisation, and effective resource allocation; productivity enhancement, competitiveness, skill-building, employment generation and ensuring the security of life and property.

Imran Khan, the Cricketing World and the Paradox Confronting Pakistan

The man who once led Pakistan to its only World Cup triumph has now become the subject of an international cricketing appeal for humane treatment. The more the authorities try to keep his story behind prison walls, the more the cricketing world appears determined to take it beyond them.

Pakistan's "Collapsed" System: Military Power Cannot Substitute for Political Legitimacy or Economic Development

The common thread running through the remarks of Asif, Naqvi and Fazlur Rehman is that Pakistan's problem is no longer simply who governs it. It is how it is governed. Asif's comparison with India highlights the widening developmental gap.

Judicial Exceptionalism in Imran Khan's Medical Case: Question of Equality Before Law in Pakistan

It will answer a question Pakistan's judiciary cannot avoid indefinitely: will courts now extend this standard of care to every other prisoner in the country, or does it remain, in practice, a privilege of rank.

More on Public Policy and Governance

Unruling parliamentary behaviour setting a bad example for Indian democracy

The proceedings of the recent parliamentary session create doubts as to whether our MPs are capable of setting up such standards. By their behavior as seen currently, they are setting up a very bad example for the younger generation and are doing great harm to the fiber and fabric of a resurgent India.

Quota unrest in Bangladesh has lessons for India

There should also be no doubt that these protests are being fueled by China and Pakistan to depose the pro-India Sheikh Hasina Government and install a pro-Islamist anti-India government like the erstwhile BNP-led government in Bangladesh. 

Rumblings in the BJP point to a more fundamental problem

The reality is that communal politics of the kind played by the BJP, led by Prime Minister Modi, has stopped paying dividends of the kind that it once did. 

A Republican future and its impact on international relations

As the world watches the unfolding drama in the United States, the implications for South Asia, particularly India, Pakistan, and China, are profound

The shadow of 5th GW over Baloch resistance movement in Pakistan

The Baloch resistance movement faces an unprecedented threat in the form of deepfakes and propaganda propelled by 5GW tactics. The strategy aims to destabilize and discredit the movement, paving the way for a tightened grip on the region.

India's healthcare reform: Need to look at medical system in totality

This need got a number of us doctors working in different parts of India to come together as a group. We post our questions in the group, or call up an expert for guidance: How do you manage fluctuating blood sugar in a young woman with diabetes? How do you treat malaria in a pregnant woman? We meet online once a week - to share new knowledge, case studies, and also ask questions.

India’s strategic autonomy is its own choice; needs no dictation from others

The US needs to acknowledge that it needs India more than the vice versa. It would be good for the Biden Administration to get off the high horse and not issue “warnings” that can adversely impact the existing bilateral relationship. 

Rahul Gandhi’s Hinduism versus BJP-RSS’s Hindutva

While leaders like Mahatma Gandhi to Rahul Gandhi have expounded on the humane aspect of Hinduism, the Hindutva fraternity are seen by its critics to have treaded the path of hate and violence.

India's controversial Agniveer scheme: Need for pragmatic view with future of armed forces in mind

There is always resistance to any change and in a democracy with free media and freedom of expression, varied views on all matters are only to be expected and welcome. In this fast-developing world, an army can’t be static - or traditional - and frozen in an era of the past.

Does the CIA have a larger game plan for South Asia?

Babar Ali, a senior TTP commander, says, “Entire country (Pakistan) is now under our control; we are present in every corner of Pakistan.” Some 200 TTP fighters are located close to Pakistan’s largest nuclear facility in Dera Ghazi Khan in  Pakistan’s Punjab

India’s ‘weedy and unwieldy’ growth questions its development story

As the world turns more careful and looks to build with caution and care, the Indian State is going berserk in multiple directions with the goal of showing its strength outside India while ordinary Indians are getting the rough end.

Looking back at Kargil: Has India learnt any lessons?

Taking stock of the Kargil War 25 years later, what unfortunately emerges is that most of the important lessons have not been learnt, at least by India’s politico-bureaucratic establishment.

The testing fiasco in India calls for radical reforms in the education sector

This also means unshackling the education sector, allowing greater freedom and autonomy to institutions of higher education in deciding curricula, courses, faculty hiring and salaries, student fees and programs. Otherwise, millions of our youth are wasting the prime years of their youth with a psychological burden, and grueling study with repeated attempts, to crack exams, where the odds of winning are worse than a lottery.

Did the RSS tacitly pull up Modi? Yet the RSS drinks from the same cup of power!

In that light, the words of Mohan Bhagwat signal discomfiture. But his hesitation to name Modi and call him out indicates that the RSS is caught in a trap of its own making. 

Will reforms and development take a hit under a coalition government in India?

There has to be a common thread holding the weave of a multidimensional diverse nation like India. The thread is definitely not how or to which God your pray (or not), what dress you wear (or wear no dress at all!), what you eat or not.