FEATURED ARTICLES

Delhi’s air pollution crisis is more than an environmental challenge, it is a governance and policy design problem. This edition explores how fragmented institutions, reactive interventions, and weak coordination have kept the capital trapped in a cycle of recurring smog, despite years of policy action.

India can transform geography into strategic advantage without undermining ecological integrity is considered through the Great Nicobar Project as a reference point. A clear trade-off emerges between developmental ambition and environmental sustainability, This article suggests that enduring state capacity is shaped less by the scale of investment and more by institutional accountability, scientific planning, and the ability to reconcile competing national priorities.

As India moves toward the $4 trillion milestone, attention shifts from economic size alone to the nature of the economy taking shape. Growth, inequality, state capacity, and structural transformation remain central concerns, as headline figures often mask deeper developmental challenges. India’s economic rise raises questions about whether it is translating into broad-based prosperity, stronger institutions, and a sustainable long-term trajectory for the coming decades.

Across post-independence India, dams once symbolised national ambition, technological progress, and the promise of development. We revisit that era through the lens of policy, politics, and public memory, reflecting on how large infrastructure projects shaped both the Indian state and its developmental imagination. Let us explore the tensions between growth, displacement, environmental costs, and the enduring belief that nation-building could be engineered through concrete, steel, and scale.

India’s new digital livestock identification push signals a quiet transformation in how the state governs agriculture, traceability, and rural economies. At its core, it reflects on how technology is steadily reshaping the relationship between the Indian state, rural livelihoods, and the management of economic systems at scale. Let us explore the ambitions behind tagging, tracking, and digitising cattle data across the country, examining its implications for farmers, disease control, supply chains, and governance.

India’s states are often spoken of as one collective story of development, but their aspirations, governance models, and economic trajectories differ dramatically. It reflects on federalism not merely as an administrative structure, but as a competition of developmental visions unfolding across the Indian republic. Let us explore the widening divergence in how Indian states imagine growth, welfare, and opportunity, revealing a country where regional ambitions increasingly shape national outcomes.

A decade after the launch of MUDRA, India’s smallest loans have become part of a much larger story about entrepreneurship, financial inclusion, and the politics of aspiration. Beyond banking policy, it also reflects on how modern India increasingly frames economic empowerment through access, ambition, and the promise of self-employment. Let us explore how microcredit reshaped access to finance for millions while also raising questions about job creation, informal enterprise, and the limits of credit-led development.

Across India, states are increasingly competing not just for investment, but for governance credibility, economic dynamism, and developmental success. In doing so, it reveals how federalism in India is evolving into a powerful arena of policy experimentation, where states are no longer merely implementing national visions, but actively defining India’s future trajectory themselves. Let us also explore the growing race among Indian states to attract industries, build infrastructure, improve welfare delivery, and shape their own growth narratives.

India’s gig economy runs on speed, convenience, and invisible labour, from delivery riders to platform workers constantly moving through India’s cities. Beyond apps and algorithms, we revisit how platform-driven employment is reshaping urban life, redefining work itself, and challenging traditional ideas of protection, stability, and worker dignity in modern India. Let us explore the rapid rise of gig work and the deeper policy questions it raises around labour rights, social security, flexibility, and economic precarity.

The Genome India Project represents one of the country’s most ambitious scientific efforts, an attempt to map the genetic diversity of over a billion people. Let us explore how genomics could transform healthcare, disease research, and personalised medicine in India, while also raising critical questions around data privacy, ethics, and state capacity. More than a scientific milestone, it reflects on how biology, technology, and public policy are beginning to converge in shaping the future of healthcare governance.

The Maha Kumbh is often seen as a spiritual gathering, but it is also one of the largest exercises in governance, logistics, and public administration anywhere in the world. Let us explore how faith, infrastructure, crowd management, technology, and state capacity converge to organise an event of unimaginable scale. Beyond the religious spectacle, it reflects on what the Maha Kumbh reveals about India itself, a nation where tradition and modern governance constantly intersect in remarkable ways.

India’s relationship with technology has often been shaped by two defining moments, the optimism of post-independence nation-building and the ambitions of today’s digital transformation. Comparision between these eras, exploring how India’s developmental aspirations evolved from industrial modernity to technological statecraft. Through policy, infrastructure, and governance, how each generation imagined progress differently, yet remained driven by the same pursuit: building a stronger, self-reliant India.

Climate change, trade, and strategic policy are no longer separate conversations, they are increasingly shaping one another. Let us revisit how India is navigating the complex intersection of climate commitments, economic priorities, and global strategic competition. From green transitions to geopolitical positioning, and how environmental policy is becoming deeply tied to questions of development, industrial growth, and national interest in an increasingly uncertain global order.