Sachin Udgirkar

The real question is whether the cost stays confined to the merchant side or finds its way into prices. For a decade, UPI has run on one promise: instant, free and frictionless. That promise is now being tested. Parliament has cleared the legal path for a Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) on UPI transactions. Untangling what this actually means matters more than the headlines around it. The Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026, passed by both Houses this month, amends Section 10A of the...

A resignation answered one question, and a new law addressed another, but lasting confidence depends on whether the system itself improves. The NEET protest at Jantar Mantar began with a specific cause: allegations of paper leaks and irregularities in the examination, along with a demand for accountability and meaningful reform. At its core, the protest reflected growing concern over the credibility of one of India's most important entrance examinations and the need to restore public...

It is worth asking whether the movement remained true to the cause that gave it life. The NEET protest at Jantar Mantar ended with the resignation of the Union Education Minister, but one question remains: whose playbook was actually being run here? The shape of what unfolded was not new. It closely tracked a well-documented set of organising tactics — the same ones laid out in Saul Alinsky’s 1971 manual Rules for Radicals, the foundational text for a certain style of activism that has since...