Rajendra Pandharpure

As a gas shortage ripples through the city, its vast informal food economy has begun to unravel AI generated image Pune: The global energy shock triggered by disruptions to gas supplies from West Asia has begun to empty commercial LPG cylinders across India. But its effects are being felt most starkly in Pune, known for its student bustle and middle-class industriousness. The crisis has begun to choke Pune’s famed informal food industry as the severe shortage of commercial gas cylinders...

The death of Ajit Pawar has unsettled western Maharashtra, leaving the BJP cautiously biding its time Pune: Western Maharashtra has long been Indian politics in miniature: dense with sugar cooperatives, caste arithmetic, money and muscle power. For decades it was shaped by one extended family – the Pawars - whose writ ran from district banks to dairy unions and from assembly halls to village panchayats. The sudden death of Ajit Pawar, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) strongman and...

Ajit Pawar’s sudden death has left allies, rivals and Pune city itself groping for its bearings. For a brief moment, Pune’s politics looked unusually tidy. The municipal election results delivered a decisive verdict: the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) emerged as the undisputed winner, its dominance unchallenged even by partners within the ruling alliance. The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) faction led by Ajit Pawar, though part of the same governing arrangement at the state level, trailed...