Three decades of reform have transformed India’s economy. It must now dismantle the barriers that prevent growth from scaling. The period from 2014 to 2019 marked a significant turn in India’s economic strategy, with a strong emphasis on formalising the economy, widening the tax base and improving the ease of doing business. The introduction of the Goods and Services Tax replaced a maze of central and state levies with a unified indirect-tax framework, creating a single natio

Rahul Gandhi’s student outreach is giving the Congress a boost in western Maharashtra but converting street energy into electoral momentum will be the harder task. Pune: For a party that has spent much of the past dozen years looking politically exhausted, the Congress is finally showing signs of life. It appears that Rahul Gandhi’s Chhatron Ki Goonj (“Voice of Students”) campaign, which brought him to Pune has provided Maharashtra Congress workers with a much-needed sense of

Rahul Gandhi’s latest clarion call to “smash patriarchy” is less a revolutionary manifesto than yet another of the Congress scion’s revealing exercises in political condescension. It presumes that Indian women need to be told what their liberation should look like and that the prescribed route leads straight to Rahul Gandhi’s politics. India has spent decades moving from treating women as dependants to recognising them as citizens and political actors in their own right. Yet

Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) convenor Abhijeet Dipke’s self-styled “school movement” is beginning to look less like a campaign for educational reform and more like a political stunt in search of a scandal. The deeper he ventures into Maharashtra’s schools, the more his own methods are coming under scrutiny. And the latest episode in Latur is particularly revealing. Dipke reportedly arrived expecting to discover the kind of institutional collapse that makes for convenient Insta

Written off after her 2024 defeat, Smriti Irani’s return underlines the BJP’s continuing faith in one of its most combative political voices. Smriti Irani’s return to the BJP’s organisational high table is a reminder that in politics, defeat is often an intermission rather than an ending. For a politician whose career has been marked by spectacular rises and humiliating reversals, Irani’s latest comeback is almost on brand. Earlier this week, BJP president Nitin Nabin had nam

Paying respect to Vande Mataram is not about endorsing any party or government but is a tribute to the freedom struggle where countless Indians from all states created a singular national chorus. The recent controversy in Keralam over the full recitation of Vande Mataram at official events has once again brought to the fore an old yet critical question that can the national memories of our freedom struggle be compartmentalized within the boundaries of states, political partie

The Parliament has just concluded one of its more dispiriting Monsoon Sessions, and the spectacle should worry anyone who still believes that parliamentary democracy is about argument rather than obstruction. As India approaches her 80th year of Independence, the Opposition led by Congressman Rahul Gandhi has demonstrated that it can shout, protest and stall but appears increasingly incapable of doing the one thing Parliament actually exists for: debate. The most revealing ep

The Goods and Services Tax (GST) has moved beyond tax reform to become the economic engine of India’s ambition to become a developed nation. AI generated image Nine years ago, the GST replaced a maze of taxes, cesses and state-level barriers with a single national framework. Since then, it has altered how goods move across the country, how businesses enter the formal economy, how governments track economic activity and how the Centre and states share fiscal responsibilities.

Democracy does not merely test a politician’s ability to win elections. It tests character when applause is easiest to earn through the cheapest of means. Udhayanidhi Stalin, son of former Chief Minister DMK chief M.K. Stalin, has repeatedly failed that test. His arrest over an allegedly vulgar, sexually suggestive remark aimed at Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay and actor Trisha Krishnan is, in one sense, a legal matter that must be adjudicated by the courts. Whether his words

Jan Suraaj chief Prashant Kishor’s emphatic victory in the Bankipur by-poll, that ended three decades of uninterrupted BJP dominance, is a classic instance when even the safest urban strongholds of a comfortably ensconced ruling party are no longer immune to local discontent and shifting social coalitions. That said, the parallels between Bankipur and the 2023 Kasba Peth bypoll are too striking to dismiss as isolated by-election quirks. In the latter case, the BJP had similar

Besides redrawing the political map, British rule in India altered the rhythms of everyday life, introduced new social habits and, perhaps most significantly, influenced the way Indians viewed themselves. The end of colonial rule in 1947 brought political independence, but the deeper process of decolonisation — of institutions, cultural instincts and inherited assumptions — has continued well into the 21st century. Indian civilisation, one of the world’s oldest, evolved aroun

The protests at Jantar Mantar have brought together students, activists and political leaders over the NEET paper leak. Actors and filmmakers have offered support, the latest being Salman Khan (the actor, not the educator). The anger is understandable. An examination on which millions stake years of preparation cannot become a commodity available to those with money, influence or access. But what, precisely, must the protest achieve? “Improve education” cannot be its demand.

Rahul Gandhi’s decision to stage a protest outside the Prime Minister’s official residence was a spectacle that exposed a troubling decline in political responsibility. A Leader of the Opposition has every right to question the government, mobilise public opinion and demand accountability. But democratic protest does not mean abandoning every norm of institutional dignity. Gandhi comes from a family that has occupied the highest office in the country for generations. His fath

Are these protests still about NEET aspirants—or have they evolved into a broader political movement? Every few months, Jantar Mantar becomes the centre of yet another protest. This time, it’s a CJP-led demonstration centred around NEET and demands for education reforms. But if you spend some time there, a question naturally comes to mind: is this really a student protest anymore? Most genuine NEET aspirants are either preparing for their exams, waiting for counselling, or fo

Student unrest, NCP realignments and electoral manoeuvres are reshaping the city’s political conversation Pune: The city’s political landscape last week was defined by two contrasting forces: the energy of student activism and the uncertainty surrounding the future of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). In a city where campuses have long served as incubators of political debate and where the Pawar family’s influence remains deeply entrenched, both developments carried significa

The unravelling of the Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin Yojana was always a matter of when, not if. Announced with theatrical flourish ahead of the 2024 Assembly election by the ruling Mahayuti coalition, the scheme promised Rs. 1,500 a month to women across the state. It became the Mahayuti government’s showpiece welfare programme and, by all accounts, a decisive political instrument that helped propel the ruling alliance to a comfortable victory. Less than two years later, th

As the United States marks its semiquincentennial, its finest histories reveal a restless nation unable to escape the foundational neurosis of its own creation. Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851), by Emanuel Leutze. No painting has done more to canonise America’s founding myth. Yet beneath its heroic certainty lies the restless republic that historians from Charles Beard to Robert Kagan would relentlessly question. Behind the fireworks and the dutiful invocations of libe

Mumbai: In another shocker, the Maharashtra Teacher Eligibility Test (TET) question paper has ‘leaked’ - barely 24 hours before the scheduled examination on Sunday - jeopardising the future of thousands aspiring to join the noble profession of teaching, officials said here. Reacting quickly, the Maharashtra State Council of Examination cancelled Sunday’s paper scheduled to be held simultaneously at 1,028 centres across the state and said that the new date will be announced ea

Mumbai: For Sai More, an LIC agent, the Friday commute from his home in Century Bazar, Worli to work place in Churchgate, proved as an expensive affair. On a normal day, he spends Rs 12 on a BEST bus fare till Dadar station and then takes the local train to Churchgate. However, he had to shell out more money than his usual spending on the travel. Thanks to the strike by BEST Samyukt Kamgar Kruti Samiti, a joint action committee comprising 12 unions, pressing for its demands o

For a politician whose own party seems perpetually engulfed in controversy, Congressman Priyank Kharge has developed a curious fascination with lecturing others on accountability. His familiar target is the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). In an open letter, Karnataka’s Home Minister demanded that the RSS register itself, disclose its finances, reveal details of its office-bearers and submit itself to greater public scrutiny. The RSS is not a shadowy organisation operating