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Academy Awards nominations: The fabulous five, best of ’em all

04-02-2026

Every year, when the Academy Awards nominations are announced, it is a lens through which to view how far women have progressed (or regressed) in the notoriously male-dominated Hollywood industry.

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A lacklustre budget with no big-bang announcements

04-02-2026

To describe Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman’s Budget for 2026-27 as “lacklustre” would be an understatement. Those who have expressed happiness that she did not pander to populist sentiments may not have to wait too long.

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The mathematics of a nation that has chosen to compound

03-02-2026

India is one of the few societies on earth that possesses both—a civilisational memory spanning millennia and a demographic moment that arrives perhaps once in a thousand years. The task before us is not to romanticise either, but to convert memory into momentum and momentum into measurable outcomes. When we speak of Viksit Bharat by 2047, we are not invoking a slogan; we are articulating a quantifiable, time-bound, system-wide transformation—one that must obey the iron laws of arithmetic, productivity, capital formation, and institutional credibility.

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Who has killed the follow-up story? You only watched it die

03-02-2026

Let’s dismantle a comfortable lie. A lie that the educated, the opinionated, and the self-declared “media-aware” cling to with moral enthusiasm. The lie is that newspapers and TV news have a sacred moral obligation to pursue stories to their bitter end. That journalism, by virtue of its profession, must chase truth long after it stops trending.

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An advice

03-02-2026

Many passengers try to make their bags easier to spot by tying bright ribbons or bows to the handles. According to an airport baggage handler, this well-meant trick can actually increase the chances of the suitcase going missing. Airline identification tags are usually fixed to the handle. These extra decorations can obstruct the automated scanners used in the baggage hall. If not scanned properly, the bag is diverted for manual processing, which increases the risk of it being delayed.

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A balancing act between growth, unemployment

03-02-2026

The govt’s wager appears to be that infrastructure-led growth and formalisation will trickle into durable employment and higher household incomes without a more explicit employment guarantee architecture.

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VB Gram G Bill: Why India must move beyond MNREGA

02-02-2026

India’s rural employment policy stands today at a historic crossroads. What began two decades ago as an emergency humanitarian response has gradually hardened into a permanent welfare architecture.

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Budget 2026 and its political gravity for poll-bound states

02-02-2026

The Union Budget is the backbone of governance in a large and diverse country like India, where economic disparity varies considerably from one region to another and from one state within a region to another.
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Why Mumbai’s local trains are turning into death traps

31-01-2026

Alok Kumar Singh’s story just does not fade from the mind. At 32, he held a post-graduate degree and worked as a lecturer in mathematics at Narsee Monjee College of Commerce & Economics, Vile Parle-Juhu. He lived in Malad with his parents and wife and made the local train commute every day to work and back. Like millions of us who have lived this life in Mumbai together for decades.

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Why the real budget of India is an institutional courage

31-01-2026

India enters 2026 at a rare inflection point in history. Our macroeconomic fundamentals are among the strongest we have seen in decades. Growth is resilient; inflation is tamed; infrastructure creation is accelerating; digital public infrastructure is quietly transforming citizen interfaces; and capital formation is returning to the centre of policy imagination. And yet, the world around us has become structurally fragile.

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RIP Ajit Pawar

31-01-2026

The demise of Deputy CM of Maharashtra (NCP faction) Ajit Pawar on January 28 in a plane crash is extremely sad news and a loss to the nation, especially to the people of Maharashtra. Ajit Pawar’s political career was marked by his deep engagement with public life and his influence on Maharashtra’s political landscape. He was the backbone of Maharashtra politics, and the people of Maharashtra loved him. May his soul rest in peace.

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NCP at the crossroads

31-01-2026

The sudden and tragic death of Ajit Pawar in an air crash has created a leadership vacuum in the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) that will not be easy to fill. His passing has not merely robbed the party of a seasoned political strategist; it has unsettled the delicate balance of power within Maharashtra’s ruling Mahayuti alliance. The urgency of the moment is compounded by the practical necessity of nominating a successor for the post of deputy chief minister—a decision the party cannot afford to delay.