Bringing back trust

India today faces a growing crisis of trust in healthcare despite remarkable advances in medical technology, tertiary care, organ transplantation, ...

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The nanny state

Legendary singer Bob Dylan, who was awarded the Nobel prize for literature for his powerful lyrics, sang “Forever Young” in ...

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The ugly Indians

Vietnam is the latest stage on which a newly rich, aspirational Indian middle class is demonstrating to the world how ...

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Human rights over stray dogs

The Supreme Court has delivered a historic judgment upholding the fundamental right of citizens under Article 21 of the Constitution ...

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The boastful Indian

In the first few years of the new millennium, “India Shining” was the country’s calling card. It was to be ...

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Khorakiwala’s odyssey

He took a bet in 1997 investing in innovation, research and development. After thirty years it is beginning to pay ...

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At the end of a smart road

The new expressway to Dehradun opened on April 11 and has already transformed distance. My drive from Delhi took little ...

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Viksit Bharat 2027

No, the year in the title is not a mistake or misprint. We could well be “developed” (viksit) next year, ...

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Amoral power play

Ethics and morality have never been the stuff of politics. Chanakya and Machiavelli are often quoted as authorizing amoral realism ...

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A war of words

In the current confrontation between the United States, Israel and Iran, the shift is both remarkable and unmistakable. The vocabulary ...

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End of military dominance?

A prediction of the demise of military hegemony may seem premature, if not completely wrong, at a time when the ...

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The other pollution

Why is it that while the challenge of air pollution has been able to attract some public and policy attention ...

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Small rivers, big warning

Over the past weeks, we surveyed six tributaries of the Gomti river — Mala, Kathina, Bhainsi, Sarayan, Sai and Behta ...

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Iran and its king

On a London high street lined with Persian grocery stores and kebab shops, Iranian exile politics has found an unlikely ...

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MAGA is not MIGA

Ahopeful Indian prime minister once said that MAGA (Make America Great Again) can also help MIGA or Make India Great ...

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Indore in troubled waters

The recent water contamination crisis in Indore has damaged its reputation as India’s cleanest city. At least 15 deaths are ...

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Reporters in the line of fire

For younger journalists entering the profession today, it is hard to imagine how foreign reporting once worked. News organizations now ...

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Earth has a new species

In the 4.5-billion-year history of Earth, humans (homo sapiens) are relatively new, appearing only some 300,000 years ago. Evolving over ...

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Feudals in fashion

The Indian Express and the Taj hotels recently sent out invitations for an evening with Radhikarajae Gaekwad, described as the ...

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Indian force the Nazis raised

Six months before the Red Fort trials turned officers of Subhas Chandra Bose’s Indian National Army into national symbols, another ...

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In a fragile Sundarbans

The Sundarbans, located in the Ganga delta across India and Bangladesh, is the world’s largest mangrove forest. The forest covers ...

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In a volatile world

VUCA1, an acronym from times past, may have been considered — like other such fashionable and ephemeral buzzwords — to ...

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Tomorrow belongs to me

Blame it on Xi Jinping. In 2012 he urged his people to look to a great future and called it ...

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Dubious rabies vaccine

In January 2025, the Supreme Court dismissed a petition filed by the Kerala Pravasi Association seeking the formation of an ...

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Feeding pigeons isn’t holy

In 2016, in Jigeesha Thakore Vs Dilip Sumanlal Shah, the Supreme Court upheld a Bombay High Court order prohibiting a ...

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India’s antibiotic obsession

Ihave travelled extensively over the past three decades and never once fallen sick outside India — until my visit to ...

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Britain’s disdain for scrutiny

To borrow a line from an old pop song, let me take you by the hand and lead you through ...

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Invest in small towns

The media carries reports, almost daily, of new projects for infrastructure in cities, especially big and visible ones in metros ...

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Politics of futurism

Futurism is the latest trend in Indian politics. If the Bharatiya Janata Party and Narendra Modi promise us an ‘amrit ...

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The struggle to fix a drain

In early 2018, a group of residents noticed large amounts of sewage water flowing into a stormwater drain near their ...

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A gala in a palace of plunder

Two nations at the ends of Asia — India and Greece — are now bound by a common quest: to ...

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Stuck in a ditch

I may lose a battle but I will never lose a minute, said Napoleon Bonaparte. Nowhere should his aphorism resonate ...

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India’s missing mayors

In the excitement generated in urban India by the election of Zohran Mamdani as the mayor of New York, few ...

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Pets must follow rules

THE issue of dog attacks is nothing short of a public health and safety crisis in India today. While  stray dog ...

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A Himalayan tragedy

WE need to review our policy if current development models are aggravating these issues. The Himalayas’ situation is a warning bell.” ...

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Defunct DVC’s bright future

MOST of us know the Damodar Valley either from school textbooks or from its portrayal in films like Kala Patthar and ...

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Why dogs run wild in Noida

In 2021, a group of citizens comprising seven mothers and one father from a residential society in Noida, approached the ...

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Walk the talk with Kolhapuris

Prada, the renowned Italian luxury fashion house, recently created a controversy over its Spring/Summer 2026 menswear collection at Milan Fashion ...

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Delhi’s old car muddle

The Delhi government has taken a U-turn from its initiative to deny fuel and impound diesel vehicles older than 10 ...

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Managing your robots

How well do you get along with your co-workers? Certainly, many of us have gone through spells of frustration, when ...

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The non-returning Indian

In the book I wrote on the changing character of India’s power elite (India’s Power Elite: Class, Caste and a ...

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Disabled people vs strays

In June 2023, an 11-year-old disabled boy in Kannur, Kerala, was mauled by a pack of stray dogs, a few ...

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India is wrapped in plastic

This year, the theme of World Environment Day (WED) on June 5 was once again ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’. It had ...

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Clock ticks for Gomti

Right through the heart of Lucknow, the Gomti river once flowed like a living artery — nourishing farms, recharging water ...

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Your AI guru

Meet your new teacher: Prof. AI. Irrespective of your age or stage of education, this new teacher can guide you ...

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War and peace

Given the underwhelming cacophony that surrounded the reporting and commentary on the India-Pakistan military conflict of May 2025, the most ...

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Mineral fund is misspent

  The District Mineral Foundation (DMF) was conceived as a transformative institution to ensure that those who bear the brunt ...

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A company in Kashmir

The Noor Aari Producer Company, located in Noorbagh, Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), is a jewel among our success stories. ...

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The Indus conflict

The bilateral agreement for sharing of the waters of the Indus between India and Pakistan has survived wars and periods ...

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Here’s your doppelganger

I magine suddenly having a twin: rather like the hackneyed plot of many a potboiler movie, where the hero discovers ...

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Living with neighbours

Most people like to live in a neighbourhood of the similar and the familiar. In India we took it a ...

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War, ethics and AI

STUDIES on the ethics of AI-based autonomous weapons are being funded by US Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to ...

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Tariffs and the loss of trust

ONE of US President Donald Trump’s favourite phrases is “I know all about it.” Social media is full of the ...

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Learning to be owners

I once came across a saying which went “women usually work on changing themselves, whereas men are all about changing ...

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Power and big business

For well over a century, sovereign nations and their governments have decided and driven policies, especially in the arena of ...

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Foreign aid, domestic politics

THE mindless controversy generated in Indian mainstream media by US President Donald Trump’s decision to wind up the US Agency ...

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Respect for each other

THE idea for Rangsutra came to me during a year-long sabbatical in 2001-02. It was a much needed sabbatical, as ...

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Drowning in sin

THE Ganga basin is one of the most densely populated regions in the world. It is beyond belief that over ...

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How to shrink Delhi

ONE of the catchy slogans popularized by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was 'Minimum government, maximum governance’. It reflects an aim ...

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AAP’s mixed legacy

AFTER the Indian National Congress morphed from being a national movement into a political party, several civil society movements have ...

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Craft is about style

THIS year the arid desert regions of Rajasthan were blessed with adequate and timely rainfall. For the most part, farmers ...

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Fish in troubled waters

A river has a unique connection with gastronomy, culture, and diplomacy. Hilsa or ilish macch is not only a cherished ...

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Employment through services

MAKE in India is the slogan and policy call of the day, reflecting the philosophy of Aatmanirbharta. Promoting manufacturing in ...

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Trump and India

WHAT precisely the second presidency of Donald Trump will mean for India depends on which of the two views of ...

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Handmade is the future

IT’s a no-brainer. The cultural and creative industries have the potential to not only ensure regular work and employment for ...

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What’s microfinance upto?

AFTER half a century of growth, microfinance seems to be currently going through one of its periodic off-colour patches. In ...

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When rivers break free

LAST month in Bihar many rivers swelled, spilling onto floodplains and inundating farms, settlements and roads, and displacing more than ...

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Is it the end of family?

MARRIAGE and family are institutions within which we have grown up, comfortable in the assumption that these are an integral ...

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The giving instinct

A running theme in the many tributes paid to industrialist Ratan Tata has been the recognition of his record as ...

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Going beyond home

I began working in Mumbai (then Bombay) as a young woman of 20. My workplace was safe, but I had ...

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Land grab on the banks

OVER the past two years, I have had the opportunity to meet with district magistrates (DMs) and chief development officers ...

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Rise of individualism

MANY claim that we are entering an era which marks the end of ideologies and the death of “isms”. Communism ...

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Marking territory

Dogs do it. Mark territory. So do humans. The methods differ. The objective is the same. To protect one’s turf by ...

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Broken bridges of governance

AT the recent Conference of Governors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged governors to serve as “an effective bridge between the ...

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Railways on the wrong track

THERE seems to be something seriously wrong with Indian Railways. In a two-month period ending July 2024 there were three ...

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Floodplains belong to rivers

A river requires sufficient space to carry out its diverse functions. This space is delineated by the river itself, carving ...

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Not easy to find a Yunus

DEMOCRATIC institutions ensure that a State renews its legitimacy within civil society. When those who take control of the State subvert ...

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Skills survived many odds

AS we  celebrate our 78th Independence Day, there’s no better time to honour the rich tapestry of handcrafted textiles that ...

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Boost that birthrate

A previous article (‘Demographic Dangers’, Civil Society, June 2024) discussed some implications of the latest fertility figures for India and ...

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On a weak foundation

WHEN Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presents her sixth annual Financial Statement and Budget speech in Parliament, she will equal ...

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Small media with big impact

AMONG the many institutions of Indian democracy that earned disrepute in recent years the so-called ‘mainstream’ media stands out. Becoming ...

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The voter doesn’t have a choice

INDIAN political parties have honed the art of winning elections by holding the voter to ransom. Such is the decline ...

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The power of the collective

THE excitement and fervour surrounding the general election in India has been palpable, with heated discussions and loud campaigns dominating ...

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Demographic dangers

DEMOGRAPHY is in the news, thanks to the Lok Sabha elections and the latest projections of population growth. The former ...

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In Kafka’s universe

IN June every year the media publishes articles recollecting the imposition of Emergency by Indira Gandhi’s government in June 1975. ...

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2024: Two narratives

RESPONDING to the 2024 election manifesto of the Congress party, titled Nyay Patra, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said it bears ...

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Growing the rural start-up

STARTING an independent  for-profit social enterprise in rural India is not just a venture — it’s a courageous step towards ...

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Cruising on troubled waters

THE world’s longest river cruise, Ganga Vilas, that was flagged off in 2023, covers five states in India and Bangladesh ...

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Innovation is the buzzword

INVENTION is the holy grail of researchers: to create something that does not exist and may not even have been ...

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Have money, will spend

THE Ambani family’s over-the-top partying at Jamnagar has been widely commented upon at home and abroad. Only the socially unaware ...

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Armed with a fearless pen

BE Fearless is a compelling, timeless but difficult call. When you are confronted by a hostile mob that is determined ...

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Exercising the right to die

AS medical science progresses and economic development leads to cleaner environments that transmit smaller infection loads, people are living longer ...

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Bringing back wildlife

SANCTUARIES inside rivers? Yes. There are several stretches of rivers that have been declared protected areas under the Wildlife Protection ...

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A chip for your thoughts

OVER the centuries, humans have constantly sought to increase their muscle power. Bullocks for ploughing, water currents for milling, and ...

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Money power and politics

A quarter-century ago, in a different era, a very different kind of politician from very different political parties sat together ...

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Pollution the internal enemy

First, let’s get this straight. There are no safe levels of air pollution. Experts speak in one voice when they ...

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A force for the river

THE Ganga Task Force (GTF) was stationed along the banks of the Ganga with the objective of preventing pollution from ...

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The status economy

WHERE do you live? This question, asked by a fellow guest at a Delhi party, can determine the flow of ...

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Business rules, everywhere

THE Covid pandemic which struck in February 2020 shattered the livelihoods of billions around the world and hundreds of thousands ...

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A river has the right to life

DESPITE our professed love for rivers and water bodies, our actions have inflicted deeper injuries on their wholesome existence. The ...

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