Opinions
Meera Kulkarni is 38, a senior analyst at a Pune software firm, and for 14 years she has been a model citizen of the Indian economy. She has paid income tax on every salary slip, GST...
India sells multi-alignment in her foreign policy as genius, but the Bishkek and New Delhi summits expose drift. Since 2014, personal diplomacy, border humiliation, tariff shocks and neighbourhood losses show a weak state hedging without power.
India...
The Elite Racket Behind “Spirit of Mumbai”
On Monday morning i.e yesterday, a wire was found hanging from overhead equipment between Mulund and Thane, and a signalling fire near Kanjurmarg did...
Why even a 10% bounce cannot save the Indian stock market
Picture a mid-sized auto-components unit on the outskirts of Pune.
Twelve years ago, it employed 40 skilled and semi-skilled workers. Today it runs with twenty-two....
The Right to Speak, the Fear of Being Seen
Some years ago, I painted a provocative sentence on a wall in my classroom: “Taxation is theft.”
I was not asking my students to accept...
Dear LinkedIn Professionals, Humanities Graduates Are Not the Problem
Long ago, in a town whose name the storyteller has forgotten, four friends set out to seek their fortune. Three of them had spent...
India Prints PhDs Faster Than It Prints Jobs
In 2015, the Uttar Pradesh government advertised 368 peon posts. The only qualifications were Class 5 pass and the ability to ride a bicycle....
India Needs 76 Years to Train Enough Therapists. Your Dividend Expires in 15
Every 10 October, India performs the same ritual. Companies post a lotus-pose graphic, a minister tweets a helpline number, and HR schedules a wellness...
Respected Gyanesh Kumar, it is ‘We the People’, Not ‘We the Registered’
A democracy rarely dies on the day it stops holding elections. It weakens on the quieter days, when the question changes from "who will...
Why China Still Remembers the Opium Wars as National Trauma
The Opium Wars stand as one of the most consequential chapters in modern Asian history. These mid-19th century conflicts between Qing China and Western...
Teach Your Sons Before You Curfew Your Daughters
Every few months, a case shatters the national conscience. In December 2012 it was a young physiotherapy student on a Delhi bus. In August...
Ask an Indian to Lower the Volume and See the Angry Face
Every morning I step into a Mumbai local with a book in my bag and hope in my heart. The hope usually dies by...
India’s Growth Story Has a Casteist Footnote Nobody Reads
India tells itself a comforting story – that caste was a village issue, a feudal remnant, a dying way of life, a thing that...
What Germany’s Apprentices Know That India’s Toppers Don’t
I have spent close to 14 years moving between two worlds that most people assume are separate: the classroom and the industry floor. I...