India

BRICS 2026 in New Delhi: How India Is Hosting a Bloc It Doesn't Fully Control

India is hosting the 18th BRICS Summit in New Delhi on September 12 and 13, its fourth time chairing the group and the biggest yet, with 11 full members and 10 partner countries attending. The event puts Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a delicate position: leading a bloc built partly around resistance to Western dominance, while trying not to damage India's

India's Russian Oil Dilemma: Cheap Barrels, Expensive Diplomacy

Russia now supplies a record share of India's crude oil imports, even as the United States keeps tying that relationship to ongoing tariff disputes with New Delhi. The numbers explain why India is reluctant to change course, and why Washington is unlikely to stop pushing back anytime soon.

India's Biggest Labour Reform in Decades Is Finally Rolling Out

India is consolidating 29 separate labour laws into four unified codes, one of the most ambitious workplace reforms in the country's history. Officially notified in November 2025 and rolling out through 2030, the changes aim to simplify compliance for businesses while closing long-standing loopholes that let employers reduce worker benefits.

Modi and Putin Meet in New Delhi as India Balances Russia Ties with Global Pressure

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin held bilateral talks in New Delhi on September 11, their second meeting in under two weeks, just ahead of the BRICS summit. The discussion centred on trade, energy, and defence, and comes at a moment when India is trying to protect its long standing partnership with Moscow while managing press

Modi, Xi and Putin in the Same Room: What Actually Came Out of the SCO's 25th Anniversary Summit

The 26th Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek brought together all 10 member-state leaders, produced a 28-document package including a formal declaration condemning US-Israeli strikes on Iran, and offered a visible — if cautious — signal of thawing China-India relations.

How India's 7.8% GDP Growth Number Was Built — And Why Economists Are Picking It Apart

India's Q1 FY27 GDP grew 7.8%, beating the RBI's own forecast and headline expectations. But a persistent gap between nominal and real growth, a contested base-year revision, and a narrow growth base are all raising the question: how real is this number?

India Gets Its First-Ever Monthly Services Scorecard — Why the ISP Matters

MoSPI has launched the Index of Services Production (ISP), India's first high-frequency monthly indicator for the formal services sector — filling a data gap that left policymakers guessing about more than half of India's economy in real time.

MGNREGA Is Gone — What VB-G RAM G Actually Changes for 15 Crore Rural Households

India's two-decade-old rural jobs guarantee, MGNREGA, has been formally repealed and replaced by the Viksit Bharat – Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) Act, 2025, effective July 1, 2026 — raising the employment guarantee from 100 to 125 days but restructuring how rural India's biggest welfare scheme actually works.

25 to 50 to 18: The Full Story of the India-US Tariff Rollercoaster

In the space of seven months, Washington quintupled tariffs on Indian goods over Russian oil purchases, then cut them nearly two-thirds after a single phone call — a whiplash episode that exposed how personal, and how fragile, US-India trade policy has become.

India's Digital Competition Bill: Back to the Drawing Board on Regulating Big Tech

After two years of consultation, India has paused its landmark Big Tech regulation bill for fresh market studies — a reset that reveals how hard it is to write rules for markets that change faster than legislation can.

The Regional Parties' Fear: What Simultaneous Polls Could Do to India's Federal Balance

Beyond the constitutional mechanics of One Nation, One Election lies a quieter, more consequential question — whether synchronising every ballot in the country will hollow out the state-level politics that has defined Indian democracy since the 1990s.

One Nation, One Election: Inside India's Biggest Constitutional Rewrite in Decades

A bill to synchronise every election in India has cleared its first parliamentary hurdle and is now before a Joint Committee — reviving a fight over efficiency, federalism, and what "one nation" should really mean in a country of 28 states.

India's Anti-Reservation Protest: The Rise of RHA

As caste-based quotas near their eighth decade, a new generation of protesters — organising online under banners like the Reservation Hatao Andolan (RHA) — is demanding that the system be reviewed, capped, or replaced with economic criteria, reigniting one of India's oldest and most emotionally charged political debates.

Indian Government Is Trying to Crack Instagram's "Z" Code

After youth-led protests forced a minister's resignation, India's ruling establishment has launched a scramble to speak Gen Z's language on Instagram — through reels, slang, and selfie videos — with decidedly mixed results so far.

Why August 15? The Untold Story Behind India's Independence Day

Every year on August 15, India celebrates its freedom from nearly 200 years of British colonial rule. But the date itself carries a strange, lesser-known story — one involving a departing Viceroy's ego, a nervous astrologer, a rushed border line drawn by a man who had never set foot in India, and a midnight speech that changed the course of history. This is

India Is Ageing Before It Gets Rich

India is approaching a demographic transformation that could reshape its economy, families and villages. A new white paper by Transform Rural India projects that nearly one in five Indians could be aged 60 or above by 2050, with almost 70% of the country's elderly living in rural areas. The numbers reveal a problem much larger than pensions or hospitals: Ind

“Injured Heads, Burning Eyes” Students Faced the State When They Asked for Answers

The images emerging from Ranchi after the confrontation between protesting students and Jharkhand Police are deeply disturbing: injured protesters, allegations of lathi\-charge, tear gas and water cannons, and young people struggling to make themselves heard outside the seat of government\. The students were protesting over allegations and concerns surroundi

Centre Sustains Capex Push in Q1 Despite Global Trade Disruptions and Geopolitical Uncertainty

The Centre spent ₹3.4 trillion on capital expenditure during April–June, accounting for around 28% of the ₹12.22 trillion capex budget for FY27. The strong first-quarter pace signals the government's continued reliance on public investment to support economic growth despite global trade disruptions and geopolitical uncertainty. Sustained capital spending cou

RBI’s FCNR and Forex Measures Attract $40.81 Billion in Capital Inflows

The Reserve Bank of India’s special foreign exchange mobilisation measures have attracted $40.81 billion in inflows so far, strengthening the country’s external financial position and reinforcing efforts to support the rupee and foreign exchange reserves.

Cabinet Approves ₹84,008-Crore ‘Samudra Manthan’ to Boost Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration

Four Decades After Bhopal, Residents Still Fear the Water They Drink

Fresh water tests conducted by activists have raised concerns over sewage contamination in several neighbourhoods around the former Union Carbide plant, reviving questions about public health and infrastructure in one of India’s most enduring industrial disaster zones.

India’s Fiscal Deficit Reaches 18.2% of FY27 Target by June End

India’s fiscal deficit reached 18.2% of its FY27 target by June, while revenue growth remained broadly aligned with budget estimates