Οn a sweltering July afternoon in 2022, as India prepared to take over the G20 presidency, its newly appointed Sherpa, Amitabh Kant, stood at the center of New Delhi’s diplomatic storm. For the seasoned bureaucrat, it was less an initiation than a continuation of another milestone in a career defined by ambitious programs, high-stakes negotiations,…
The road that always took five hours Rajesh Bisht drives a goods vehicle between Delhi and Haridwar. He has done this route for fourteen years. The journey, on the old NH-58 and NH-334, takes between five and seven hours depending on traffic at Meerut, the condition of the Muzaffarnagar bypass, and whether there is a…
She has been watching the river her entire life Annapurna Devi has lived on the ghats of Varanasi for sixty-three years. She has watched the river in every season and every decade. She watched it in the years when it ran dark with effluents from tanneries upstream. She watched it after Namami Gange was launched…
The Geese that flew eleven thousand kilometres to find this lake Every winter, bar-headed geese make one of the most extraordinary journeys in the animal kingdom. It is a non-stop, high-altitude crossing of the Himalayas from their breeding grounds in Central Asia to their wintering sites in the Indian subcontinent. They fly at altitudes that…
The Loom that earns in Dollars but pays in rupees Mohammed Irfan has woven Banarasi silk for 23 years. His loom, in a narrow lane off Varanasi’s Kadipur neighbourhood, produces fabric at a rate that would satisfy any export order. What it does not produce is certainty. The price he receives per metre from the…
The Catch That Built An Empire Long before the Marine Products Export Development Authority issued its provisional data release on April 21, 2026, Lakshmi Raju had already spent the night at sea. She is a shrimp sorter at a processing unit in Nellore, Andhra Pradesh, the heartland of India’s frozen shrimp export industry. She works…
Priya Sharma Had Prepared for Three Years Priya Sharma was 16 when she first resolved to become a doctor. She spent 3 years in a coaching institute in Kota, away from her family. She lived in a shared room, studying 14 hours a day. She sat for NEET UG 2026 on May 3. She thought…
The Tournament and Everything Around It The 2026 FIFA World Cup is set to launch in June, and honestly, this thing is massive. Sixteen cities across the US, Canada, and Mexico will host matches, making it the biggest World Cup ever not just in countries involved, but also in total teams and games. Forty-eight nations…
The Numbers from Korba Earlier this week, India CSR shared a fresh, detailed update on BALCO’s Vedanta Skill School, bringing in data up to FY2025-26. Since its launch in 2011, the school has helped more than 15,000 young people leave uncertainty behind and start solid, respectable careers. Just in the last year, over 1,200 trainees…
Ramesh, a 28-year-old delivery worker from Delhi working for a food delivery platform, spends nearly 12 hours a day on the road, yet his income remains uncertain from month to month. His story reflects the reality of millions of workers in India at a time when the Economic Survey 2025–26 estimates that the country has…
