The Loom That Built an Economy Savitaben Patel has run a khadi weaving unit in Anand, Gujarat, for 21 years now. She employs 11 women from the surrounding neighbourhood. When she started, the unit’s annual turnover was under Rs. 8 lakhs. By FY 2025-26, it crossed Rs. 34 lakhs. There was no change in what…
01. The Quiet Revolution in Indian Homes Walk into an Indian household today, and you will encounter a world radically different from what existed just a generation ago. The sewing machine that once symbolised household enterprise sits alongside a washing machine; the radio that once connected families to the outside world has been displaced by…
India is preparing to count more than 1.4 billion people once again — but this time, the process itself is changing in major ways that could affect welfare delivery, policymaking, and democratic representation across the country. Why the census matters Every ten years, India undertakes one of the largest administrative exercises in the world. Census…
The Letter That Became a Parcel Ramesh Prasad has run a small handicraft business in Jaisalmer for eighteen years. He used to ship his stone carvings through private courier companies. These companies were expensive, unreliable at his remote pin code, and occasionally catastrophic for fragile goods. In 2023, he switched to India Post’s e-commerce parcel…
Picture the scene: a woman with a PhD in Nuclear Physics from the University of Madras, sitting in a modest room in Kanchipuram back in 2002, her mind turning over the problem of child labour. At first glance, the leap is almost surreal. You’ve got atomic particles on one side, rural kids out of school…
The International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, has released the fact sheets of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2023–24, for the sixth round of India’s largest and most widely used health and demographic survey. The findings come nearly five years after NFHS-5 (2019–21), at a time when reducing child malnutrition remains a key…
India’s public health landscape is experiencing a notable demographic shift. The latest Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical Report from the Registrar General of India shows that the country’s Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has dropped to 24 deaths per 1,000 live births. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has also fallen to 1.9, below the replacement level…
The Alert That Nobody Sent, But Everyone Received On the night of August 16, 2024, flash floods struck three villages in Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi district. Families were woken by the sound of water, not by a warning. Evacuation was reactive, not planned. Two people did not make it out. In the inquiry that followed, the…
The Award Given Twice: Once in Announcement, Once in Person The Padma Awards occupy a peculiar space in Indian public life. They are announced on Republic Day as part of the ceremonial calendar that marks India’s statehood. They are conferred months later in a formal investiture at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in a ceremony that converts a…
The Telecom Grave Nobody Expected to Open For most of the previous decade, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) was subject to a very specific kind of policy conversation. The public sector telecom company was losing money at a big scale, shedding subscribers in crores. BSNL was routinely described as irrelevant in a market dominated by…
