For three decades, India’s National Social Assistance Programme has formed a silent but vital backbone for the country’s welfare system. Introduced in 1995, the simple principle on which NSAP is based has been that the State bears responsibility for ensuring a minimum level of dignity for those who cannot work because of age, disability, or…
A quiet revolution is taking place in the heart of one of the most agriculture-intensive states in India. Andhra Pradesh, once called the “Rice Bowl of India”, is testing advanced digital machinery in its ag-biosystems sector and this experiment could have implications for the national agrarian landscape. Based on a recent overview, the government of…
On 7 November 2025, McGill University’s Global Health Programs and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences announced that Drs. Lalitha Regi and Regi George, co-founders of the Tribal Health Initiative (THI) in Tamil Nadu, India, are the 2025 co-recipients of the Paul Farmer Award for Global Health Equity. The award is named after the…
The Sustainable Development Goals story in India is not a straight line: it’s a patchwork. Some states are sprinting ahead while some states are struggling to keep pace. The SDG India Index 2023-24 shows strong contrasts in terms of goal attainment, showing that real monuments happen when we contextualize global goals and exchange data into…
In June 2023, the Government of India launched the Mangrove Initiative for Shoreline Habitats and Tangible Incomes, a program that quietly yet firmly repositions the restoration of mangroves from an afterthought in conservation to a national climate and livelihood mission. As the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change expands its implementation through 2025, MISHTI…
When Titan Eye+ introduced “The Eye Test Menu” on World Sight Day, they did something deceptively uncomplicated: they made the walls of highway dhabas into clinics, and they turned the lunch break of a truck driver into an opportunity for diagnosis. The idea reads like a case study in empathy design – an eye chart…
At COP26, when India made its bold promise to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2070, very few places captured the promise of this ambition as vividly as the Northeast. Nestled in the Himalayas and enriched by forests, rivers, and biodiversity, the eight Northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, and Sikkim…
When the UN shared the Food and Agriculture Organization’s shocking headline “Nearly 1.7 billion people live in areas where land degradation is impacting agricultural productivity and threatening food security,” it summarized a global assessment effort, but that’s a complicated technical report condensed down to a single socialize media line. However, the line encapsulates a broad…
Each year in December, Nagaland’s highlands come alive as different tribal communities, artists, tourists, and entrepreneurs converge into a vibrant ten-day celebration, Hornbill Festival. It has silently grown to become one of the most important forces for social change in India’s northeast. Reviving Indigenous Identity and Cultural Dignity In a rapidly modernizing India, tribal cultures…
When the FSSAI’s order in October 2025 banned the use of “ORS” on any beverage or product that is not in accordance with the formula of WHO’s standard Oral Rehydration Solution, it marked a concrete step toward the check on misleading labeling. While all attention was focused on the Delhi High Court’s decision upholding the…
