The Mill That Lost Its Orders Rajiv Gupta runs a secondary steel processing unit in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. He has been in the business for nineteen years. In 2024-25, he lost two major contracts to a supplier offering steel at prices he simply could not match. The steel his competitor was offering came from China, and…
The Biscuit That Changed a Village Economy Urmila Devi runs a small food processing unit outside Varanasi. She makes millet-based snacks using a government-supported machine, sells them under a cooperative label, and earns three times what she made from raw grain. Before her unit was set up under the PM Formalisation of Micro Food Processing…
As India’s app economy races ahead, millions of delivery workers, drivers, and service providers are asking a basic question: if the digital economy runs on their labour, why are they denied the rights of workers? “Convenience for the customer is built on insecurity for the worker.” At 10:45 on a winter night in Chennai, Aravind’s…
India’s Path to Inclusive Growth From Demographic Dividend to Economic Participation India stands at a defining moment in its development trajectory. It’s growth story is often framed through the lens of its demographic dividend. With one of the world’s youngest populations, the country’s demographic dividend offers immense potential. Yet, the real test lies not in…
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…
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…
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…
India’s SDG ranking has improved, but urban poverty continues to leave millions in slums without proper housing, water, healthcare, and education. The article highlights how sustainable development cannot succeed unless cities become inclusive for vulnerable residents like Kamla Bai. She moved to the city for a better life Kamla Bai came to Bhopal from a…
