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Saturday, February 21, 2026
TopicState

Topic: state

An American helped IAS officers like me ask the right questions—why James Scott is important

Scott looked at the State as it is—based on its functions rather than through the prism of Kautilya's Arthashastra, Machiavelli’s The Prince, or the Marxist concept.

India’s State institutions are failing citizens because they were built to control, not govern

While centralising elements are necessary at times, the problem is that India’s institutions have not evolved along with the country’s growth.

Modi govt must treat farmers as businessmen & introduce ease of doing agri-business index

If Narendra Modi wants to double farmers’ incomes, then the Centre has to create a system that can rank states according to agricultural performance.

Centre gives a lot of money to states for social welfare. A good policy, but only on paper

In the last 18 years, the Centre spent Rs 14 lakh crore on social services. But centrally sponsored schemes are undermining state say.

Bengali Muslims are not sure where they belong this Lok Sabha election

TMC’s electoral games to garner Muslim votes in Bengal and BJP’s NRC push has made an entire community vulnerable to statelessness.

After Lok Sabha polls, new govt must be wary of big-bang ideas that lead to bad outcomes

From bank nationalisation to demonetisation, the Indian state often rushed into things it was not able to handle well.

State regulation in India – the art of rolling over rather than rolling back

Regulatory bodies were created to de-politicise decision making. But in India, something different has happened.

Of mindless words and a vacuum of ideas: Indian politics under Modi reflects emptiness

Indians have ceased to be ‘argumentative’; instead, they have started surrendering. There’s no intellectual debate; only status-seeking, clever discourse. The very popular, but quite cynical, perception...

On Camera

Why legal provisions are necessary to curb the power of trade unions: MH Mody

The collusion between the new class of bureaucrats, politicians, businessmen and trade union bosses perpetuates itself partly because of the short-run benefits and partly because they see no way out of the system, wrote author MH Mody in 1980.

In the West, there’s anxiety. In India, optimism—Rishi Sunak says India poised to be leader in AI

On Wednesday, the former UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was speaking in New Delhi at a Carnegie & Observer Research Foundation event on AI.

Embraer moves full throttle in pursuit of IAF contract, ties up with Hindalco after Adani

IAF is firming up plans to revamp airlift capabilities with medium transport aircraft that will be assembled in India & serve as its main workhorse. Embraer is leading contender as of now.

No country is ever fully sovereign. Cold War era taught India its real meaning

India’s fraught neighbourhood places multiple constraints on its strategic choices. It leaves no time to take a deep breath, lean back and reset.