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Saturday, March 14, 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

Period pain is real. Blanket menstrual leave policy isn’t a fix

The Supreme Court is right to point out the 'mindset of employers', who, because of this policy, may deduce that 'women are inferior.'

Red carpet for industry honchos as AAP kicks off Punjab investors summit. Rs 10,000 cr pledged on Day 1

At 2nd such summit in Punjab for top investors organised by AAP since it came to power in Punjab, Lakshmi Mittal announced his Bathinda refinery has increased production of LPG by 3,000 tonnes/day.

Supreme Leader Mojtaba, the man Iran must keep alive & the secret force ‘tasked with it’—all about NOPO

The Nirouyeh Vijeh Pasdaran Velayat, or NOPO, was the only force Ali Khamenei trusted.It was founded in 1991 and is more feared than the Revolutionary Guards.

Peaceful power transfers followed uprisings in India’s neighbourhood. It’s a sign of mature democracies

Rating democracies is a tricky business. I am only using the simple metric of who in the Indian subcontinent has had the most peaceful, stable, normal political transitions and continuity.