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Thursday, January 29, 2026
TopicVP Menon

Topic: VP Menon

VP Menon forced Orissa, Chhattisgarh states into a merger. Sweetened the deal with privy purses

In 'Dethroned', John Zubrzycki explores how the Nehru govt arm-twisted princely states into merging with the Indian Union.

Even Travancore, Bhopal, Indore claimed independence after 1947. Nehru brought them to heel

Convincing the headstrong rulers of the 552 princely states would require arm-twisting and result in accusations of broken promises. But that's just part of the story.

Getting princely states into the Constituent Assembly was a Patel and Menon masterstroke

In ‘We, The People of the States of Bharat,' Sanjeev Chopra talks about the formation of Indian states prior to 1956 as a result of historical accidents and circumstances.

Jaishankar, Ram Guha in Twitter spat over claim that Nehru had excluded Patel from cabinet

Foreign Minister Jaishankar tweeted quoting a biography that Nehru did not want Patel in the Cabinet in 1947 and omitted him from the initial Cabinet list.

Nehru never excluded Patel from cabinet list. Louis Mountbatten and V.P. Menon got it wrong

Only after Nehru received Patel’s assent did he send the cabinet member list to Mountbatten on 4 August. Patel not only headed the list, but was to be the deputy PM.

Mountbatten planned to partition India into many countries. Then VP Menon stepped in

India’s future had been decided in a matter of 3 hours, between 7 am and 10.30 am, by Nehru and Mountbatten. And it was VP Menon who drew up a draft.

On Camera

Why sharp selloff in Japanese bonds has a message for India’s budget

Although its overall GDP will soon be bigger than Japan’s, on a per-capita basis India is still 12 times poorer.

India’s looking at 14 million metric tonnes of e-waste by 2030, recycling can’t keep up—NITI Aayog

Country's used lithium-ion battery problem is also set to grow sharply in next decade. India 3rd largest e-waste producer with 7% global share but currently recycles only about 10% of it.

Indian Army ties up with US drone company that made its name in the Ukraine conflict

Shield AI will provide V-BAT vertical takeoff & landing drones along with licences for software, which will be integrated into aircraft and made available to select Indian partners.

Non-alignment is coming back in a new avatar: Trump-peedit alliance

No nation other than China can negotiate one-on-one with Trump on an equal footing. That’s why the middle powers who so far formed the core of multilateral bodies now feel orphaned.