Arthashastra (अर्थशास्त्र)

Mother Preparing Her Daughter For School/Image Credit: Mehmet Turgut Krikgoz By the time a child in our cities begins wobbling proudly on two feet, their parents have already learnt the art of balancing on a financial tightrope. There was a time, not very long ago, when new parents discussed prams with suspension wheels and which diapers didn’t leak at night. Now those same parents huddle over fee circulars the way earlier generations huddled over exam results. In one Bengaluru WhatsApp group, a mother recently typed, “I think we should choose the school first, then choose the stroller to match the fee structure.” People responded with laughing emojis, the kind that hide a sigh underneath. Hope and helplessness sit side by side these days. Because in our metros, a school admission is no longer just a milestone; it is a moment that rearranges the furniture of a family’s life — literally, sometimes. Budgets shift, apartments change, savings plans evaporate like spilled milk, and dreams...

Monsoon crosses Himalayas/Source: IMD On a pale September morning in 2025, the skies offered an image no climatologist expected. Satellite frames showed moisture from the southwest monsoon climbing the ridges of Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Ladakh — not halting at the Himalayan divide but slipping into the Tibetan Plateau. For a moment, the mountains that have long held the monsoon captive seemed to falter. The sight was first noticed by Manish Mehta, glaciologist at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, while examining early September maps. “Moisture appears to have crossed over to Tibet,” he said, his caution matched only by the significance of the claim. Schematic: Southwest Monsoon Moisture Crossing the Himalayas Scientists Urge Caution No one rushed to announce a climatic revolution. Raghu Murtugudde, climate scientist at IIT Bombay and the University of Maryland, noted: “We have to be careful about inferring moisture transport based on such images. Strong advection into...

Child Preacher (Image Generated using AI) A child steps forward to recite scripture, their voice brimming with sincerity. It’s a captivating sight, whether in a bustling temple in India, a solemn church in the United States, or broadcasted across millions of homes in Australia. The innocence of a child preacher has a universal effect: it stirs wonder, admiration, and awe. People are drawn to the purity of their words, which seem untouched by the complexities of adulthood, as though these children have a more direct line to the divine. But beyond this fascination lies a more complex reality that raises important questions about faith, innocence, and the adults who may be guiding these young figures. In India, one prominent example is Abhinav Arora, a nine-year-old spiritual orator from Delhi, who has captured millions of followers on social media. Known as "Bal Sant" (child saint), Abhinav appears to embody true devotion, performing rituals and delivering spiritual messages wi...

India, that is Bharat: Exploring India's Dual Identity In the heart of India's historical journey towards independence and nationhood, a crucial debate emerged within the Constituent Assembly in 1949: should the newly formed nation be officially named 'Bharat' or 'India'? This debate, which unfolded nearly a year after the initial draft of the Indian Constitution, remains relevant today as the nation grapples with its identity. In recent times, the renaming of the G-20 Summit invitations to "President of Bharat" has reignited discussions about the nation's nomenclature and its deep-rooted historical connotations. Historical Perspectives on the Names "India" and "Bharat" Constitutionality Article 1 of the Indian Constitution already establishes the interchangeability of "India" and "Bharat" by stating, "India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States." This provision acknowledges the historical sig...

FOSS: Should India Make the Big Software Switch?/Image Credit: JMEXCLUSIVES Can a country save billions of dollars by making a "software switch"? If you think the answer is "no," then for your kind information, a country has already done it. In May 2019, South Korea announced its plan to switch from Microsoft Windows to a Linux distro on its 3.3 million computing devices. According to the South Korean officials, it will save them up to 780 billion won (51 billion Indian rupees), otherwise which would spend on buying Microsoft Windows licenses. In India, similar steps were taken by the Government of Kerala when they switched to a homegrown Linux-based operating system KITE GNU Linux in their schools and saved around 3 billion Indian rupees . So now the question arises, Should your country make the switch? or in our case, Should India make the switch? And the answer is Yes. But this should not be implemented without understanding the challenges. Challenges 1. Learning...

Indian States and UTs SDG Ranking by NITI Aayog Recently, NITI Aayog has released its 3rd annual report on Sustainable Development Goals in collaboration with the United Nations. In this report, they have evaluated and ranked all 36 states and union territories on the basis of the progress they have made on 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 set by the United Nations. Currently, the score for Team India stands at 66 out of 100, which is 6 points improvement from the last evaluation. But when we look at the regional level, we discover some interesting points. First, that most of the states which are above national average with exception of Himachal Pradesh and Haryana are non-Hindi speaking states. Second, most of the states which are performing below the national average are Hindi speaking states. So what’s cooking up here? The answer lies in the languages. Or more specifically the answer lies in Hindi. First of all, we need to understand that languages are products of a continu...

Smog in Delhi During Winter Season/Image Credit: Mark Danielson On 7th November 2020, an Indian Medical Association (IMA) official in an interview with NDTV said that 13 percent of the new COVID-19 cases in Delhi are directly linked to air pollution. Though this was the story of last year, the situation is more or less going to be the same this year. In the upcoming winter season, Delhi might again be going to face this dual challenge when it is speculated to face the third or fourth COVID-19 wave. And with the current outlook and its unpreparedness for the second wave, the question arises, “Is Delhi ready for this dual challenge?” And the even bigger question is “Is North India ready for this dual challenge?” And the answer, as you have might guess, is a big NO. But given the five months’ time window, Delhi and all other North Indian states still have a chance to pull off this tedious task. How? Let’s understand. Find Alternatives For Parali Burning We all know the air quality of the...

Sarkari Babu: India's Obsession With the Government Jobs/Image Credit: Pxhere Last week, a cousin of mine landed a job in one of the highest Indian government institutions and consequently, he was flooded with congratulatory messages and long tiresome queries about how he was able to get it -- as clearing a government job exam in this country is deemed as a gargantuan task. He was flooded with questions about under the table monetary benefits, dowry prospective and his choice of not choosing a juicy department when options were available. In a week time, the poor soul has faced each and every kind of question regarding the job. He tried to answer them all, best to his abilities, however he was not able to answer a simple question he asked himself: why we (Indian Society) are obsessed with the Sarkari Naukri? So when he threw the question on me, I realized, there is no single and particular explanation for this obsession. It has several layers and each layer requires a unique s...

India's Lost Opportunity (Image by Harikrishnan Mangayil) We are living in interesting times. On one hand, countries across the world are embracing globalization and are becoming inter-dependent socially, culturally and economically and on the other side, there is a sudden rise in regionalism, sectarianism, and nationalism. India is no different. The current debate on CAA-NPR-NRC is just a small part of a larger nationalism versus globalization tussle. And in one or another way, India has lost its opportunity to claim its stake in world politics again. But before dwelling onto the main topic, we first need to understand CAA-NPR-NRC and why India is protesting against it. What is CAA-NPR-NRC? CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) 2019 is an amendment to the Citizenship Act of 1955 which provides a pathway to Indian citizenship for members of minority section (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians) of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who have fled religious ...

बस का इंतज़ार: कैसे डीटीसी दिल्ली की रफ़्तार को रोक रही हैं. किसी शहर को समझने के लिए, आपको सबसे पहले उस शहर के रास्तो और उन रास्तो पर सफ़र करने के अंदाज़ को समझना चाहिए, और इस बीच आप उस शहर की खूबियाँ, खामियां और बाकी सब बारीकियां खुद-ब-खुद समझ जाते हैं. कोई शहर कैसे सुबह अपने काम के लिए घर से बाहर निकलता हैं, कैसे शाम को अपने घर वापिस लौटता हैं, कैसे फुर्सत के चंद पलो में एक दुसरे से मिलता हैं, और ऐसे ही कई सारे सवालों के जवाब आपको उस शहर की यातायात व्यवस्था में छुपे मिल जायेंगे. एक अच्छा शहर, आपको बस, मेट्रो, और आखिरी मिल पर टेढ़े मेढ़े रास्तो से घर लाने लेजाने वाले रिक्शे में हस्ता, मुस्कुराता, अपने ख्वाबो को उधेड़ता बुनता मिल जाता हैं. वही एक थका, हारा शहर बिरान बस स्टॉप, महंगी यातायात व्यवस्था, और निजी वाहनों की अंधी भीड़ में एक अजीब सी मायूसी के साथ खड़ा होता हैं. और आजकल वही मायूसी दिल्लीवालो की आँखों में भी दिखने लगी हैं. और आप वजह समझ ही चुके होंगे, दिल्ली की यातायात व्यवस्था, खासकर दिल्ली की बसे. दिल्ली की हरी, लाल, और नारंगी बसे, जिन्हें प्यार से दिल्लीवाले दिल्ली परिवहन निगम...

Minimum Wages: An Unlikely Solution To Democratic Growth of India In his 2019 budget speech, Piyush Goyal, the Union Finance Minister of India, proposed annual assistance of six thousand rupees or in the main opposition party leader Rahul Gandhi's words a handout of seventeen rupees a day to farmers. Counteractively, Rahul Gandhi, himself, extended this idea of monetary assistance on the universal scale and promised a universal basic income (UBI) to all the poor in this country. The UBI can be seen as one of many steps toward eliminating the poverty and a way to democratize state's income and resources. However, it is a political promise and there is no guarantee, it will not turn out similar to fifteen lakh rupees promise made by the current ruling party before they came into the power. More importantly, it has put the veil on another social agreement, the Minimum Wages, which could really help the Indian economy and masses.