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Imagine a future where every Indian child is encouraged to think critically, solve real-world problems, and innovate rather than simply memorise facts. This is the vision behind the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, India’s first comprehensive education reform in over three decades. With nearly 25 crore school students, the policy aims to transform education by… Continue reading Understanding The New Education Policy In India
Forests have been inseparable from imaginations of this country’s landscape. Forest dwelling communities across India held what may be called customary rights over forests. These were rooted in long-standing traditions, community norms, and traditional systems of governance rather than formalised legal titles. They encompassed cultivation, habitation, grazing, collection of forest produce, and most importantly, the… Continue reading Understanding the Forest Rights Act: Why Community Forest Resource Rights Matter
This essay reflects on Professor John Burrows’ concluding lecture in the Harris Lecture Series on loneliness and social capital. In June 2026, a survey by a digital entertainment platform, which assessed emotional wellbeing and social isolation across 36 countries, placed India second on its loneliness ranking, behind only Turkey. Only 3.7% of Indians live alone,… Continue reading Why Loneliness Is a Public Policy Challenge: Lessons from the Harris Lecture Series
Every pill has two lives: one in the laboratory and another in law. The first determines whether it works; the second determines who can afford it. Between these two lives lies one of the defining public health questions of our time: how can countries reward pharmaceutical innovation without placing life-saving medicines beyond the reach of… Continue reading Patents, Patients and the Price of a Pill: India’s Balancing Act Between Innovation and Access
India’s food processing sector is rapidly expanding into a multi-billion-dollar economic engine, and the explosion of homegrown food brands has made regulatory compliance a critical public health priority. Balancing the momentum of food entrepreneurship with uncompromising consumer safety is one of the central challenges facing the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). Observing… Continue reading FSSAI Regulations: A Guide for India’s Rising Food Brands
The idea of the homestay didn’t begin in India, it emerged from various countries in Europe and South Asia and travelled fast, riding the same wave that turned Airbnb into a Silicon Valley unicorn. What it offered was simple but intriguing: a way to travel without disappearing into the beige anonymity of a hotel room.… Continue reading Homestays in India? Boom or Bust
Key lessons from Kaushik Deb’s Harris Lecture on energy transition, energy security, and evidence-based public policy for India. The global conversation on climate change often centres on ambitious targets – net zero by 2070, renewable energy expansion, decarbonisation. Yet, as Prof. Kaushik Deb reminded us during his talk in the Harris Lecture Series at the… Continue reading What Kaushik Deb’s Harris Lecture Revealed About India’s Energy Future
This year’s El Niño is shaping up to be one of the strongest on record, and India sits close to its centre. The India Meteorological Department has already cut its monsoon forecast to 90% of the long-period average, with a 60% probability of a deficient season. It has also flagged above-normal heatwave days across Uttar… Continue reading Weathering the Storm: Why India’s Health Systems Must Brace for a Super El Niño
When we picture the threats that could undo the world, our minds reach for the catastrophic. A great war, a big tsunami or even worse, an economic crash, and now the latest, a rogue AI. These are the threats that fill our minds. And precisely because they are so loud, they tend to drown out… Continue reading Fragility, Conflict and Violence: What Everyday Resilience Teaches Us About Policy
India’s urban transport crisis is no longer limited to congestion alone. Rising pollution, increasing fuel consumption, unsafe roads and declining quality of life are now visible across cities of every size. Yet our transport planning remains focused on metros, flyovers and road widening. One of the most vital mobility systems continues to remain neglected: Intermediate… Continue reading Strengthening Intermediate Public Transport in Urban India
Cheistha Kochhar Nudge Awards
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