Water as Infrastructure: What Ancient India Got Right
Atul Bagai and Priyanka Verma argue that India's ancient water systems, from Dholavira to Kallanai, show durable infrastructure needs maintenance, local institutions and public duty.
Smart Reads
Long-form explainers on the stories that matter for UPSC — each linked to the Previous Year Question it would answer, drawing on columnists and expert commentary most current-affairs sites overlook.
33 articles available.
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Why the Election Commission's Crisis Won't Go Away
Two Election Commissioners objected 14 times to how the CEC ran the voter roll revision. Shekhar Gupta says Modi must personally restore a wounded EC. What Article 324 and the 2023 appointments law actually allow.
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Plastic EPR: Why India's Recycling Numbers Don't Add Up
India's plastic EPR system reports 17 million tonnes recycled since 2022, but a CSE audit of Agra's drains found branded packaging was 70% of the waste. Sunita Narain's case for real verification over self-reported certificates.
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Right to Protest: Article 19 and the Jantar Mantar Debate
A Delhi High Court judge asked why Jantar Mantar should not be shut as a protest site. Aakar Patel argues that a fundamental right has become a police permission. What Article 19 and the Supreme Court say.
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US-China Managed Rivalry: What It Leaves Open for India
Xi Jinping's first White House visit in over a decade produced tariff relief on $30 billion of goods and an AI dialogue, but no shift on Taiwan. Harsh V. Pant calls it managed rivalry, and sees room for India.
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Soil Health: Why More Fertiliser Is Not Fixing India's Soil
India budgets ₹1.71 lakh crore a year for fertiliser subsidy, yet 64% of tested soil samples are low in nitrogen. Sunita Narain argues that soil is a living system and India measures only its chemistry.
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Theatre Commands: Why India's Biggest Military Reform Waits
India's plan to merge 17 single-service commands into three integrated theatre commands is drafted but not approved. Ajai Shukla argues Parliament may need to legislate jointness, as the US did in 1986.
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Capital Wars: Is India's Forex Cushion Thick Enough?
The RBI's NRI deposit scheme pulled in a record $132.98 billion, yet forex reserves just saw their biggest weekly fall. T.N. Ninan warns that rich countries may next restrict capital itself. What that means for India.
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Defence Atmanirbharta: Why Self-Reliance Needs Realism
India made a record ₹1.78 lakh crore of defence equipment in 2025-26 yet remains the world's second-largest arms importer. Why the gap persists, where self-reliance worked and stalled, and what a smarter atmanirbharta looks like.
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Indian Left's Crisis: Can It Reinvent Itself?
India's communist Left holds just 8-10 Lok Sabha seats after losing Kerala in May 2026. Yogendra Yadav's EPW analysis diagnoses a structural crisis: the Left's old model no longer fits India's 93% informal workforce and caste-gender realities.
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BRICS Summit 2026: India's Diplomatic Test for the Global South
India chaired the BRICS Summit in New Delhi (Sept 12–13, 2026), achieving a unanimous New Delhi Declaration despite deep geopolitical fractures. Harsh V. Pant of ORF argues this tests whether India's strategic autonomy model can deliver tangible development outcomes for the Global South.
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India's Current Account Deficit: When Does Red Become Dangerous?
India's current account deficit widens to $4.2B in Q1 FY27. Is this CAD cycle manageable or the start of external sector crisis? We examine drivers (oil, exports), mechanisms (BoP identity, rupee depreciation), debate (worry vs. calm), and policy options. NCERT-linked. Mains-relevant.
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India's West Asia Strategy: Time to Pivot?
Pakistan's 2026 defence pact with Saudi Arabia challenges India's multi-alignment doctrine. With 60% of oil imports through Hormuz and $51.4B in Gulf remittances at stake, Shashi Tharoor argues India must shift to explicit security partnerships.
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Gen-Z Protests and Congress's Lost Voters: Can Opposition Revival Depend on Youth Movements?
Shashi Tharoor analyzes Gen-Z activism, the Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), and Congress's persistent electoral challenge: a 6-7% vote share gap preventing opposition renewal. Can opposition harness youth energy? What structural reforms are needed? Deep dive on voter behavior, social movements, and political leadership.
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Inflation Paradox: Why RBI Held Rates in July
July 2026: Inflation holds at 4.45%, RBI keeps repo rate at 5.25%. But behind the number, a deeper story about who inflation helps and who it hurts. We examine the mechanism, the trade-offs, and what this means for ordinary Indians.
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Environment Report 2026: 99% Days Extreme Weather
CSE's State of India Environment Report 2026 shows extreme weather events occurred on 99% of days in 2025 across India. We examine the climate mechanism, ecosystem impacts, and policy failures. Can adaptation strategies keep pace with accelerating climate impacts?
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India-US Trade Deal: 18% Tariffs Under Trump 2.0
India and the US finalize a trade agreement at 18% average tariffs under Trump 2.0. We examine the negotiating dynamics, India's strategic choices, and what this means for India's autonomy in a polarized world.
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Defence Exports Hit ₹38,424 Cr: 63% Leap in FY26
FY26 saw India's defence exports surge 63% to ₹38,424 crore. We examine what this means for India's military-industrial capacity, strategic self-reliance, and limitations that remain. Is this real transformation or supply-chain opportunity?
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India 106th in Democracy Rank: What Decline Means
V-Dem's 2026 report ranks India 106th globally on democratic health—lowest since 1975. We trace how India went from constitutional democracy's global exemplar to a state described as 'electoral autocracy.' A historical reckoning.
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Bharat Innovates: ₹1 Lakh Cr RDI Fund for Tech
Bharat Innovates 2026 launches ₹1 lakh crore Research, Development & Innovation (RDI) fund targeting AI, semiconductors, and biotech. We examine what this means for India's tech capability, what risks it poses, and whether funding alone can close the innovation gap.
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UGC Bans Caste Bias on Campus: What It Means
UGC's new guidelines on caste-based discrimination raise fundamental questions about institutional accountability, constitutional equality, and federalism in higher education. We examine what actually changed and what's still contested.
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J&K Statehood, Seven Years On: The Promise That Keeps Getting Postponed
Seven years after Article 370 was abrogated and Jammu and Kashmir was downgraded to a Union Territory, the promise of restoring full statehood remains unfulfilled. On July 20, 2026, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah led the ruling National Conference to Jantar Mantar to demand statehood, and was stopped from protesting. A K
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NASA Wants ISRO on Its Moon Base. The Real Question Is Governance, Not Rockets
At the ninth India-US Civil Space Joint Working Group, hosted by India in Bengaluru on 5-6 August 2026, NASA invited ISRO to join its Moon Base programme under the Artemis Accords. Ajey Lele of MP-IDSA argues that behind the diplomatic glow sits a harder question: whether a voluntary, non-binding framework built outsid
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India-Japan Defence: The Rhetoric Is Great. The Partnership Needs to Catch Up
Japan's Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi is in Delhi this week at a moment of historic Japanese transformation, when Tokyo is finally treating military power, defence exports and security assistance as normal instruments of statecraft. C. Raja Mohan argues the visit should end incrementalism and push India and Japan t
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India's Honey Boom: The Sweet Export Story Still Hooked on One Buyer
India is now the world's second-largest honey producer and third-largest exporter by value, but the bulk of its exports goes to a single market at below-average prices. Ashok Gulati and his ICRIER co-authors argue the 'sweet revolution' must remodel itself into a premium, sustainable honey economy, and protect the bee
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Mecca Accord: Why Arab States Still Struggle to Build Their Own Security System
Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan have created a new security arrangement. But why was such an arrangement necessary in the first place, and what does it reveal about the Middle East's dependence on outside powers?
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Bhagwat's Gen Z Endorsement and the Lesson for the Modi Government
Shekhar Gupta reads RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat's endorsement of Gen Z protesters as a rare public caution to the Modi government, and draws an Indira Gandhi-era lesson about leaders who have no one to counsel them.
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India's 2-Child Fertility Story Is Missing the Babies Nobody Planned For
India's headline fertility story is a triumph: the total fertility rate has fallen to about 2.0, right at the replacement level. But Srinivas Goli and K S James argue this number hides the babies nobody planned for, because the TFR counts all births, wanted and unwanted. Wanted fertility is about 1.6 children per woman
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1991's Lesson for India: It Is Not About Diplomacy
C. Raja Mohan reads India's twin shocks of 1990-91 | the Kuwait war and the Soviet collapse | as a template for today's wars in Iran and Ukraine. His argument: the real lesson is not diplomatic skill but domestic reform, and a foreign policy debate willing to think against the consensus.
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Mumbai's Deluge Is a Verdict on How India Thinks About Water
Mumbai swung from a June water shortage to a July deluge in weeks. Environment and climate columnist Kaushik Das Gupta argues this is not a weather anomaly but a verdict on the utilitarian imagination of water in urban India, where water is treated as a resource to be extracted in summer and an inconvenience during the
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From MGNREGA to VB-G RAM G: India's Rural Jobs Guarantee Gets a New Test
India's flagship rural jobs scheme has been replaced: VB-G RAM G took over from MGNREGA on July 1, 2026, raising the annual guarantee from 100 to 125 days of paid work per rural household. The Financial Express argues the launch is mistimed, arriving as a weak, El Nino-driven monsoon threatens drought across 315 distri
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Frontiersmen: The Forgotten Experiment That Built Arunachal's Peace
In 1951, Major Bob Khathing hoisted the Tricolour at Tawang without firing a shot; eight years later, Har Mander Singh read Nehru's message to a fleeing Dalai Lama at the same monastery. Both were officers of the Indian Frontier Administrative Service, the special cadre Nehru and anthropologist Verrier Elwin built to a
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The Himalayas Are Melting Faster Than CO2 Alone Can Be Cut. Here's the Fix
The July 2023 Himachal Pradesh disaster killed 360-plus people and caused damages exceeding Rs 4,000 crore, a preview of what a warming Third Pole means for India. Climate policy experts Durwood Zaelke and Zerin Osho argue that decarbonising alone is too slow to save the mountains: the fastest lever is cutting short-li