An Ominous Tendency
I propose to go back in this piece to the Indian Air Force’s strikes against the terrorist camps at Balakot in Pakistan some weeks ago. My concern here is not with the event itself but with an intellectual position that…
The Gathering Storm Clouds of Recession
The Index of Industrial Production has for the first time since June 2013 contracted in absolute terms by 0.1 percent in March 2019 compared to a year ago. This comes on top of a mere 0.07 percent increase in February,…
Warning signs from External Trade
As if all the bad news from the domestic economy were not enough, foreign trade data suggest worrisome trends on the external front as well. The latest report of monthly trade data from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry indicates…
The Modi Years
In its attack on civil liberties, its restructuring of the State to effect an acute centralization of power, and its pervasive purveyance of fear, the Modi years resemble Indira Gandhi’s Emergency. But the resemblance stops there. In fact the two…
The Political Economy of the Modi Regime
At the end of its five-year term, the NDA government’s claim that the Indian economy has experienced rapid growth during its tenure sounds shallow. The GDP numbers many observers argue are wrong and possibly fabricated. The GDP figures have since…
Social Responsibility of Intellectuals in Building Counter‐Hegemonies
Intellectuals pride themselves as producers of knowledge. They are also articulators of ideologies, a role they do not normally acknowledge. Respectable universities worth the name call themselves sites of knowledge production. I say “respectable” because these days many neo‐liberalised universities …
The Motivated Murder of India’s Statistical System
The attacks by the Modi government on many of India's institutions have been noted, but the destruction of India’s statistical system was not adequately recognised or condemned. That is, not until the latest revelations on how the Government is refusing…
The Strange form of “Disinvestment”
As the term of the current NDA government nears its end, with signs of popular dissatisfaction over its performance on the economic front, the urge to ramp up expenditure to woo the electorate intensifies. But a number of factors have…
Some ‘Reservations’ on the Modi Government’s Reservation for ‘Economically Weaker Sections’
I Since independence and even earlier, India has been characterized by an enduring duality in which the reality of an inegalitarian and oppression-ridden society has co-existed with a widespread and even growing urge for equality and justice. The inequalities prevailing…
The Furore over Farm Debt
The decision of the newly elected Congress-led governments in Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan to implement the manifesto promise to waive farm debt has set off a controversy. Opposition to the move comes not just from opposing parties. In fact,…