On March 7, 2026, Dipali Das, a 60-year-old woman from Bangladesh’s Sylhet district who had been declared an illegal immigrant by a Foreigners’ Tribunal in Assam and spent two years in a detention centre, became the first person in India to receive Indian citizenship under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 (CAA) after having been…
On February 28, 2026, a series of explosions at Sri Surya Fireworks in Vetlapalem village in Kakinada district of Andhra Pradesh claimed the lives of 28 workers, including eight women. Preliminary investigations revealed that the unit had licence to employ only 8 workers per day and store a maximum of 15 kilograms of explosive material,…
On March 7, 2026, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, during the presentation of the State Budget for 2026-27, announced that Karnataka proposes to ban social media use for children under 16 years of age. On the same day, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu announced a similar prohibition for children below 13, with a 90-day…
The results of Nepal’s general elections, held on March 6, 2026, have produced one of the most dramatic political upheavals in the subcontinent’s recent history. The Rastriya Swatantra Party (RSP), founded just four years ago in 2022, is leading in approximately 110 of 165 constituencies, far outpacing Nepal’s established political formations—the Nepali Congress and the…
On March 7, 2026, the United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that the U.S. was granting India a thirty-day window to import Russian crude oil, framing it as a reprieve from sanctions amid the escalating West Asia conflict. Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz since March 1, 2026, has sharply constricted global oil…
Coconut Promotion Scheme 2026: India’s position as the world’s largest producer and consumer of coconuts is at a structural inflection point driven not by market failure but by ecological crisis. The 2026-27 Union Budget’s announcement of a “Coconut Promotion Scheme,” aimed at improving productivity through seedling distribution and garden rejuvenation, has been welcomed by the…
India’s Gaganyaan programme — the country’s first human spaceflight mission — represents the most technologically complex and life-critical undertaking in ISRO’s history. While media attention has largely focused on the launch vehicle (LVM3-M) and crew selection, the most scientifically demanding phase of any crewed space mission is atmospheric re-entry: the controlled return of the Crew…
The University Grants Commission’s 2026 Regulation on “Promotion of Equity in Higher Education Institutions” has triggered a significant constitutional controversy that has reached the Supreme Court of India. The regulation — designed to address caste, gender, and religion-based discrimination in higher educational institutions — mandates swift grievance redress, strict accountability timelines, and severe institutional consequences…
India’s demographic dividend — the brief historical window during which the working-age population constitutes the highest proportion of the total population — is estimated to last only until 2040. This 14-year window represents both an extraordinary economic opportunity and a profound governance challenge. The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), launched in 2015 as India’s…
The 16th Finance Commission has submitted its recommendations covering the fiscal transfer period 2026-31, and it has immediately attracted significant intellectual and political scrutiny. Writing in The Hindu, former RBI Governor and Twelfth Finance Commission Chairman C. Rangarajan, and D.K. Srivastava, Chief Policy Adviser at EY India and former Member of the Twelfth Finance Commission,…