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Gujarat cadre to HDFC: When bureaucratic style hits corporate walls

By Rajiv Shah   I was a little amused by the abrupt March 17 resignation of Atanu Chakraborty —a Gujarat cadre IAS officer of the 1985 batch who retired in 2020—as chairman of HDFC Bank . Much of what may have led to his decision to quit this ostensibly high post—actually a non-executive, part-time role—is by now well known. I followed most of it online with considerable interest, partly because I had interacted with him umpteen times during my stint as The Times of India correspondent in Gandhinagar from 1997 to 2012.
Recent posts

Feminist, lawyer alliances urge MPs to withdraw Transgender Rights Amendment Bill

By A Representative   In a significant development just days after its introduction in Parliament, over 100 members of two national alliances—the All-India Feminist Alliance (ALIFA) and the National Alliance for Justice, Accountability and Rights (NAJAR)—have issued an open appeal to all Members of Parliament (MPs) to immediately withdraw the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Amendment Bill, 2026.

India has been getting its economic growth wrong for two decades, say top economists

By Jag Jivan*   India's official GDP figures have misrepresented the trajectory of the world's fifth-largest economy for the better part of two decades, according to a major new working paper published by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE). It finds that India overstated annual growth by up to two percentage points after 2011 — and understated it during the boom years of the 2000s.

Bridging divides: How local grassroots work is strengthening Mahoba’s social fabric

By Bharat Dogra  In the landscape of social activism, the loudest voices often garner the most fame. Yet, in the quiet corners of India’s small towns and villages, a different kind of work unfolds—persistent, unassuming, and deeply rooted in the soil. In Mahoba, a historic town in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh, the Mukund Foundation (MF) has spent the last decade proving that continuity and community spirit are the true bedrocks of social change. A Legacy of Harmony For Manoj Tiwari, the coordinator of MF, the foundation’s mission is a biological and spiritual inheritance. It carries forward the mantle of his grandfather, Babulal Tiwari, a former MLA and beloved leader. While he was a prominent political figure, the people of Mahoba remember him less for his titles and more for his relentless pursuit of communal harmony. The stories of his devotion are legendary. Local residents recall how, even at the age of 99, Babulal Tiwari refused to miss Eid greetings. Q...

Panchsheel to partisanship: ​Nehru’s legacy vs. Modi’s multi-alignment

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*  ​ The Indian freedom struggle was built upon a bedrock of anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and anti-racist principles . These were not merely slogans but the foundational architecture of post-colonial India’s engagement with the world. Just fifteen months after independence, the Draft Constitution of 1948 established that the State must promote international peace and "just and honorable relations between nations." By 1950, this was enshrined as Article 51 of the Directive Principles. These constitutional mandates provided the moral compass for a nation emerging from the shadows of empire.

Poetics of an ordinary object: Pair of shoes in Van Gogh, Kedarnath Singh, Ashok Vajpeyi

By Ravi Ranjan*  While examining the poetics a mundane object, one finds how a pair of shoes becomes a profound philosophical and social metaphor across Vincent van Gogh's painting "A Pair of Shoes" (1886) and two Hindi poems titled "Jute" by Kedarnath Singh and Ashok Vajpeyi .

Defying gender barriers in the Red Army, she commanded tanks against Nazi Germany

By Harsh Thakor*  Aleksandra Grigorievna Samusenko occupies a permanent niche in the history of the Red Army . She symbolised, in a stark way, the very essence of Soviet armoured warfare and the human price it demanded. Born in 1922, she belonged to a generation crushed by World War II before even reaching adulthood. As she emerged from adolescence, she entered the army at a time when the Soviet Union’s very existence was under threat. Samusenko was a woman who defied conventional gender norms and societal expectations to fight for her country during one of the most challenging periods in history. As a Soviet World War II heroine, Samusenko played a notable role in the war effort and contributed to the eventual defeat of Nazi forces . Samusenko died on March 3, 1945. According to one account, she was accidentally crushed by a Soviet tank in the darkness of night; another claims she was struck by a retreating German vehicle. A third version suggests she was mortally w...

Multiethnic cohort study reveals: ultraprocessed foods exacerbate existing health inequities

By A Representative  Dr. Arun Gupta, Founder of the Breastfeeding Promotion Network of India (BPNI), Convenor of Nutrition Advocacy for Public Interest (NAPi), and former member of the Prime Minister’s Council on India’s Nutrition Challenges, has issued an urgent call to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW) to take immediate action on the burgeoning threat of ultraprocessed foods (UPFs). 

A goodbye to climate action? Policy analyst slam 97,000 MW coal expansion plan

By A Representative   On the first day of the Hindu Lunar New Year, "Parabhava" samvatsara, a prominent energy and climate policy analyst has issued a sharp critique of the Union Government’s newly announced plan to add 97,000 MW of coal and lignite-based thermal power capacity by 2035. In a formal communication addressed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi , analyst Shankar Sharma characterized the move as a potential "goodbye" to effective climate action, arguing that the policy lacks strategic foresight and ignores the rapidly evolving realities of India’s energy landscape.

GreenTech Summit claims NCR as key green building hub, without pan-India comparison

By A Representative   The Indian Green Building Council (IGBC), under the Confederation of Indian Industry, held its GreenTech Summit 2026 in New Delhi, where industry representatives, policymakers and sustainability professionals discussed the adoption of climate technologies in India’s built environment.