Soni Mishra

India is ageing fast, with its 12 per cent senior citizen demographic estimated to increase to 19.5 per cent by 2050. The only way to prepare for this is through more geriatric services, both institutional and home-based that can reach all economic segments.

Protests by tribal farmers over compensation and rehabilitation have once again raised questions about the human cost of the Ken-Betwa river-linking project, as well as its ecological impact, including on the Panna Tiger Reserve, a large part of which will be submerged.

The youth protests have disrupted the political agenda of Delhi, derailing BJP’s attempt to build support for delimitation and forcing both the government and the opposition to respond to a source of political pressure that neither had anticipated.

While Mamata wages a battle for the Trinamool’s name and symbol, the ECI faces charges of favouring NDA-aligned factions—bringing the spotlight back on the need for a separate law to eliminate subjectivity and bias in such disputes.

Pradhan’s resignation suggests that political accountability, long absent from the Modi era, may once again become a factor in Indian politics.

The co-convenor of the CJP speaks about the mass discontentment against the government and the power of the youth who stormed the streets, whose humour and sarcasm worked like magic.

Written off after her 2024 Lok Sabha defeat, Smriti Irani is back at the centre of BJP’s organisational machinery, with Uttar Pradesh’s 2027 election as her next challenge.

PM-CARES has accumulated a huge corpus while spending very little, and its latest accounts have renewed questions about why the fund remains so opaque and largely beyond public scrutiny.

While the positive impact of cash transfer schemes aimed at women at the household level is well documented, the budgetary strain they impose on States and the extent to which they crowd out growth-enhancing spending warrant urgent attention.

Probably for the first time ever, the BJP is realising that its social media dominance and sheer number of followers cannot guarantee a connect with the youth, who value authenticity more than artificial aura.