Blogs

In city after city, homeowners’ associations and resident welfare associations (RWAs) in India are locked in what has become a recurring, bitter debate: should maintenance and common-service charges be based on flat size or on occupancy and use? Recent court rulings — especially in Bengaluru — show the logic of revisiting traditional models. As India’s urban middle…

The PLFS (periodic Labour Survey) data on employment from 2017–18 to 2022–23 paints an optimistic picture of women’s participation. There has been an increase in WPR for women aged 15 years or more from 22 percent in 2017–18 to 40.3 percent in 2023–24. Both Urban and rural employment have shown similar trends with women’s participation…

Is there anyway that a state can de-radicalise a section of population who are being targeted by neighbouring countries that are intent to destroy democracies? The plot to bomb various cities in India with 3000 kilos of RDX could have resulted in mayhem and deaths but thanks to a vigilant police officer in Kashmir the…

“Whoever is not grateful for blessings is in grave danger of them disappearing. Whoever is grateful for them ties them up with their own tether,” said Hazrat Ibn Ata’illah Iskandari (1259-1310), a renowned Egyptian Sufi and the third great spiritual master of the Shadhili Sufi order. His most famous work, Kitab al-Hikam (The Book of Wisdoms), a classic…

India’s ambition to build a modern, self-reliant navy is unquestionable. Yet its procurement processes continue to rely on episodic, stop-start orders that break industrial momentum, inflate costs, delay deliveries, and freeze innovation. Nothing illustrates this more sharply than Project 75(I), where India is negotiating for 2020-era submarine technology that—if contracts are signed soon—will only enter…

Hello and welcome to the 71st edition of the Weekly Vine. In this week’s edition, we run the rule over propaganda allegations against Dhurandhar, look at a meta-report on how short-form videos are reshaping our brains, discuss America’s new foreign policy which calls Europe irrelevant, and point out why we are all now victims of…

Let’s start with some good news: cancer death rates in the United States are falling. Since 1991, the age-adjusted cancer mortality rate has declined by about 34 per cent (reference). This can be credited to many factors, including fewer people smoking, earlier detection, and better treatments. That translates into millions of lives saved. However, cancer remains the 2nd…

The body of a human being is within a limited space. Outside the human body, the space is infinite (Ananta).  To explore the infinite space outside the body is not easy. So much to explore and to comprehend what is explored in this infinite space is extremely difficult. The capacity of our senses can’t hold…

Geometry, for most of us, ended the day we closed our Class 10 maths textbook and vowed never to think about isosceles triangles again. It was a dignified subject once. It helped build pyramids, chart seas, and lend a certain gravitas to architectural drawings. Then came the influencers! Consider this the spiritual sequel to last…

Delhi & Gurgaon playing a bad air match Gurgaon started off as a suburb of Delhi in early 1980s. People who couldn’t afford property prices in Delhi plonked themselves in more affordable Gurgaon.  However, over the years, things changed. While Delhi remained largely a city of entrenched babudom, Gurgaon became a glitzy, highrise corporate hub,…