The 74th Constitutional Amendment gave an expansive mandate to municipalities — from planning and land regulation to water supply, sanitation, environmental protection, and slum improvement. More than 30 years later, urban governance bears little resemblance to the vision of the landmark legislation

Two wholesale reforms are important. The first is transitioning to a nationwide market-based economic dispatch system. The second is integrating captive power plants into wholesale markets

Piqued by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi signalling support for Taiwan in the event of Chinese military action, Beijing has banned the import of seafood from Japan

States that invent frameworks shape what others can imagine as options. Consider George Kennan’s “containment”, Joseph Nye’s “soft power”, or Albert Hirschman’s ideas on development

A Nido Tania from Arunachal Pradesh, killed in Delhi’s Lajpat Nagar or an Anjel Chakma from Tripura, brutally murdered in Dehradun, act as occasional reminders of the severity of the racism

A new political party was launched in Bangladesh with direct blessings from the president, Lt General Hussain Muhammad Ershad, whose government lifted the 10-month old ban on open political activities.

Rats appear to have tunnelled their way to a victory in Jharkhand, where they supposedly ate 200 kg of ganja that was part of the evidence in a drugs case

The protests are reminiscent of a dark and recent chapter in Iran’s post-1979 history when it faced a moment of reckoning over the custodial death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who had been accused of violating dress codes by the notorious morality police

The new tax could wipe out 16–22 per cent of the actual prices received, force contract renegotiations, and weaken the presence of Indian products in the EU — a market that absorbs about 22 per cent of India’s steel and aluminium exports

Over the last few days, strikes by workers engaged by companies such as Swiggy, Zomato and Zepto calling for a ban on 10-minute delivery services have drawn attention to this issue. It requires careful consideration on the way forward

This is the front page of The Indian Express published on January 1, 1986.

Renewable energy use has increased appreciably in the last decade. Last year, green fuels edged out coal as the biggest source of electricity. The clean energy graph moved northwards in large parts of the Global South, including India

Vigilantes attacked a birthday party of a 22-year-old woman, purportedly because two young people in the group belonged to the Muslim community. And yet listen to her, three days later, and amid the bleakness, there is reason to hope.

When the state aligns itself, implicitly or explicitly, with perpetrators of violence, it signals active protection of those behind it. This is what the attempt by a BJP-led government to abandon prosecution in a case of mob lynching reflects

“Navigating uncertainty” is something India is apparently excellent at, and “walking the diplomatic tightrope” isn't the same as sitting on the sidelines. And then, a new “multilateralism” can save the “rules-based order”. Phew

Driven by ECTA, trade between Australia and India has crossed 50 billion Australian dollars, or Rs 3 lakh crore, for the first time. Over the past five years, our two-way goods trade has doubled

This is the front page of The Indian Express published on December 31, 1985.

In her crusade against the military establishment and the Awami League, she built a terrifying dam of street power

For decades, citizens from the Northeast have, all too often, been made to feel exoticised and othered, mocked and frequently targeted

At 230 seats, the INDIA alliance collectively holds not just the right, but the solemn duty, to offer a united alternative

The cricketers were not the only ones who made it a year of women's sports for India

This is the front page of The Indian Express published on December 30, 1985.

The decision to put the 100-m rule in abeyance is a much-needed course correction

Bardot, who died on Sunday at the age of 91, embodies a modernity that critics and audiences strained to interpret even as they consumed it