I was watching the India-Australia ODI the other day when something curious caught my attention. The stadium façade - its arches, the rhythm of its windows, the quiet dignity of its design - looked oddly Victorian. This was the  Sydney Cricket Ground , which upon research I discovered was built in 1851, so aptly had a Victorian architecture . What was remarkable that while the stadium would have been upgraded and fitted with modern amenities and technology, its architecture was never tampered with, rather maintained to the original Victorian designs. That afternoon, I stepped into a branch of the State Bank of India after several years. Driving towards the branch I prepared myself for an experience I probably last had 30 years back in the 1990s - that soft, sepia-tinted decade with the pace of everything - slower. But as I stepped in the branch, the air felt far different. The air-conditioning hummed gently, queues were orderly, and staff went about their work with quie...

In my post in January 2021, following the farmer protests at the Red fort, I had penned this piece where I postulated that anyone and everyone who has ever tried to "win" over the Lal Quilla has suffered subsequent defeat and obliteration.  I illustrated my point based on the fate of: Shahjahan - the builder of the fort Nader Shah - the Persian emperor who's dynasty was wiped out after his win over the Lal quilla The Maratha's who lost at hands of the Durranis after the fort fell into their protection  The British who lost power in India after they chose the fort as the venue of INA trials  My conclusion is that anyone who touches the fort has suffered a bad fate subsequently - and I believe the curse continued with the Farm protests . After the hoisting of Nishan Sahib at the Red fort in mark of solidarity, the entire Farmer agitation movement just fell apart over the period of a few months. The tractor rally to the fort was the last of the large gatherings which c...

In 2016, amid global calls to revive domestic manufacturing, I had argued that government pushes  - from Make in India to Make America Great Again -  would not spark an employment-led industrial revolution, but rather catalyze automation-led manufacturing transformations. Nine years later, India’s own manufacturing trajectory confirms this prediction with surgical clarity. Despite record-breaking capital inflows, thriving exports, and the China+1 strategy playing to India’s advantage, job creation in manufacturing has been lackluster. The gap between factory output and factory employment is no longer just a trend - it is now a defining feature of India’s industrial rise. The False Promise of Mass Job Creation At the core of India’s manufacturing push lies the Production-Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme, launched with grand ambitions of creating 6 million direct jobs and adding US$500 billion in output by FY27. Yet, by June 2024, only 584,000 direct jobs had materialized—jus...

Prologue I visited the BMC Building market in Powai - this is a run down building built by the Municipal corporation for small businesses and shops. The vision was to build an equivalent of the Sim-Lim square in Singapore - when it was constructed, it had escalators, elevators and air-conditioned corridors. However, over the years, the escalators stopped working due to lack of maintenance, and leases expired and rentals fell rapidly during the Covid-19 pandemic, after which the air-conditioning broke down and recently one out of the two elevators also broke down. Today when I visited the place, it was stinking of human sweat (its high-summer season in Mumbai) and the lack of air-conditioning made it worse. The staircase was so dirty that I did not feel like taking it, so I took the lift, but as soon as I boarded the lift, I regretted my decision. The lift was occupied by 5 delivery runners, two of them carrying dairy and one of them carrying meat - the stench in the lift was even mor...

Photo courtesy - Reuters Bangladesh is undergoing a political crisis at the moment - the Prime Minister Sheikh Haseena, who was re-elected in an election which was boycotted by the main opposition party, has abdicated her position and the military has moved in to take reigns of the government. While the immediate development is clearly a jolt to democracy in Bangladesh, it hints towards a significant shift in the political landscape across South Asia, particularly in the Indian subcontinent.  The ouster of Sheikh Hasina in Bangladesh, the declining dominance of the National Conference party led by the Abdullah dynasty in Jammu and Kashmir, and the loss of power by the Congress party in India, all point to a common trend: the fall of dynastic politics and the emergence of leaders from non-elite backgrounds. Historically, during the British Raj, royals from princely states colluded with the British crown for continuance of the Raj and their own kingdoms, while oppressing their own po...

  Image Credit: YouTube grab of Futuristic Inter-galactic spaceport terminal from Men In Black International I am right now at the Dubai airport watching the eclectic mix of humanity - travellers, visitors and residents - at this ‘meeting point of civilizations and races’ that Dubai has now become. In the last 10 years, Dubai has transformed from an Oil rich destination where people would come to earn bags of money (even if they had to live destitute), to a bustling metropolis where people come to enjoy a good life. Not only has lifestyle transformed in Dubai for the better, but its population has burgeoned from a mere 62000 in 1970 to 3.05 million in 2024 with immigrants powering almost the entire rise in numbers. Notably, Emiratis currently constitute 7 odd percentage of the total population, and in the next 10 years Dubai is planning to double its population plunging the percentage of natives to 3 and half percent only! However, immigrants are not allowed to gain citizenship of ...

These two headlines caught my attention in this morning's newspaper. Juxtaposed next to each other, both of them make the patriotic Indian in me jump with joy - these are the kinds of news headlines we longed for since adolescence. Albeit, while the adolescent me would have jumped with joy on reading these, the older mature me is circumspect, even borderline skeptical of the effect these will have on the Indian economy in general, and well being of Indians in specific. My skepticism follows from a series of policy news that has been emanating from the South Block off late. On 3rd August, Government of India (GOI) banned the import of laptops and other electronics used heavily in India's booming IT sector. Prior to that, as a post pandemic stimulus measure for Make In India, the Modi administration had announced several PLI Schemes ( Production Linked Incentive ) for various sectors. These schemes claim to incentivize setting up of industries in strategic sectors or expedite the...

It’s a national embarrassment for both India and the US that they don't have a data privacy law  The Indian Prime minister Modi is in the US and amongst much fanfare a lot of joint initiatives are being announced. But one area which could have been a major bedrock for a global regulation has not even been touched. On the contrary, both governments are now engaged in regressive moves on this subject - the subject of Personal Data Protection. TikTok, the popular video-sharing app, has faced bans in several countries, including India, and now there are discussions about a potential ban in the United States as well. The concerns primarily revolve around data privacy and surveillance, with lawmakers pointing out the extensive collection of personal information by TikTok and its Chinese ownership. However, focusing solely on banning TikTok fails to address the broader issue of data privacy and government access to user information. Banning TikTok might seem like a straightforward soluti...

In a tragic incident that took place near the Bahanaga railway station in Odisha's Balasore district, a collision between the Coromandel Express and a goods train resulted in the deaths of 207 people, with over 900 others injured. The Bengaluru-Howrah superfast express was also involved in the accident. This devastating event serves as a stark reminder of the safety challenges faced by the Indian Railways.  While statistics may show a relatively low accident ratio per kilometer, it is crucial to consider the context: lower speeds, inadequate facilities, and a significantly higher passenger load compared to other parts of the world. Trains in India enjoy the same status as Airlines given the long distance travel is routinely popular. Given this scenario it is important that safety in rail travel is also given the same level of importance as in the airlines sector. The specifics of why this Accident happened such as technology or human failure may provide certain tactical cues but th...

Banksy Photo by Dan Meyers on Unsplash Justice BV Nagarathna of the Supreme Court of India was recently in the news for being the dissenting voice on two key judgments of the Supreme Court. The first was a verdict on whether Demonetization by the Modi Govt in 2016 was legally valid, and the second was about whether a Minister in the Government is (or not) entitled to 'Hate Speech' in the name of freedom of speech. Justice Nagarathna is, of course, no ordinary judge - she may go on to become the first female Chief Justice of India - and is the daughter of former CJI ES Venkataramiah. But this post is not about Justice Nagarathna, it is about dissent, and especially for the ilk who lament that small dissent in face a powerful lobby is useless. I've heard this often that dissent does not make a difference, especially from people do not wish to engage in socio-political debates; some well wishers also advise against making dissent publicly known for 'one's own safe...