business 
When an acronym was coined to refer to a newly-created cadre of health workers for the country, as political gestures are wont to, care was taken to ensure the word invoked a sense of promise. The government decided to call them Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA in Hindi means hope). In 2005, the Centre launched … Read more
‘Given chronic specialist shortages, domicile quotas ensure a predictable supply of doctors familiar with the State’s health-care landscape’ | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto The recent Supreme Court judgment, in Dr. Tanvi Behl vs Shrey Goyal (2025), which struck down domicile-based reservations in post-graduate medical admissions in the respective medical colleges in States, marks a significant … Read more
In suggesting that the Government should come with regulatory measures to prevent vulgarity or perversity in the name of humour being aired, the Supreme Court has expanded the scope of petitions by YouTubers caught in a criminal case over alleged obscenity in a digital programme. The Court has sounded the right note by calling for … Read more
The U.S. and Ukraine It looks as if it is a case of playing musical chairs for Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy when it comes to dealing with the United States (Page 1, March 5). Mr. Zelenskyy is now struggling for survival with the shadow of economic woes over him. This is also a case of … Read more
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Odisha presented the State Budget for 2025-26 in February, with a total Budget size of ₹2,90,000 crore. The Budget document underlines the government’s vision for ‘Samruddha Odisha’ by 2036, aiming to become a $500 billion economy. However, the BJP government’s fiscal performance over the last nine months has … Read more
‘Enhanced cooperation in the aviation sector is just one example of how the UAE-India partnership can evolve to unlock new avenues of mutually beneficial growth and integration’ | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStockphoto During a recent tour of the Navi Mumbai International Airport in Maharashtra, I was left deeply impressed by the scale of India’s aviation … Read more
Just as Firefly Aerospace became the first private entity to soft-land a robotic lander on the moon on March 2, NASA acting administrator Janet Petro said “the way that we keep America first is by dominating in all the domains of space. And the domain … we’re going to capture … is going to be … Read more
India’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) ambitions took a significant leap forward when Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the country would launch an indigenous AI model and establish an AI Safety Institute (AISI) under the Safe and Trusted Pillar of the IndiaAI Mission. Rather than relying on rigid regulations that may quickly become outdated, governments worldwide … Read more
In February this year, the Union Finance Minister introduced the Income-Tax Bill, 2025, in Parliament. If enacted, the legislation will replace the Income-Tax Act, 1961, and, according to the government, will simplify the law for both taxpayers and administrators alike. The current law, of 1961, the government claims, has become unwieldy and unclear not only … Read more
The integrity of the electoral system in India is dependent upon the confidence reposed in it by prospective voters and the participatory political parties. In recent years, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has drawn flak — from overblown to deserved reasons — from political parties and civil society activists concerned about trends in Indian … Read more