What are India’s options in the ‘Brave New World According to Trump’? ‘Modi understands he must make me happy,’ said Trump, in the context of India reportedly reducing oil imports from Russia. Nations must toe the line the US president sets. Or they will pay a price: direct military intervention in the western hemisphere; higher tariffs on exports or some form of sanctions elsewhere.
Here is a wish list of policy reforms that India desperately needs, and will give coherence to what has already been implemented. Some have been promised by the government but have not been delivered. Some merely need to leverage existing policy infrastructure and institutions.
The Strauss-Howe generational theory suggests that every 80 years or so, civilisations undergo an archetypal generational shift. This theory aligns with the cyclical approach of Indic traditions, which are unlike the linear Western traditions. As we enter the 80th year of Independence in 2026, our nation stands at the cusp of a new social, political, and economic climate.
What do you call someone who comes down like a tonne of bricks on ambitious youngsters with career aspirations but crumbles like a cookie in the face of a market-leading company flexing its dominance? The rest of the world terms them bullies. In India, we call them regulators.
The 2026 general election in Bangladesh — the first electoral exercise after the 2024 student-led uprising that brought an abrupt end to Sheikh Hasina’s long and increasingly authoritarian tenure—marks a decisive inflection point in the country’s political evolution. What has emerged is not simply an alternation of power, but a reconfiguration of political legitima
Contrary to naysayers, the RSS practices what it preaches. It is closer to the Gandhian teaching of improving the individual morally and spiritually to change the external environment.