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Sectoral Priorities in the West Bengal Budget 2026–27: A Focus on Welfare and Infrastructure

On June 22, 2026, West Bengal's newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, led by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, presented its first full-year budget for 2026–27, ending over a decade of Trinamool Congress (TMC) rule in the state. Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta's budget speech had two competing jobs to do: hold on to the welfare architecture built by the outgoing TMC government, which remains politically indispensable in Bengal, while signalling a new emphasis on industrial revival, infrastructure expansion and fiscal discipline (The Daily Pioneer, 2026).

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West Bengal Student Credit Card Scheme (2021): An Evaluation of Its Role in Expanding Access to Higher Education

Access to higher education in India has long been constrained less by aspiration than by affordability. West Bengal, despite a relatively strong base in school-level enrolment, has historically trailed the national average in higher education participation. It was against this backdrop that the state government launched the West Bengal Student Credit Card (WBSCC) Scheme on 30 June 2021, under a Gazette Notification issued by the Higher Education Department, positioning it as a flagship intervention to remove the financial barrier standing between capable students and tertiary education. 

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Mission Basundhara 3.0 (2021–2026): Assam’s Push for Land Rights and Digital Governance

The Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 1886 is a colonial regulation which existed in a land and population very different from the current state of Assam. This system persisted for over 100 years, resulting in a large number of people without any formal rights to the land that they had long cultivated, even when ownership had been passed down through generations, including cultivators, workers in the tea-garden, tribal families and families displaced by floods. A combination of successive erosion of the riverbed of the Brahmaputra and its tributaries and periodic flooding, coupled by the inadequate rate of cadastral survey, added to the problem and large numbers of Assam's rural population were deprived of legal status in the land, whether Khas (government) or Ceiling Surplus (cadastral surplus) land.A government-appointed committee headed by former Chief Election Commissioner H.S. Brahma, tasked with examining land rights of indigenous people in Assam, found in its 2018 report that close to 90% of the state's native population lacked formal land ownership documents, and that approximately 8 lakh indigenous families were entirely landless. 

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India–Philippines Strategic Partnership (2025–2026): BrahMos, Maritime Cooperation, and the South China Sea

Diplomatic ties between India and the Philippines were established in 1949, and a Treaty of Friendship was signed in 1952, but the relationship was not very intense during these early decades for the next six decades, owing to a number of factors, including geographic separation, competing Cold War affiliations and limited economic integration. The Indian government's Look East policy, now known as Act East since 2014, began to shift India's foreign policy and economic focus to Southeast Asia, whereas increased tensions with China in the South China Sea over the last decade reoriented the Philippines' foreign policy focus toward Asia, which opened the door for greater convergence with India after 2016.

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Recalibrating India’s Industrial Yardstick: An Assessment of India’s Index of Industrial Production (IIP) Base Year Revision to 2022-23

Policy UpdateAnushree Khare Background  India’s Index of Industrial Production (IIP) is a monthly indicator from the National Statistical Office (NSO) that measures volume changes in physical production against a base year, acting as an early indicator of economic health.  For…

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Conservation and Livelihoods: The Untold Story of India’s Buffer Zone Communities

India is celebrated worldwide for its remarkable conservation achievements. From the recovery of tiger populations to the expansion of protected areas, the country has demonstrated a strong commitment to preserving its rich biodiversity.

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