Category Insights

Insights, a blog published by IMPRI.

The Air That Betrayed Me: A Personal Reckoning with Delhi’s Toxicity

Insights, Center for Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Center for Habitat, Urban and Regional Studies, Center for Human Dignity and Development, Center for Work and Welfare, Environment, Energy, Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Gender Impact Studies Center, Gender, Pluralism and Social Inclusion, Governance and Law, Livelihoods, Employment and Well-being, Public Policies, Programs and Schemes, Urbanization, Habitat, Transportation and Regional Development

November is Lung Cancer Awareness Month. Across the US and Europe, white ribbons mark solidarity with patients, caregivers, advocates and doctors. In India, silence reigns, even though 93 of the world’s 100 most polluted cities are here, and here, lung cancer is rising alarmingly among non-smokers, especially young women.

Nearly one in three lung cancer patients in India today has never smoked, and doctors are seeing women in their late 20s and 30s being diagnosed with advanced disease.

This is not a smoker’s disease anymore — it is a breather’s disease, driven by toxic air and environmental exposures.

IMPRI Desk
December 31, 2025

India–Maldives: Sustainable Tourism Cooperation (2025)

Policy Update, Center for Environment, Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Center for International Relations and Strategic Studies, Economy and Infrastructure, Environment, Energy, Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Insights, International Relations and Strategic Studies, Livelihoods, Employment and Well-being, South Asia Studies Center

The Republic of Maldives, located on the Indian subcontinent, consists of 1,190 coral islands grouped into 26 natural atolls. Following the Maldives' independence in 1965, India was one of the first countries to recognise and establish diplomatic relations with them. India and the Maldives have had long-standing ethnic, linguistic, cultural, religious, and economic links. Physical proximity, cultural links, and development collaboration have all contributed to the two countries' close, friendly, and diverse relationship.

In Small Island Developing States (SIDS) such as the Maldives, where tourism is the principal source of foreign exchange profits and government revenue, the business is growing.

IMPRI Desk
December 31, 2025

India’s Renewable Energy Push Needs Storage to Last

Insights, Center for the Study for Finance and Economics, Economy and Infrastructure, Environment, Energy, Climate Change and Sustainable Development, Governance and Law, Public Policies, Programs and Schemes, Social Sector

India continues to add renewable power generation capacity without any coherent strategy for its full utilisation, often ordering RE generation to back down to maintain grid stability. A vital deficit is a policy for storing renewable power, which is intermittent and missing from action for much of the day, forcing reliance on thermal power as India's mainstay.

TK Arun and TK Arun
December 31, 2025

How to and How Not to Privatise Airports

Insights, Center for International Relations and Strategic Studies, Center for the Study for Finance and Economics, Governance and Law, Livelihoods, Employment and Well-being, Public Policies, Programs and Schemes, Social Sector, Urbanization, Habitat, Transportation and Regional Development

Airports are local monopolies, for the most part. Who gets to operate them and on what terms matter to the public at large. Sure, there is a regulator, the Aeronautic Economic Regulatory Authority of India to regulate aeronautical and other charges at any given airport.

TK Arun and TK Arun
December 31, 2025

Trump, AI and the Global Growth Test of 2026

Insights, Center for International Relations and Strategic Studies, Center for the Study for Finance and Economics, Center for Work and Welfare, Economy and Infrastructure, Gender Impact Studies Center, Governance and Law, International Relations and Strategic Studies, Livelihoods, Employment and Well-being, Public Finances and Macroeconomics, Public Policies, Programs and Schemes

Earlier this month, Sam Altman of OpenAI declared Code Red at the company: the latest version of its chatbot was underperforming Google’s latest offering, Gemini 3. That panic had one simple explanation: he believes artificial intelligence (AI) to be yet another technology service in which the winner takes all.

TK Arun and TK Arun
December 31, 2025

Who Should Pay to Preserve Urban Commercial Heritage?

Insights, Center for the Study for Finance and Economics, Center for Work and Welfare, Economy and Infrastructure, Governance and Law, Public Finances and Macroeconomics, Public Policies, Programs and Schemes, Social Sector, Urbanization, Habitat, Transportation and Regional Development

When a sudden rent increase forces a thriving commercial establishment — that has a century-old legacy and is a hallmark of a historic locality — to shut shop, is there any sensible alternative to the mournful death of a chunk of the city’s living tradition?

TK Arun and TK Arun
December 31, 2025

Vajpayee: The Gentle Architect of Modern India

Insights, Center for Habitat, Urban and Regional Studies, Center for the Study for Finance and Economics, Economy and Infrastructure, Gender Impact Studies Center, Governance and Law, Public Policies, Programs and Schemes, Urbanization, Habitat, Transportation and Regional Development

I have a vivid memory of a gleeful and beaming laugh of the great statesman and leader, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was born on this day in 1924 in Gwalior. An affable personality, Vajpayee would express his love for Mithila’s Rohu and his appreciation for Maithili language.

IMPRI Desk
December 31, 2025